Why volunteer tutoring is more important than ever

Tutoring took off over the course of the pandemic: the limitations of lockdown prompted new ways of working and new digital classroom infrastructure. Online tuition levels soared, in both the private sector and amongst volunteers.

The online format has largely remained, with volunteer tutors up and down the country logging in on their lunch break or after work to meet one-to-one with students who need their help. And, it turns out, their time and effort is more important than ever.

The ‘disadvantage gap’ is the name given to the difference in attainment between students from a disadvantaged background and their peers. This gap is significant: in 2019, just 45% of disadvantaged students achieved a pass grade in GCSE Maths and English–in comparison with 72% of non-disadvantaged students.

Over the last few decades, tackling this gap in attainment has been a priority in the education sector, and–until relatively recently–progress was being made. But by 2019, this progress was slowing, fuelled by a higher proportion of children living in poverty. There was a ‘gap’ equivalent to 18 months of educational progress between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students taking their GCSEs; down only slightly from a 20-month gap in 2011. 

And then the pandemic hit.

Last month, the Education Policy Institute published a worrying report on just how much damage the last few years have done, concluding that “much of the reduction in the disadvantage gap over the last decade has been reversed during the pandemic.” The disadvantage gap seen in 16-19 year olds widened in both 2020 and 2021. For GCSE students, the disadvantage gap widened by 8% in 2021 alone, the largest annual increase on record.

With the number of students on free school meals increasing year-on-year, schools face an impossible task in their attempts to narrow the gap. The EPI have concluded that “schools are unlikely to be able to close disadvantage gaps sufficiently on their own.”

This is where volunteer tutoring comes in. At the Tutorfair Foundation, we work with disadvantaged young people to provide them with one-on-one tuition via our brilliant volunteers. The support and mentorship students receive from our volunteers is incredibly important. It’s also an invaluable resource; the EPI has specifically recommended one-on-one tutoring as a “highly effective” strategy to combat worsening educational inequality.

If you’d like to join our efforts to tackle the disadvantage gap, and could spare an hour every week to teach a one-on-one online lesson, we’d love to hear from you! Please do get in touch with any questions, or sign up to volunteer with us below.