Whether you're a student or a parent, if you haven't already planned for your tutoring needs for 2009, you might find yourself asking, what kind of tuition should I get for my child (or myself)? Is it better to enrol in a tuition centre or engage a home tutor?
I do not have a concrete answer to that question because I feel that it depends on a number of factors and also individual circumstances. I have elaborated my thoughts on these determining factors in the hope that you yourself can form your own opinions, and decide which type of tuition is the best for your child (or yourself).
Price
One of the most obvious differences between tuition centres and home tuition. The hourly rate for home tuition can be double that of fees charged by tuition centres.
Quality
The quality of teaching. This is probably the most important difference. Are private home tutors necessarily superior in teaching quality when compared to teachers in tuition centres? Don't forget that some private home tutors are just tertiary students looking to earn some pocket money whereas teachers in tuition centres are more often current or ex-school teachers.
However, that doesn't mean that the former are incapable of doing an equally good job in tutoring. I know of some non-NIE-trained tutors who are very responsible and dedicated in tutoring their students-and their students do go on to score well in examinations. There are tutors who just enjoy helping students and are happy to share their experiences in the hope of seeing them do well. One-to-one tutoring is different from classroom-teaching. To journey with a student and give him/her sound academic guidance doesn't require one to enrol in NIE.
Convenience
We all know that when it comes to convenience, home tuition gives you the best option. You can have your tuition wherever you like, whenever you like and however frequent you like. Sometimes, you even have the flexibility of postponing or cancelling lessons to suit your schedule. It is usually for these reasons that home tuition is more expensive than fees charged in tuition centres. With the busy schedules that students have nowadays, the convenience of private tuition may seem to be the more preferred choice.
However, there are some questions that you need to ask yourself. Is the higher cost of engaging a home tutor attributed only to the added convenience? Are you paying your private tutor more because you really believe that your child will do better under him/her than in a tuition centre? Or is the extra cost just used to buy added convenience? One of the main objectives of tuition is to improve in the learning and understanding of a particular subject. Compromising the quality of the lessons may defeat the purpose of having tuition in the first place.
Individual pace of learning
The pace of learning of a student is a major determining factor in choosing between private tuition and a tuition centre. For students that learn at a slower pace than their peers, or students that have short attention spans, engaging a home tutor allows them the benefit of learning at a pace which they can feel comfortable.
The power of word-of-mouth
Often, the best tutors and teachers are usually known through word-of-mouth. These are the tutors recommended by your friends, your friends' friends and other parents of older children who have studied under them before. Such reputable tutors often charge higher rates, or they may even require you to have the tuition venue at a place of their choice.
Some of the more popular classes in various tuition centres operate by word-of-mouth too. When I was in secondary school, I enrolled in add maths tuition in Mavis Tutorial Centre. The centre had two add maths classes taught by two different teachers. Yet, the participation for one class was more overwhelming than the other because the teacher for that class was reputed to be better.
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