Alarm about the Expansion of Private Tutoring in India

Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan

Mean Costs of

Median

Costs of One-on-

One-on- One or

One or Small-

Small- Costs of Costs of Group

Costs of

Costs of

Tutoring Tutoring Lessons

Lessons Classes Classes as in One

Classes

Classes as

in One % of GDP Subject

Subject Subject per Capita Country

Subject

per Capita

(US$) (PPP US$) Kazakhstan

(US$)

(US$)

(PPP US$)

(US$)

72.9 0.94 Kyrgyz Republic

31.3 6.3 0.44 76.4 28.1 1.98 GDP = gross domestic product, PPP = purchasing power parity.

Note: Private tutoring costs were converted from local currencies into US$ using the exchange rate at the time of data collection (2006). Because of the wide spread of data and the existence of significant anomalous outliers, median calculations are used in addition to means to compare expenditures in the countries. Source: Calculated from Silova (2009a:76–77).

• Georgia: Household expenditures on tutoring at the secondary level consumed 120 million lari (US$48 million) in 2011, which was equivalent to 34.2% of public expenditure on secondary education (EPPM 2011: 29).

• Hong Kong, China: A 2010 survey of businesses serving secondary students following the local curriculum, i.e., excluding primary students, one-on-one private tutoring services, and businesses serving students in international schools (Synovate Limited 2011), indicated that the market size was approximately HK$1,984 million (US$255 million).

• India. Rana et al. (2005:1552) estimated the costs of private tutoring in government primary schools in West Bengal at 21.5% of the total costs of educating a child. Nationally, a 2008 market survey of companies offering coaching estimated the size of the sector at US$6.4 billion and predicted annual growth of 15% over the subsequent 4 years (Vora and Dewan 2009:60). The survey, concerned mainly with large companies, highlighted 14 “key players.” To the operations of these companies should be added a huge number of informal and semiformal providers of tutoring.

Mapping the Landscape 21

• Japan. Households in Japan were reported in 2010 to be spending about 924 billion yen (US$12 billion) (Dawson 2010:16) on private tutoring.

• Republic of Korea. In 2006, expenditure on private tutoring was equivalent to about 80% of government expenditure on public education for primary and secondary students (Kim and Lee 2010:261). Shadow education expenditures rose every year from 1998 to 2009, beginning to reduce slightly only in 2010 (Figure 1). In that year, expenditures reached 20.8 trillion won (US$17.3 billion).

• Singapore: Households spent about S$820 million (US$680 million) on

center and home-based private tutoring in 2008. This was an increase from S$470 million a decade earlier (Basu 2010:D2).

Figure 1 Average Monthly Household Expenditures

on Shadow Education, Republic of Korea, 1997–2010

trillion won 25

2007 2009 Sources: Jang (2011:2), Korea National Statistical Office (2011: 2).

22 Shadow Education