Demand for tutoring services for preschoolers is growing in large cities

Learn in advance

The word “tutor” sounds like a death sentence. Meanwhile, his services are comparable to the services of educational centers and clubs for preschoolers, which have long become commonplace for Moscow parents and their children. No more or less wealthy family can do without “development centers”, as they are often called. Some are developed in sports, others in dancing, drawing, English, somewhere they teach everything together in a couple of lessons. And this does not bother anyone.

The passion for tutors is apparently a new fashion among modern parents in an effort to give their children the best at once. As in preparation for final exams, the most popular tutors are now for preschoolers in basic subjects. Preschoolers are hired to teach speed reading, mental arithmetic and calligraphy, in other words, to teach reading, counting and writing. The demand for teaching these skills has grown by 45-50% compared to last year.

The question arises: “Is it really so bad that the child needs to be taught everything in advance?” It is not about the teacher or teaching. The educational process is structured in such a way that the teacher shows how to do things correctly, using an interactive board, presentations and cartoons. And children should practice their skills at home. That is, early preparation helps to teach the necessary skills in advance and not sit with the child in the evenings, studying the necessary material.

“Our grandma taught our son to read and count before school. The teachers in the kindergarten strongly recommended not to touch writing, so as not to retrain him later,” Faina Yurovskaya, the mother of a second-grader at School No. 1574, told RG. “Now we regret it. We had to train his hand ourselves, and then there was the accustoming to a new group, teacher, and routine. The child is lagging behind in writing.”

Minus a year

Tutors are often hired by those who are going to go to a class with an accelerated learning program – “Effective Primary School”. This project helps to cover the material of the first and second grades in a year. By December, the children say goodbye to the alphabet, and by May, like other second-graders, they know the multiplication table and other wisdom. That is, in fact, a child masters the primary school program in three years. Of the 460 educational complexes in Moscow, the “Effective Primary School” project is being implemented in 270 schools. 10-15% of the capital’s first-graders study under this program. But it is difficult to get into it: you need to pass a real exam. An hour is allotted for 50 answers to problems, questions and the construction of geometric lines. Parents or older sisters and brothers will not help, since no one is allowed into the hall where the exam is taking place. And the exam itself is recorded on a video camera. Without practiced skills, the habit of being in a little-known group of children, the child will not pass, he will be confused.

Early preparation allows you to teach skills so that you don’t have to sit through lessons with your child later.

Clients of tutors are also those who want to get into the best schools by the number of Olympiad winners, gold medalists, number of 100-point scorers, etc. For example, in Moscow such schools include the private school “Letovo” (TiNAO), school No. 1501 (Tverskoy district), School No. 1568 named after Pablo Neruda (Yuzhnoye Medvedkovo district), School in the South-East named after V.I. Chuikov (Kuzminki), school No. 57 (Khamovniki district).

“We tried to get into School No. 57 for two years in a row,” says Anastasia Rauball, mother of 8-year-old Anna-Maria. “Studies at this school start in the 2nd grade. Before that, there is a preparatory group in a kindergarten, accessible to residents of the Khamovniki district. But we are registered in the Tverskoy district. We had to hire tutors, study, and in the end, in two years of study, they prepared us. My daughter passed the exam and the competition of 7 people for one place. I hope we will cope with the program.”

Is it necessary?

Of course, only parents can decide whether a preschooler needs a tutor. There are still goal-oriented and inquisitive children who are ready to study on their own and spend hours writing letters and solving equations. Such a child will not need a tutor even in grades 9-11. There are families where parents have enough time to sit down and practice some skill with their child at the right moment.

“It is generally accepted that a child needs to play at the age of 5-6,” says the famous educational psychologist Irina Bubnova. “And at the age of 7, they expect a first-grader at school who can already read and count, and can sit through a lesson. But when are we going to teach him these skills?” She notes that an unprepared child has to simultaneously master a knowledge base, skills, learn to perceive the teacher’s instructions and follow instructions, remember a large amount of information, explain his decisions and memorize tons of rules. For a primary school child, such a volume of information and assignments is a heavy burden. And they also give grades for studying. Having received an unsatisfactory result or experience, a child may stop believing in himself, his self-confidence will decrease, he may become withdrawn, and reject assignments and studying.

“You need to prepare your child for school at least a year in advance, and better yet, from the age of four, taking them to various preparatory clubs, classes, and tutors. Another problem with modern children is the lack of love for drawing and, as a result, weak hand muscles,” says Irina Bubnova. “This is reflected in writing; it is difficult for a child to hold a pen and write for a long time.”

Where to look for tutors?

The easiest option is to simply look on the bulletin boards, including the same Avito Services portal. As the service representatives report, demand creates supply. For example, not only has demand increased for speed reading, but also the number of offers, which has increased by a third. A similar situation is with mental arithmetic. The number of ads for handwriting correction has doubled. However, it is worth remembering that these teachers are most often a “pig in a poke”. Those who are in the know advise looking for teachers either in clubs whose names are familiar, or teachers from the educational complex where the child is going to study.

“As it used to be with universities,” says Lyudmila Alekseyeva, a former teacher at the history department of Lomonosov Moscow State University. “Classes are a guarantee that a child will most likely get into the right school, class, or a specific teacher. You can find them at numerous open days held by educational complexes, through the school’s social networks, or in parent chats. You can also use a pre-school club, which is open in almost all educational complexes.”

Ready online?

It is interesting that classes with tutors are held in different ways: online and in person. A lesson can last 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or even two hours. As the educational center “League of Knowledge” in Sivtsev Vrazhek told “RG”, and they prepare for admission even to top-rated math schools, the demand now is for preparation for school studies, including online. A mixed format is also in fashion: classes are online on weekdays, and in person on weekends. “Lessons are held twice a week for two hours – 120 minutes, plus five minutes of musical pause and warm-up between lessons,” says center representative Natalya Gutova. – We are opening additional groups, including in-person ones. Monthly training costs 24 thousand rubles. Inexpensive, because it is four hours a week, and 16 hours a month.”

Wallet

Price of the lesson

• Speed ​​reading – from 700 rub.
• Mental arithmetic – from 800 rub.
• Calligraphy – from 700 rubles.
• English language – from 2 thousand rubles.
• Speech therapist – from 1.5 thousand rubles.
• A class in a pre-school club at an educational complex – from 4.5 thousand rubles.