Almost one in three parents have hired tutors for their kids, says a new study.

The Canadian Council on Learning attributes the growing trend to an era of “intensive parenting” in which mothers and fathers, particularly the more affluent, want their sons and daughters to have a competitive edge.

The survey found that people are increasingly hiring tutors because schools are falling short of escalating expectations and parents are too time-restrained to cope with homework.

“Tutoring is no longer primarily geared towards low-achieving students requiring remedial instruction, but rather caters to a growing number of average and high-achieving students seeking to improve their learning and academic performance,” said the 2007 Survey of Canadian Attitudes Toward Learning.

There are about five million school children in Canada attending kindergarten to Grade 12 and 33 per cent of parents reported sending their kids to tutors, particularly for help with math.

For some middle-class families, private tutoring is a lower-cost alternative to sending their kids to private school, said Paul Cappon, head of the learning council, an independent body funded by Ottawa…

Source: The Province, Canada
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