Confused parents hiring tutors to understand their children's homework

Parents are hiring private tutors for themselves so they know what their children are learning. Photo / Getty Images

Many a parent will know the feeling of struggling to explain a formula they haven't thought about since their own school days.

Now, parents in the UK who are having trouble understanding their children's homework are paying for private tutors to brush up on their classroom knowledge, reports the Daily Mail.

Last year in England and Wales, 25 per cent of kids aged 11 to 16 had a private tutor, the Daily Mail reports. But parents are also hiring their own tutors for £40-an-hour (nearly $80NZD).

An agency in London, Tutor House, created the service after a survey of 2500 people revealed over two-thirds of parents don't understand the homework their child brings home.

Fifty per cent of parents believed their lack of knowledge could negatively impact their child's education.

Over one-fifth said they often helped their child study. Only 11 per cent of these were fathers. Meanwhile, almost all parents surveyed said they had issues with new terminology and modern ways of teaching.

The parents' tutors cover a range of topics such as maths, English, geography and science with the option for lessons to be online or face-to-face.

The founder of the company, Alex Dyer told the Daily Mail: "Parents didn't know what their kids were doing, or what they should have covered.

"It is quite basic stuff, things like where to find the syllabus, and what children should be studying this year, this term, this week.

"It's not that parents want to be digging into areas like quadratics, it's more a general overview so they can see whether their kids are up to speed."

He explained the classes for parents come as a result of a survey from "fifty/fifty" public and private school parents, which revealed what's happened as a consequence of schools not communicating properly with parents.

"It shouldn't exist but it does - it coincides with why tutoring is growing.

"If you've got 30 kids in a class there's no way you can get through the course - and if you can't do that, you definitely can't communicate with the parents.

"There's definitely a lack of communication between schools and parents."
Dyer said about 20 parents have signed up so far.

But Headmistress of Magdalen College School in Oxford, Helen Pike, told the Times parents paying for tutoring is completely unnecessary and could be potentially damaging.

"Tutoring is a market which feeds on parental anxiety," she said.

"So now parents will become more anxious that other parents are being tutored to be better parents than they are.

"All schools I know do excellent talks for parents and are there to support them in partnership in doing what is best for their children."

On Twitter, she joked: "Parents! Please don't feel you need to do this.... Next up: anxious tutors hire tutors to tutor them in tutoring....."