Although India was once a part of the British Empire, Britain now looks to India for educational help
Indian tutors are helping British children learn maths over high-speed Internet connections.
One of the first schools to adopt such a form of teaching is Ashmount Primary School in London. When pupils get ready for their maths lesson they sit in front of a computer, put on their headphones , log on to the Internet and listen to the instructions of their tutors , who are thousands of miles away in India. With the help of an interactive whiteboard teachers and pupils can write and read information at the same time.
One of the advantages of such a system is that especially weaker pupils get the professional help they need. The teacher focuses on the individual needs of every single child. In most cases students enjoy working on computers more than just doing classroom work with textbooks.
In Britain there are not enough maths teachers for schools. An assistant teacher would cost a primary school like Ashmount over 30,000 pounds. The headmaster says online tutoring is not only more effective, but cheaper as well.
In India a tutoring agency in the Punjab has hired a hundred maths graduates and is instructing them on how to teach British pupils online. They are paid 7 pounds an hour, which is three times the normal wages in that region. The agency charges British students 12 pounds an hour for tutoring services, about half the amount they would pay for a tutor in Britain.
Not everyone is in favour of online tutoring. As a representative of Britain’s trade union for teachers suggests, there is no emotionalrelationship between teachers and pupils. Parents don’t seem to mind. They are pleased with the results and happy seeing their children get better at maths.
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