Top private tutors earn £100 an hour

London: Tutoring agencies are making huge amounts of money out of parents' desire for their children to get good grades in exams.

Companies are charging £35 an hour (Dh238), with top private tutors demanding £100 (Dh682) for a 60-minute maths session.

But an Evening Standard investigation shows many agencies do not require their tutors to have degrees in the subjects they teach.

John Simpson, owner of London-based Wise Owl Tuition, said many of his tutors were undergraduates. "They will be strapped for cash and need to work right away."

Cambridge-based First Tutors said someone with just maths A-level would be suitably qualified to teach GCSE pupils.

Experienced teachers cost more, a spokesman for the company said, adding: "An undergraduate maths student will know the subject well and may be able to demonstrate teaching experience on an informal or summer school basis but will probably charge a lower rate.

"This opens up choice by giving you the opportunity to balance requirements with cost preferences."

About one in four children taking exams this summer will have had weeks of extra coaching outside school. Demand for tuition is increasing, with the Association of Tutors reporting a 15 per cent jump in membership in the last 12 months.

Agencies such as Fleet Tutors, based in Hampshire, claim high success rates. It says 90 per cent of its GCSE students scored at least one grade better than predicted last year.

But a study by London University's Institute of Education suggests tuition can be a waste of money.

Researchers Judith Ireson and Katie Rushforth found two years of extra maths lessons increased average GCSE performance by less than half a grade.

They said: "Quality of private tuition is open to question." Professor Ireson stressed her research was preliminary and based on a relatively small sample.