From our Swindon correspondent:
From the Guardian
Tutors in Sri Lanka who are as young as 17 and earning as little as £1.57 an hour have been used by the government’s flagship national tutoring programme to teach maths to disadvantaged primary school children in England, the Guardian has learned.
The Department for Education announced the immediate suspension of the use of under-18s as tutors for the £350m national tutoring programme (NTP) after being approached about the revelations, and pledged a review of the use of overseas-based tutors in the coming year.
It’s perfectly ethical to pay £1.57 to £3.07 to people in Sri Lanka because it’s not far off their average wage in Sri Lanka. It’s making them richer. And if we raised the price, with all the other costs to be considered with outsourcing across the world, they probably wouldn’t get the work. Isn’t this what the lefties want? The brown people around the world rising out of poverty?
And it should not be forgotten that almost everyone’s objective is making a profit. People might not think of salary as profit, but going to work is a profitable endeavour. You apply some inputs (getting trained, buying a suit, paying for a bus, your labour, food, renting near a place of work) and get paid. That covers your cost and leaves money left over for a shiny car, an Xbox, a holiday in the Dordogne and some pinot grigio. That’s your profit. We don’t class that as profit, but it is. If you’re smart, you try and get more in the income column, while reducing your costs (e.g. getting a job on the same salary, but in a place with cheaper rent).
I understand Arthur C Clarke moved his savings and himself to Sri Lanka because costs were lower. I can see no reason not to hire lower cost Sri Lankan tutors, provided they can do the job.
It’s also certainly more sensible to find someone who knows their business, such as a private company, to hire the tutors rather than to rely on the schools to do something they’re not organised to handle.
ACC was also – allegedly – partial to those 17 year olds doing the tutoring which is – allegedly – a reason for his move.
I concede your point, Tim.
Teachers force schools into remote learning. Schools employ teachers. What difference is it whether the remote teachers are in India or the UK?
Given a fixed budget (if only) for teacher salaries a pay rise for the Sri Lankens would come at the expense of the UK contingent. Global worker solidarity brothers and sisters.
Yet another dismal attempt to keep the private sector at bay, seen mostly in the constant sniping at Test and Trace.
Isn’t this what the lefties want?
But naturally. The entire climate scam is purposed to keep those nasty undeveloped world people in their place and stop them from catching up with the affluent North Atlantic countries.
It is immoral to pay sri lankan tutors the going rate, because it is immoral for poor sri lankans to make a profit teaching kids? Most GCSE and A level maths students with bad teachers rely upon heavily accented youtube tutorials for common problems and help with equations. Where the british teacher says “lets move you down a set” the online indian tutor says “I will you teach you my son”. Why does a union head want to remove this direct, invaluable resource from students? Just sounds like protectionism. Johnny Foreigner tutors whatever subject online better, and cheaper than us,… Read more »