Whose responsibility is it anyway? Exploring the tutoring policy landscape in Australia using the Peters framework

Abstract

Supplementary education, also known as tutoring, has grown significantly in many jurisdictions around the world including Australia, where it is now estimated that more than one in seven students enrolled in school engage in academic tutoring. While there have been attempts at regulating tutoring around the globe, there is little to no concrete government policy regulating tutoring from federal, state and territory governments in Australia. The lack of regulation of such a large industry that involves vulnerable people has the potential to cause many issues for those participating in tutoring and is a policy problem that requires addressing. In this paper, we utilise the Peters framework to analyse the characteristics of the tutoring policy problem to assist in devising appropriate policy instruments. The Peters framework demonstrates that tutoring is a complex policy problem, with wide ranging effects that are challenging to solve. With this in mind, and the limited success of regulatory policies in other countries, we recommend that the analysis of the tutoring industry undertaken in this paper be used for the careful formation of policy instruments. We recognise that these instruments will not be a comprehensive solution to the tutoring policy problem but as a starting point to much needed regulation of this growing industry.