Tuition Centres Vs Private Tutors: Which Is More Cost-Effective?

  If you're considering out-of-school tuition for your child, you have two main options. You can arrange one-to-one lessons with a private tutor, or you can use one of the many tuition centres available, also sometimes referred to as learning centres. You want the best for your child, but it's also important to get the best value for money. So which option is more cost-effective?

The Differences Between Tuition Centres and Private Tutors

 Private tutors most often give one-to-one lessons to their students, though there may be exceptions, especially in subjects where interaction between students may be a benefit. In normal times, lessons are usually held in the student's home, though of course most are currently offered online. At a tuition centre, on the other hand, the student will come to the centre and usually join a class with others. Superficially, then, this is very like being in school. Where a tuition centre really scores over a school, however, is that the classes are considerably smaller, usually no more than fifteen.

Which Is Cheaper — Tuition Centre or Private Tutor?

 When calculating which gives better value for money, it's obvious to compare prices. However, this isn't as easy as it might seem. There's no single price for a private tutor, since it depends on a number of factors. These include location (unsurprisingly, London tutors tend to charge most), the popularity of the subject, and how experienced the tutor is. In general, though, there are two factors that tend to have opposite effects on the prices of private tutors and tuition centres. Firstly, a private tutor's time normally has to be covered by just one student, whereas if there are fifteen in the class, the cost is spread further. On the other hand, a private tutor's overheads will be considerably less. They don't have to maintain expensive premises, as a centre does, and nor are they likely to be employing support staff to run the operation.

Which Gives Better Value for Money — Tuition Centre or Private Tutor?

 Despite these conflicting issues, it's likely that a tuition centre will be able to offer a slightly lower price for a lesson. However, when it comes to value for money, the position is very different. As we've seen, the biggest difference between a private tutor and a tuition centre is the number of students in each session, with a tutor most often concentrating on one student and a centre offering classes of up to fifteen. This means that the tutor's attention will be on your child throughout the session, while the teacher at a centre will in most cases be dividing their attention and may even be having to concentrate on controlling the class. Unless your child is assertive, they may not be getting the attention they need.

 This is the case with most tuition centres, but a few do offer one-to-one teaching. In these cases, your child would essentially be getting a private tutor, but with the centre's support, so it's worth shopping around.

 Looked at this way, it's clear that, even if the classes at a tuition centre are a little cheaper, your child will in most cases not be getting the undivided attention they would from a private tutor. This means that, as they're likely to learn less in each class, they'll need more sessions to reach the same level — so you may end up paying out more.  If you're interested in finding out more about how a private tutor could help your child (or you, for that matter), register with TutorExtra.