A flexible resource for the home learner
With the announcement that many primary year groups will not be permitted to return to mainstream school until September at the earliest, we at “Learn as you teach” have noted a flutter of enquiries about tuition coming onto the Internet in respect of tuition – especially in Maths. Committed and beleaguered parents, who are continuing to work through whatever the school is sending them, have, it would seem, been holding something of a collective breath over whether their child will be allowed to return to school – the announcement dashing their hopes that they will be able to hand back the burden of educating their child.
The announcement has also forced many parents to take stock and assess what they have learned about their child during this extended period of home learning. For some, the difference between what their child actually knows and what they should know has been quite revealing. If parents have been expressing their difficulties over their child not coping with the work being sent home from school, or simply saying, yes at one time I could do this, but now I have forgotten and am struggling myself to support my child – there is still considerable reticence over grasping and benefitting from the possibility of online tuition.
A tutor in your home
If many parents have been reaching out of late to secure a tutor for their child, there has been an almost equal insistence, on their part, that their child must be tutored in their home. Online primary tuition is not only a friendly face onscreen, it is also able to transport a highly qualified professional directly and promptly to your home, to work and interact with your child.
Travel and tuition are very tiring, time-consuming, and subsequently expensive. If parents have been alerted to the dangers of allowing a tutor, whom you don’t really know, whatever their online profile might say, into your home to work with your child; there are dangers too, for lone tutors travelling out to the homes of students – you never really know what is on the other side of a front door when you knock on it for the first time. Online tutoring is safer for all concerned; tutors are rarely late – there being no traffic to delay them, and they are usually able to offer more reasonable rates – there being no petrol or car upkeep costs to factor in.
A greater assurance of quality
It would, of course, be quite wrong to suggest that face to face tutors do not deliver quality, or that on the appointment of a qualified professional, parents cannot be assured of receiving quality tuition – of course, they can. What I would say is that the qualified professional working online has to invest in their equipment so as to assure that they have all documents, practice material and PowerPoint shows ready to share in their online session and that they can model/write on screen effectively. In short, your online tutor will be prepared for their session – they have no choice but to be so.
More choice for parents
Online tutors can teach from anywhere, and parents, as I mentioned in previous articles, may select their tutor from a much wider pool of applicants. Online tutors have greater flexibility in their tutoring schedule. They can more easily move a student from a certain time on a certain day, if their circumstances change, because they do not need to consider whether or not they will be able, in consideration of what other students they may have on that day, to travel to the student at the new time.
Online tutors, often working from home, have all their resources to hand, and can easily change direction and draw on a different resource if they need to. They are not entirely dependent on what resources they can carry in their bag. Finally, if the tutor proves to be unsuitable or simply leaves – it is much easier for parents to find another online tutor, than another tutor in their local area. As with many professions, the pool of seasoned, good and experienced tutoring professionals is much smaller than the number of individuals who advertise themselves as tutors.