Private education is becoming more egalitarian

民辦教育變得越來(lái)越平等

WHEN Charlotte Hobbs decided to teach her 11-year-old pupil about the “imaginary” maths needed to work out the square root of a negativenumber, she knew it would be a stretch. But her ambition paid off: the girl quickly masteredthe concept and now hopes to study maths at university. Most remarkably, Ms Hobbs achievedher feat in a foster home, not a west London Victorian terrace.

當(dāng)夏洛特·霍布斯決定教她11歲的學(xué)生用來(lái)計(jì)算負(fù)數(shù)平方根的虛數(shù)時(shí)，她知道這是一個(gè)艱巨的任務(wù)。但她的抱負(fù)最終得以實(shí)現(xiàn)：這個(gè)女孩很快掌握了概念并希望在大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)數(shù)學(xué)專業(yè)。最值得注意的是，霍布斯女士是在一個(gè)寄養(yǎng)家庭取得了這樣的成就，而不是在倫敦西部的維多利亞式露臺(tái)。

Private tuition has long been popular with the rich. A gaggle of London-based firms hire newgraduates from Oxford and Cambridge who charge ￡70-￡100 an hour to prepare children forindependent-school entrance exams taken at 11 or 13. Yet thanks to ambitious parents andgovernment policies, many more children from lower-income families are being tutored.

私人補(bǔ)習(xí)一直受到富人的歡迎。一些總部位于倫敦的公司聘請(qǐng)剛從牛津、劍橋畢業(yè)的學(xué)生幫助11歲或13歲的孩子準(zhǔn)備私立學(xué)校入學(xué)考試，他們每小時(shí)收費(fèi)70到100英鎊。然而，由于那些望子成龍的父母和政府的政策，更多低收入家庭的孩子也開始補(bǔ)習(xí)。

The primary force is the pupil premium, a scheme that channels extra money to schools withpoorer pupils. This payment, which is rising from ￡623 ($950) per pupil this year to ￡900 in2014, has created a market for private tuition in state schools. Ms Hobbs works for Tutor Trust,a not-for-profit organisation which provides one-to-one sessions for ￡18 an hour. The firm’s 220tutors tend to be students at Manchester University keen to earn some extra cash. SinceFebruary 2012 they have taught for more than 10,000 hours in schools across the city.According to figures from Ofsted, the education regulator, two-fifths of schools are using theirpupil-premium cash to pay for one-on-one tuition; a third are using it for group tuition. The aimis to improve results and shrink the yawning gap between the academic achievements of poorchildren and richer ones in England’s schools.

這一現(xiàn)象最主要的動(dòng)力來(lái)自學(xué)生獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金計(jì)劃，這個(gè)計(jì)劃把額外的錢撥給貧困學(xué)子。這筆款項(xiàng)將從今年的623英鎊（約合950美元）在2014年漲到900英鎊，這也為在公立學(xué)校提供私人補(bǔ)習(xí)創(chuàng)造了市場(chǎng)。霍布斯女士為“Tutor Trust”工作，這個(gè)非營(yíng)利組織提供每小時(shí)18英鎊的一對(duì)一輔導(dǎo)。公司的220名老師大多是曼徹斯特大學(xué)想要賺點(diǎn)外快的學(xué)生。從2012年2月開始，他們已經(jīng)在這個(gè)城市教授超過(guò)10000小時(shí)的課程。根據(jù)教育主管機(jī)構(gòu)Ofsted的數(shù)據(jù)，五分之二的學(xué)校用學(xué)生獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金支付一對(duì)一輔導(dǎo)費(fèi)用；三分之一用此支付集體輔導(dǎo)費(fèi)用。這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃的目的是要提高教學(xué)成果并減少英國(guó)學(xué)校貧富學(xué)生之間學(xué)業(yè)成績(jī)的鴻溝。

But it is not just the hardest-up who are getting private help: parents on ordinary incomes arehiring more tutors, too. Explore Learning, a private-tuition chain, says that many of itscustomers use government child-care vouchers (which are tax-free) to pay for tuition. Lowerearners receiving tax credits can claim back up to 70% of the cost. It helps that franchises suchas Kumon, a Japanese firm, lower costs for parents by teaching in groups. These kinds of out-of-hours outfits have long been popular in East Asia: roughly three-quarters of South Koreanstudents attend a hagwon after school.

對(duì)于接受私人補(bǔ)習(xí)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，補(bǔ)習(xí)費(fèi)不是最大的障礙：工薪階層的父母也聘請(qǐng)很多輔導(dǎo)老師。一個(gè)名為Explore Learning的私人連鎖教育機(jī)構(gòu)聲稱他們?cè)S多客戶都使用政府托兒券（免稅）來(lái)支付學(xué)費(fèi)。中低收入者的稅收抵免能返還70%的費(fèi)用。一些像日本Kumon這樣的特許公司提供的集體教學(xué)也幫家長(zhǎng)減少了費(fèi)用。這種課后補(bǔ)習(xí)機(jī)構(gòu)在東亞一直很流行：粗略計(jì)算，四分之三的韓國(guó)學(xué)生放學(xué)后都要參加補(bǔ)習(xí)班。

This combination of rising subsidies and fiercer competition means that the army of tutors islikely to get bigger. This should be welcome news. The Education Endowment Foundation, acharity, estimates that a year of one-to-one tuition is equivalent to five additional months ofschooling. Tutors are particularly valuable for difficult subjects such as maths. Thegovernment’s aim—to ensure that more of England’s poorer children reach their potential—isstill an aspiration. If its policies break the link between tutoring and income, it may yetbecome fact.

增加的補(bǔ)貼以及激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)意味著輔導(dǎo)老師隊(duì)伍將會(huì)進(jìn)一步壯大。這將是一個(gè)可喜的消息。一個(gè)慈善機(jī)構(gòu)—教育養(yǎng)老基金會(huì)估計(jì)一年一對(duì)一輔導(dǎo)相當(dāng)于五個(gè)月的學(xué)校教育。對(duì)于像數(shù)學(xué)一樣十分困難的科目來(lái)說(shuō)，輔導(dǎo)老師就顯得特別有價(jià)值。政府的目標(biāo)是確保更多英國(guó)的貧困兒童的潛能得到發(fā)掘，但這只是個(gè)仍未的抱負(fù)。如果政策能打破輔導(dǎo)和收入之間的關(guān)聯(lián)，這個(gè)目標(biāo)也許能成為現(xiàn)實(shí)。