Homework help is a growing market

OSLO.Students in classroom.Photo: Berit Roald / NTB scanpix

The number of companies giving lessons and tuititions on an hourly basis, often in the form of homework help, has increased to three times the number of such companies in 2008. An admission of failure,  Trond Giske (Ap) thinks .

According to figures the newspaper VG has collected from Statistics Norway and the Brønnøysund registers, there were 300 active part-time teacher businesses in January last year . In 2008 the figure was at 111. The majority of companies in this category offer private lessons in mathematics, science and languages.
– There is a problem if these developments are signs that some parents do not think that the  quality of the schools is good enough,  Minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen (H) says. He stressed that all students should get a full education in the public schools, regardless of their background and economical status. One of his predecessors, Aps Trond Giske, think developments show just that parents do not have confidence that   the public school are doing a good enough job of ensuring that the training and lessons offered in school are customized to the abilities of students with abilities that are far from the average . He expresses his concern far stronger than Isaksen.
– This development is an admission of failure. We see the contours of a class divide in school.
Manager of House of math, Vibeke Fængsrud,  says she also believes that there is an extensive black market for private education, that includes student teachers and math students offering to help pupils with their homework to reduced prices.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today