Status: 08/01/2021 9:08 a.m.
Because many students have great learning backlogs after several corona waves, online tutoring has become a lucrative business. But not all parents can afford the offers.
When Alexandra Ludwig opens her laptop in Heidelberg, she starts a tour across Germany. The 24-year-old student from Heidelberg works as a tutor in German and English. Before Corona, she worked permanently in one place, but now everything is online and she has students all over Germany. The tutoring works at least as well despite the distance. “It is precisely because the pupils are not sitting in front of a book as they are used to, but interactively in front of a device, that especially younger pupils find online tutoring even more interesting,” says Ludwig.
Although many of the students are on vacation, the tutor has a lot to do. After all, there is a Corona year with distance and alternation lessons behind their protégés, and they still have a lot to catch up with. In the high phases of homeschooling, it was sometimes the last resort for parents: “Many parents were grateful for any online help when there was nothing left to do in person.”
Difficult to verify quality
Because of the Corona knowledge gaps, the online tutoring business is growing: The provider Studienkreis Online-Nachhilfe alone recorded four times as many new registrations in 2020 as in previous years. “Overall, we notice above all that the skepticism with regard to online tutoring has fallen sharply, if not even gone,” says Tobias Lampe from the tutoring group. Other providers such as the interactive learning platform “Sofatutor” confirm this: The number of users is now over a million, they say. The number has more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.
New providers for online tutoring are constantly being added. The promises of the providers: inexpensive, non-binding, great learning success. Education researcher Michael Kerres is critical of this trend: “With some online providers, it is not at all clear what it really costs, and it is difficult to find out anything about the quality.” Because: Providers of online tutoring do not have to be certified as educational providers.
Government plans funding
Five years ago, a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation showed that around 880 million euros are invested in tutoring every year in Germany. There are not yet any current figures on how Corona has affected the tutoring business. But no matter whether online or on site: tutoring costs money. This can become a problem for children whose parents cannot afford private lessons. Education researcher Kerres fears that this will exacerbate social inequality even more: “The previous figures show that people can afford it”.
In the spring, Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) had therefore already announced a large tutoring program that should start in the new school year. The money for this comes from the federal government. The minister has promised up to two billion euros. Michael Kerres believes it is the right way to involve schools – be it through additional afternoon classes or digital tutoring that does not have to be financed privately.