Private tutoring at transition points in the English education system: its nature, extent and purpose

All parents who completed the questionnaire were asked to provide reasons for not employing
a private tutor. The most common reason given was ‘my child is doing well enough without a
tutor’ (73%) and this level of response was similar for children of all age groups. This was
followed by ‘private tuition is too expensive’ (60%), ‘there is no need as members of the
family provide enough help’ (57%) and ‘my child does not want extra tuition’ (51%) (Table
10). A substantial proportion of parents (42%) thought that extra tuition placed too much
pressure on children.

The proportion of parents indicating ‘private tuition is too expensive’ was highest for year 11
students (67%) as compared to year 6 (60%) and year 13 (52%) (χ² = 14.59, df=2, p<0.01).
Parents of year 13 students were more likely to indicate that ‘my child does not want to have
extra tuition’ (60%), as compared with 46% year 6 and 50% year 11 (χ²⁼ 14.89. df=2 p<0.01).
It would appear that about one third of parents had not considered private tuition as ‘It is
something I have never thought of doing’ was given by 32% overall and significantly more
year 6 parents than year 11 and 13 (37%, 32% and 24% respectively) (χ² = 12.96, df=2
p<0.01).

Parental responses supplied some insight into ways in which the family and the school could
provide support which was seen to be sufficient to meet their child’s needs and thus rendered
private tuition unnecessary. Almost two thirds of year 6 parents (64%) indicated ‘There is no
need as members of the family provide enough help’, as compared to year 6 (51%) and Year
13 (53%) (χ² = 30.63, df=2, p<0.001). Parents whose children were in year 11 and year 13
were more likely than those in year 6 to indicate that the school provided extra classes (43%,
39% and 24% respectively, χ² = 30.63, df=2, p<0.001). This indicates that parents perceive

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