About three in ten children have had private tuition outside school, research published today suggests.
Teenagers from wealthier families are twice as likely to have received additional help compared with their poorer classmates, and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to have had a tutor than white pupils.
Private tuition is the “hidden secret” in an “educational arms race” that reinforces the advantages of richer children, according to the Sutton Trust, which commissioned the report.
A poll of more than 2,600 secondary schoolchildren found that three in ten had received private or home tuition, including music lessons, at some stage. This is up from a quarter last year.
More than a third of those from more advantaged households said that they had received