The Independent newspaper today reports the results of our survey regarding new plans to self-regulate the tuition industry through a proposed Tutors Association. The results of the poll make interesting reading, with individual tutors expressing concern over a number of areas such as:
- the need for regulation in the first place, and whether regulation promotes or hampers learning;
- the tangible benefits to parents and pupils, i.e. whether the proposed association could impact the quality of provision in any meaningful way;
- the lack of evidence for ‘public concern’ over the quality of private tuition, one of the main rationales for setting up the association;
- the political motives of those behind the scheme;
- the commercial interests of the tuition companies involved, and whether independent tutors would be squeezed out of the market;
- the complete lack of representation of independent tutors in the association’s working group;
- the time and money costs involved for tutors and parents, including added paperwork and CPD training requirements for tutors;
- the inflexibility of the proposed criteria for membership, in an industry where provision is almost by definition tailor-made.
The Independent article can be viewed in full here, along with our press release here.
Many of the issues have been debated at length on Linkedin and in an earlier blog post.