Middle-class spends a third of income on kids' tuition

Parents in middle-class families spend one-third of income on the private tuition of their children, industry body Assocham said on Friday.

"Private tuitions have witnessed a steep increase of about 40-45 per cent in the last few years as middle class parents have been spending nearly one-third of their monthly incomes on them," the chamber said.

According to an Assocham survey of about 5,000 students and parents, teachers are charging tuition fees ranging between Rs 300 and Rs 800 an hour.

Nearly 60 per cent of middle-class parents with two school-going children and having an average monthly salary of Rs 25,000 spend about Rs 8,000 per month on tuition.

"Many schools conveniently push the ball back to parents, to tell them to engage private tutors for their kids. This is a serious failure in the education system," Assocham secretary-general D S Rawat said.

The pressure to perform well in examinations is not the only reason why parents seek private tutors, the survey said, adding that tuition is more a consequence of the 'exam phobia' that has gripped the country in the past five-seven years.  Many tutors are full-time school teachers and they charge thousands of rupees per subject for teaching only one subject for a period of two to three months, it said.

Since tuitions provide easy money, teachers have opened their own academies where students are trapped in the vicious circle of tuitions.