Tutoring around the World
The sums are significant. More than half of American children take part in a sport after school or at weekends. In 2024 this cost the average family $1,016, just for one child’s main sport. That was a 46% jump from 2019, twice the cumulative rate of inflation. Between the logistics of chauffeuring children to several practices each week and conferring with coaches, American parents are dedicating more than 15 hours a week to their children’s sports—a commitment on a par with a part-time job.
As with young bodies, so with young minds. Private tutoring has long been an obsession in richer parts of Asia. Three in four school-age South Koreans took paid lessons in 2025, according to national surveys, including 57% in the lowest income quintile. So did four in five five-year-olds. The OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, estimates that average tutoring spending per pupil has reached roughly a tenth of average household disposable income.
