Why parents are turning to tutoring, and it is no longer just about better marks

Tutoring is becoming part of mainstream education

Success Tutoring now tutors more than 2,000 students each year and our network has expanded beyond Australia and New Zealand into international markets. What I find most interesting about that growth is not simply the demand for tutoring, it is the changing motivation behind it.

Parents are redefining what educational success looks like. Yes, they want their children to perform well academically, of course they do, but they also want young people who can communicate, solve problems, think critically, recover from setbacks, interact confidently with others and believe in their own ability. Those qualities cannot always be measured neatly on a report card. They may, however, be among the most important outcomes education can deliver.

As governments continue grappling with teacher shortages, funding pressures, classroom sizes and rapidly changing technology, I believe supplementary education will play an increasingly important role. The growth in tutoring should therefore prompt a broader conversation.

Rather than asking why so many parents are paying for additional education, perhaps we should be asking what they are searching for that they feel their children are not receiving elsewhere. The answer increasingly appears to be much more than better marks.