Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge in a particular subject or set of subjects.
This industry is compartmentalised now as tutoring for 10+2 is more lecture-based and lower than that is personal attention. The online tuition industry is also growing and increasing expenditure on tutoring is notably driving the market growth. Besides, the government is encouraging online-based education and is taking several initiatives in this regard.
The online tutoring market size is expected to see a rapid growth in the next few years. It will grow to $20.07 billion in 2028 at and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.8%.
How to start a tuition service/business?
According to Amitabh Kumar, who is a chemistry tutor, initial breakthrough is difficult. “You have to depend on advertisements to get some students. Two years is a testing time and after that it is the feedback and the results that help in this industry. Once you start teaching and you are teaching well, the word starts to spread about the teacher and his work”, he said.
He said, “I am teaching since last 30 years and what works best for this industry, according to me is the word of mouth. He said, the ratio is 20% advertisement and 80% through the word of mouth”.
Sonam Karmarkar who worked as a computer engineer with HCL and Tech Mahindra left her job and started teaching. She takes Maths and Science. Initially, while she was in Noida, she was completely offline, then during COVID-19 completely online. She is very comfortable with the hybrid model.
She uses Microsoft’s White Board and Zoom to take online classes.
Growth Potential: According to the tutors, growth potential in this industry is unlimited. There are many teachers who cannot accommodate all students, so they start rejecting their intake.
However, parents are dependent on tuitions for their children as they cannot teach their children in10+2, it is a highly specialised.
According to Rohit Kumar Grover who teaches Maths in Noida area, the tuition industry has growth potential as students are not very satisfied with coaching centres so they comeback to personal tuitions.
Amitabh Kumar pointed out that he cannot teach any other subject than chemistry because of the specialised nature of the work.
Price of the service: It is variable. It is from teacher to teacher. The price can be anywhere from Rs 1500 per subject, per student to Rs 4000 per student on an average. Many teachers are charging on a monthly basis and some are charging per session. Rohit Kumar charges Rs 1200 per hour and in a month a student takes a total of 15 hours per student. Similarly, Sonam also takes Rs1200 per hour for both online and offline per student.
Online vs offline
Trends in online tutoring:
Tech-based study, tech-based study, tutoring with hybrid models are becoming more and more popular. Presentations, 3D coloured online tutoring, charts, placards and animation are supporting the online teaching methods.
However, according to Amitabh Kumar, online can never be equivalent of offline but there are some effective offline tools for those who can take offline classes. There are some interfaces like Zoom, Google Meet and Skype. Skype works the best as it is free of cost and equally effective. However, he said hybrid works the best. Sonam said parents prefer offline, but for some people online would also work depending on the credibility of the tutor. Some people could prefer online, as it is very flexible, it saves a lot of time and energy. In between learning, one can even take a break, if needed.
Rohit Kumar also said that parents prefer offline tutoring for their wards as the biggest drawback of online tutoring services is that they cannot completely monitor the students enrolling in the subscribed services. The outcome depends upon the interest as well as the determination of the users toward the course.
