Tutoring is private academic support, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects.
A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides assistance or tutelage to one or more people on certain subject areas or skills. The tutor spends a few hours on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to transfer their expertise on the topic or skill to the student (also called a tutee). Tutoring can take place in different settings.
History
Formal education is first attested among the scribes of ancient Egypt but, in most fields, instruction was traditionally handled on a personal basis, with most skills and professions long handed down within families or via apprenticeship until the modern era. In classical antiquity, the lower classes could pay for instruction in group settings like ludi but the upper classes preferred personalized home tutoring. In ancient China, some aristocratic tutors like Confucius and Mencius attracted so many students that they established influential philosophies. In ancient Greece, some sophists established lucrative careers teaching the important skills of public speaking for the assembly or courts; in Plato's works, Socrates provides similar services for free while criticizing the sophists for their presumed lack of concern for actual truth and understanding. In the case of the ancient Romans, the education of the patricians and wealthy plebeians was frequently provided by Greek slaves.
Royal tutors, the personal instructors of future rulers, have always enjoyed importance and prestige. In particular, the Grand Tutor (, tàifù) was one of the three great lords of the royal court of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. Similar positions remained in very high importance across East Asia into the modern era.
By some accounting, methods of tutoring only began to become more structured after the 20th century through focus and specialization in the training of tutors, application of tutoring, and evaluation of tutors. From the 20th century onwards, with the rapid spread of mainstream education, the demand for tutoring has also increased as a way to supplement formal education.
British and Irish secondary schools
In British and Irish secondary schools, form tutors are given the responsibilities of a form or class of students in a particular year group (up to 30 students). They usually work in year teams headed by a year leader, year head, or guidance teacher. Form tutors will provide parents with most of the information about their child's progress and any problems they might be experiencing.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, private tutoring, outside school, is common for students who need extra support in one or more subjects, particularly leading up to exams. In Ireland this is known as grinds.
In the British higher education system, a tutor is a general term for someone delivering tutorials, individually or in small groups. See tutorial system.
Private tutoring in Asia
A 2012 study by the Asian Development Bank and the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong pointed out that private tutoring can dominate the lives of young people and their families, maintain and exacerbate social inequalities, divert needed household income into an unregulated industry, and create inefficiencies in education systems. It can also undermine official statements about fee-free education and create threats to social cohesion.
In South Korea, nearly 90% of elementary students receive some sort of shadow education, termed there as Hagwon. In Hong Kong, about 85% of senior secondary students do so. 60% of primary students in West Bengal, India, and 60% of secondary students in Kazakhstan receive private tutoring.
Demand for tutoring in Asia is exploding; by comparison globally, shadow education is most extensive in Asia. This is partly due to the stratification of education systems, cultural factors, perceptions of shortcomings in regular school systems, and the combination of growing wealth and smaller family sizes. Therefore, the education sector has become a profitable industry which businesses have created different kinds of products and advertisement such as "the king/queen of tutorial", a usual advertisement tactic of Hong Kong tutorial centers that has spread to South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India where tutors achieve "celebrity-like status". In some cases, successful Southeast Asian tutors will even embrace the title of "tutor". Online private tutor matching platform and online learning platform offering online learning materials are other creations.