India is fast emerging as the global online tutoring hub by delivering top-notch teaching services at down-to-earth rates.With a large number of dedicated post-graduates well-versed in English language, India has the greatest potential to grow in the online tutoring industry, say industry insiders.
Indian teachers provide tutoring services at a fraction of the amount charged by their counterparts in the United States, United Kingdom and other European countries.
“When it costs $40-100 per hour in the US, Indian teachers charge three to four times less,” says V Rameshwar, Chief Quality Officer of Chennai-based Tutors World Wide (I) Pvt. Ltd. Within a short span of two years, ever since supplementary education through internet attained an industry status in India, the growth rate is 100-150 per cent, says Rameshwar.
The company, which was started in 2004, now has 400 teachers in its pay-roll and around 5,000 students across the globe.18 months back, Tutorvista started with one teacher and one student and now has 500 teachers and over 2,000 students.
India now earns around $15 million per year from online tutoring –10 % of the total market share.Tutorvista has students in 12 countries, including Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Singapore, the Middle East and Canada. But majority of the students are from the US and the UK.
Thirteen-year old Kathreen of Westchester county, New York, says, “My Indian tutor is very patient and kind. She takes time to explain things to me and I have improved in classes.With online tutoring, we can do sessions at our convenience. We save a lot of time, instead of having to drive up and down”, Kathreen, who has been receiving tuitions from Tutorvista for English since October last year, says in an online interview to PTI.
Among the other developing countries which have ventured into the “eBay of education”, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, India has an edge.India has a large number of post-graduates with sufficient computer know-how compared to these countries.
For a recruitment advertisement,many of them being Ph.d and M.Phil holders are applied from 6,000 post-graduates, . Through online tutoring, globalisation, whose merits were hitherto enjoyed only by the technologically qualified, has reached the homes of people educated in all subjects.It gives opportunities to science and arts degree holders to earn from home. For seven hours work a day, Tutovista pays them Rs.12,000-14,000 monthly.
According to Rameshwar, TWWI recruits freshers and trains them for the job.But Tutorvista has retired professors, teachers and qualified housewives in their pay-roll.These companies also have representatives in many of the client countries, especially in the US and the UK, through whom the necessities of the market are ascertained.
By online tutoring, Indian outsourcing companies have even ventured into the B2C (Business to Consumer) model.They deal directly with the parents and the students. There is no other brand or company intermediating in the B2B (Business to Business) model.Tutoring through letters and couriers had been a mode of supplementary education in sparsely populated countries like Australia for long.
But, with the advent of voice technology on the internet, “real-time voice-based online education” has become accessible to everyone across the globe.
