International | Smart buys

The pandemic will spur the worldwide growth of private tutoring

Time lost to school closures has added to parents’ worries

|DELHI, NAIROBI AND NORWICH

SIINA KARBIN, a Finn living in Vienna, had never imagined paying someone to tutor her children. But then in early 2020 Austria’s schools closed because of covid-19. She and her husband struggled to help their seven-year-old son learn remotely while also doing their own jobs. Ms Karbin signed the boy up for one-to-one online tutoring provided by GoStudent, an Austrian startup, assuming he would do it for a few months. A year and a half later her son is back in school, and also still enjoying a weekly session with his tutor. He tells his mum he is keen to carry on with it.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Smart buys”

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