Parents spending more on private lessons to boost exam chances

Parents are booking extra home school lessons in the last years of primary school to boost their children’s performance in tests and improve their chances of being accepted for the top tier of secondary schools.

Official government figures show that the amount households spent on help with homework, out-of-school lessons and exam training more than tripled in the 10 years from €151 million to €472 million.

Support for primary school children accounted for €44 million of the total, but education specialist told the Volkskrant that the strongest growth was in help for children in groups 6, 7 and 8 of primary school.

Dutch children are streamed when they enter secondary school, from vwo level, which prepares children for university, down to vmbo and praktijkonderwijs, which focus on practical skills.

Sezgin Cihangir, director of the Mathematisch Instituut in Amstelveen, said many parents were paying for extra lessons to compensate for the poor quality of school education.

His institution, which charges €1,790 for a 12-week course of extra maths tuition, claims on its website to have improved the Cito test scores for 92% of children who take part.

“For us it’s about improving children’s basic skills so that they can go through school with more self-reliance and self-confidence,” he said. “What we do isn’t extra tuition, it’s damage limitation.”

Inequality

Louise Elffers, professor of equality in education at the University of Amsterdam, said the growth of out-of-school tuition favoured families who could afford to pay for the lessons.

“Research has shown that the educational level of parents is a bigger factor in choosing to send children for extra lessons than their income, but well-educated people often earn more as well,” she said.

“Parents want their child to achieve the best possible diploma so they can get further up the hierarchy. Well-educated parents are especially conscious of this and investing more in their children’s school careers.”

But Cihangir said parents on all income levels were prepared to pay extra to improve their children’s chances.

“I’ve had people here who live on welfare,” he said. “If parents see that their child needs it, they make sure they can find a way to afford it.”