Students turn tutors...

Home tutoring has always been a common component in the Indian education scene. A large number of our students depend on tuition outside the school. Home tutors in the country are sought-after because they are able to deliver quality, personalised teaching.

However, there is a slight change, the new breed of home tutors today are students.

For Remitha Rajendran, when enrolling her 14-year-old in one of the top coaching institutes in her locality failed to show the desired results, she realised that group tuitions did not benefit her son. The tutors didn’t have the patience to wait for him to understand concepts.

Remitha decided to look for efficient home tutors online. She came across several websites that offered home tutors on the basis of criteria like the duration of the tuition; the number of days for which coaching has to be conducted per month and the student’s class. She easily found a highly recommended tutor from one of the leading online portals but to her surprise, her son’s new tutor was a college student who was pursuing his final-year BSc-IT. While Remitha was initially sceptical about the tutor’s knowledge and skills, as days passed by, she could see a marked change in the way her son showed interest and improvement in his studies.

Relatable one

This new bunch of tutors are young, energetic students who are either in college or are studying for a competitive exam and are looking to make some money on the side by doing something they enjoy. As the age-gap between them and their students is less as compared to traditional teachers, students are able to relate to them better and are often more inclined to paying heed to their advice.

In fact, as many of them have passed out of school or college recently, they are more conversant with the syllabus and the exam patterns than older tutors. Also, they usually have tips and tricks up their sleeves which they may have used to ace the exams their students are attempting now.

Further, they are more in tune with what’s happening in the world outside, the new career opportunities that are mushrooming every day, the trends in the job market etc.

They are, therefore, likely to make a greater impact on the lives of their students and guide them in a way that’s in sync with the dynamic business world of the day.

What’s more interesting is the fact that these student-tutors are also able to expand their own knowledge and stay up-to-date with academic basics while teaching part-time. Many civil services aspirants, for example, have to be fully conversant with History, Geography, Science topics that are taught to class VII and VIII students. Tutors who are teaching these subjects automatically end up becoming experts in these areas and don’t need to devote extra time to learning the concepts.

Value addition

Further, unlike full-time jobs, home tutoring offers them flexibility, where they are able to choose their own working hours and reschedule them as per their commitments. This is an enormous advantage. Besides earning good money, the skills home tutoring provides can be added as an experience in the resume.

The concept of home tutoring is not new. But there are a few challenges which are now getting addressed by modern-age thinkers and academicians. There is no doubt on the skills of the tutors, what lacks here is the physiological connect with the students. Most of the students in school have high energy levels which need to be channelised in a proper manner. We often fail to realise that this is one of the critical aspects of a home tutor and thus some platforms conduct teacher’s training with a proper guideline on how to manage the K-8 pupils.

The advantage with home tutors who are pursuing higher studies is they have high-level of energy and a strong sense of understanding when it comes to a child’s natural curiosity beyond their curriculum. There have been instances where these tutors have done the remarkable job since they are still students and can comprehend it effectively.

However, what is seen as a trend is the rise of online platforms that are leveraging technology to streamline the tutoring industry.

These platforms are enabling parents to find and connect with the best home tutors in their vicinity easily and, in turn, offer enhanced and personalised learning outcomes for the students.

Today, technology is not only helping parents and students; it is also lending a helping hand to college students who are in need of some extra cash while pursuing their career goals.

(The author is with Genext Students)