Iryna Yehorchenko, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, popularizer of mathematics, Ph.D. (Mathematics)
In discussions of the independent multi-subject test (IMT), there are many references to private tutors. In this text the term “tutor” means a private teacher hired by parents to assist their kid in preparation to the IMT or for other help with studies. We do not mean here tutors-advisors in some private schools. Some not very clever people seriously believe that everyone who defends the IMT in mathematics is a tutor who wants to profit from poor children, and that they have made a whole business out of the IMT. Those people would like to deprive tutors of their earnings as one of the motivations for removal of mandatory mathematics. Some MPs who are against the removal are probably also tutors - but it would be strange to expect any logic from opponents of mathematics.
In fact, from a purely financial point of view, it would be beneficial for tutors to remove the mandatory IMT in mathematics, because that small percentage of parents interested in teaching their children will be forced to seek help not in grades 10-11 as they do now, but in the first or second, or at the latest in the fifth, when they are finally see that schools do not teach — as there is no motivation to teach and learn, there are no exams, and the comfort of "artists" and "athletes" must be ensured - parents who shield their children from learning and development are louder, and their desires are easier to satisfy. And more tutoring hours will be needed for a full course of school mathematics. What will give more hours of earnings - teaching 50% of children for one year, or 15% of children for 8 years of school? In fact, good tutors, like all smart people, benefit from children growing up educated and thinking, and without at least school mathematics, this will not work out.
I should note that I have some experience of work as a tutor in mathematics - but I finished doing that back in the 1980s, and in the early 1990s I realized that it is much easier and more profitable to teach English. I learned English well back in the USSR - in fact, it is quite possible without an English-speaking environment. I mainly tutored English to relatives and friends for free. I myself entered the university (Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of the Kyiv National University) without tutors. At present, I know a lot about the work of tutors from numerous friends. Below I write mainly about tutoring in mathematics, although much of it applies to other subjects.
The question "why did they make a whole business out of NMT" is easy to answer. The problem with Ukrainian education is that most children stop learning altogether somewhere around the 5th grade, if we talk about those who at least started studying in elementary school.
Some school students wake up in subjects where there are interesting things and no significant dependence on the sequence of study - in history, literature, geography. Some students do not wake up until the last 11th grade. They would cheat, lie, or ignore assignments - teachers cannot force anyone, they have to put reasonably nice grades. Parents very rarely wake up before the 10th grade.
Popular educational mythology contains the belief that a child for whom 5+7 without a calculator is a problem can be prepared to the test in the last two months of the 11th grade (it is actually possible to train for a very low passing score if the child trains, and cognitive abilities are not completely killed). Many parents blame teachers - but there is no way to teach an unmotivated child who has missed a lot in the lessons. Activities to “overcome educational losses” for children after the 7th-8th grades, who have long stopped studying, are meaningless.
For many students there is no way to prepare for exams except using tutors – as they have lots of study time missed for various reasons – from air alerts during classes to just playing games at the lessons. Added to this is the problem of the mass illusion that all schoolchildren learned something at school, and there are no manuals in Ukrainian for those who really did not know anything, or forgot the content of the 1st quarter of the 1st grade. Numerous good manuals for independent preparation for the IMT are adequate only for students who did study at school and need just to revise the material.
Another factor adding to the popularity of tutors is the desire of parents to have their own peace of mind. Even at the time of the USSR I (quite independent and ok academically) experienced terrible pressure from my parents when I was still a kid that I needed tutors - because everyone had them, they did not believe I can get into a university and so on. Tutors were hired for the majority of children of my parents' colleagues, and they mainly went to a relative of one of the colleagues, who had friends at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and knew how to get exam assignments. All his private students were admitted (after the collapse of the USSR, this tutor became quite a famous businessman). I withstood the pressure, passed everything with flying colors, and got in (no special arrangements were needed as it was mathematics). Not all children are so resilient, and most succumb to pressure, even if they are quite capable of preparing on their own.
Another educational myth popular in Ukraine is “there are no tutors abroad”. In fact, studying with tutors and in private tutoring centers is very popular in Southeast Asian countries and the USA. I do not know about the situation in Western Europe, although I have seen a lot of ads for tutoring centers in Poland.
The IMT (like the External Independent Test before it) does not generate any income for tutors in itself. The problem is that students are not very motivated to study, they are further demotivated by their parents and classmates, and by various public figures without education who have achieved wealth. No teacher will be able to motivate children whose parents have directly told them that studying is unnecessary. The educational trends of the New Ukrainian School (the reform that puts happiness over knowledge and skills) will obviously lead to further popularity of tutoring – unless the decision desired by many populist deputies and not very intelligent voters is made to simply hand out diplomas to even illiterate graduates who have never started actually learning at schools. Another educational myth is that if you plan to study abroad, tutors are unnecessary, because you do not need to take any entrance exams - although in reality (with the exception of diploma mills with no training), most students will have to hire even more expensive tutors to pass the university exams. A significant part of the Ukrainian tutors work specifically for the market of Ukrainian students abroad.
At the moment (with all the stress and the distance learning impact), private tutors are saviours of the Ukrainian secondary education, and present the only opportunity for many children to learn at least something. The Ministry of Education and Science contributes to the need for parents to spend money on tutors, as well as the preachers of the New Ukrainian School reform who demotivate students with ideas that no hard skills and knowledge are needed for the future, who humiliate teachers presenting them as having only obsolete knowledge and pay them too low salaries (children at school do not listen to teachers as many parents say that teachers are not worth of any respect).
I will emphasize that tutors are unnecessary for motivated children who learned at school, have good teachers and a motivating atmosphere without bullying of the “too clever”. As for literature for revision - in addition to modern manuals and videos, I usually recommend looking for old manuals intended for preparation to entrance exams specifically at technical schools, not institutes or universities. The requirements for admission to technical schools at the Soviet times significantly exceed the modern requirements for the NMT (with the exception of one type of tasks), and these books have detailed explanations “from the very beginning”. If a student knows English and has problems with elementary school arithmetic, it is worth looking at American exam preparation manuals.
To determine the real level of a child's knowledge, parents should not look at school grades - they might be either overestimated (as teachers are concerned with the stressed children and good reporting is needed), or children skillfully cheat, or grades are underestimated "for motivation". Independent assessment by parents using standard tests is not very effective. It is worth looking for a training center or tutor who specialises in such assessment and will help identify gaps (but for impartiality — it is better to say that the task is only an assessment of knowledge, and the child will not study there).
If arithmetic is a problem in elementary school, it is better to correct that right away. Often it would require just a few lessons. Perhaps, parents can do that themselves, although many prefer to involve an outsider so as not to spoil the relationship with the child. Many tutors I know hired somebody else for their own children. I would suggest a test for a elementary school tutor - is it really necessary to multiply only flowers by vases (in many schools, there exists a stupid insistence on particular order of multiplication that actually confuses kids)? If the tutor insists on the order of multiplying flowers by vases, it is better not to hire them. If the child abandoned learning math in grades 5 or 6, but everything is fine with arithmetic - it is also worth correcting the problem right away. This will save a lot of time and money later. Grades 7-9 can be a problem - the child lacks any long-term goals, the university and the tests are far away, and the smartphone is right here. But if there are problems with math in the 10th grade, it is better to start then. Although I know one case when a child with zero knowledge started studying with a private tutor in the 11th (the last in high school) grade, and then successfully studied at a math department – but that is a very rare situation.
If a tutor is still needed not as therapy for parents, it is better to think how to choose one, when to start studying, what tasks to be set for the tutor and the child. Tutors are very different now - many of them are not well-versed in mathematics themselves, unfortunately. Some are teachers with a thinking distorted by bad teaching methods imposed by the Ministry of Education. If the goal is to "pass and forget" (I do not consider such a goal to be good, it is still worth to develop thinking - but choosing a goal is a personal matter for parents and children) - an ordinary inexpensive tutor who specialises in preparing for the IMT will do. Paying a lot of money if 150-160 points are enough for admission, the child is not zero-level and it is enough just to revise material and add some confidence is not reasonable. Similarly, if the goal is to do homework with the child or for the child and help with tests (I do not approve of this - it is harmful for the child, even if he or she is an athlete or an artist) - anyone will do.
If there is math anxiety, everything is complicated. Parents need to either look for a tutor who specialises in such students, or supplement the classes with therapy (although most psychologists themselves suffered from math anxiety and have no idea how to work with it). I knew a specialized tutor with two degrees in mathematics and psychology, but she does not work any more. She told me that it is necessary not only to teach the child math and to mitigate anxiety, but also to teach the child how to change perception of the teacher, who is used to this student knowing nothing.
If the goal is not just to “pass the exam”, but also to develop thinking and cognitive abilities, the task is more difficult. Parents need to look for feedback and formulate the goal in detail. One of the simple tests for a tutor in this case - “what additional extracurricular literature in mathematics would you recommend for a child?” The question is actually difficult, because there is no such modern literature in Ukrainian and there will be no such literature for ages 10+. A tutor may recommend either something from the old inaccessible books, or books in other languages, or to just watch videos. But a tutor who is able to “develop thinking”, and not just “train for the test”, must understand the situation.
Another worthwhile task is to prepare a child for study at a programme with hard mathematics. Then it is better to look for university teachers. Currently, there is a significant gap between the requirements of a relatively easy IMT and the requirements for real study at a university - there is no time to overcome educational gaps, as teaching hours for mathematics have been down by 3-6 times compared to early 1990s.
The most difficult task is to find an “olympiad” tutor, if there is no access to a very high-quality club or a specialised school. Really high results at math olympiads are impossible without serious training. I know children who independently achieved awards at All-Ukrainian olympiads, but further competitions require targeted training. This is a sport of high achievements. There is a demand for such training - both to ensure high results for admission to the best world universities in math-related programmes, and simply for the development of the child. Here a regular IMT tutor will not help, although if possible, high-level schools and clubs are preferable - competitive environment is very beneficial.
One of the Ukrainian educational myths is that “tutors earn millions from poor children”. A tutor who works alone with one child in a lesson has no chance of earning much – even top tutors with rates of USD50-100 per hour do not become millionaires – as that level requires time and expenses for their own training, and they cannot have many students. I have no doubt that tutoring platforms and some centers earn quite a lot of money. But the latter also clearly do not earn millions. It is worth to learn math to calculate that with a rate of even 500 UAH per hour, 6 hours a day (nobody is able to work more), 6 days a week – and this is a high price and an extraordinary workload, tutors rarely work on vacation with such a workload – it is only about UAH 65 thousand per month (we subtract tax payments for individual entrepreneurs), 650 thousand per year – a little more than 50 thousand UAH per month on average – it is a long way from millions. And for most tutors the pay is about 300 UAH per hour, and the total is usually around 15 thousand UAH per month. Tutoring is one of those jobs that feels very expensive for parents of students, and very cheap for those who do the work. The pay is larger if a tutor teaches a group, but it would need administrative efforts, premises - if the classes are face-to-face. It is often necessary to hire an assistant - it will not go to any millions either. I hope it is clear that getting angry at tutors for supposedly enriching themselves is irrational. And the best way to save money is to motivate children to study from the first grade.
