ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the quality and motivations of students, and the quality and pedagogical frameworks of tutors, can influence students’ overall achievement. The opening section considers the dynamics of tutoring itself, while the next section juxtaposes tutoring with schooling. The commentary notes that private tutoring can have a backwash on schooling, and may subtract as well as supplement. The impact of shadow education on the values of students and the wider society is described in the third section. It shows how private tutoring shapes or obstructs social mobility. Viewed positively, education including tutoring can be a vehicle through which diligent students from lower classes can raise their social status across generations. More common, however, is that prosperous families consolidate their positions and reinforce social stratification.
