BENGALURU: Coming home after long work hours to find that your child has a tonne of homework and an impending project to submit can be daunting. Which is why many Bengaluru parents are hiring tutors for children as young as those in kindergarten.A senior-level manager at an IT firm, Rohit Nair (name changed), is already concerned about the competition at school, and worries that his kids will not be part of the rat race. Hiring a personal tutor has him feeling assured that his son is up-to-date, if not ahead of the race. "I come from a family of engineers and doctors, and there is always that pressure on how well you do," says the 38-year-old father of two children, who are aged four and eight.
Prashanth Bohara’s seven-year-old son is under the supervision of a tutor post-school hours for over an hour, five days a week. “With so many students in one class, teachers can’t be available to each student. At home, tutors give them individual attention. With my long, erratic working hours, it’s hard to go back home and then look into homework,” he says, adding, “Instead of just playing with a phone, it’s better that children spend time usefully.”
Arvind Balaji’s eight-year-old twins, students at Inventure Academy, have a tutor coming in five days a week to help them with their homework. Project work is also covered by the tutor in case Arvind is running short on time. “In the last two months that the kids have had a tutor, they have been able to submit their work on time. I would only be able to start on their homework post 6.30 pm after returning from work, that's not the case anymore,” he says.
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Ali Asgar Kagzi, co-founder and director of Genext Students, finds that 20-25 per cent of their demand is for kindergarten kids. “The tutor is basically like an assistant to the child, since most parents have little time to spend with kids. In addition to helping with daily homework, the tutors also help in preparing for other school-related activities — drama, recitation, elocution and writing,” he says. On a weekly basis, a tutor spends between 16-20 hours with the child. It costs `200-250 per hour for the lower classes, and goes up with accordingly.