10 Things Every Parent Should Do Before Hiring a Home Tutor

This is the checklist, not the interview. For what to *ask* a tutor, see the nine questions. This is what to *do*.

1. See the ID yourself

National ID or student ID, in your hand, matched to the face. Photograph it. Someone who resists this is telling you something you should listen to.

2. Confirm the university and department out loud

Not "a university student". Which university, which department, which year. For SSC and HSC subjects this predicts teaching quality better than years of experience.

3. Write down days, hours and start time

"Tk 6,000 a month" means nothing until you have both said three days or five, one hour or two, and what time. Most fee disputes are really schedule disputes.

4. Agree what happens to missed classes

Your child will be ill. The tutor will have exams. Decide now whether sessions are made up or forfeited, and you will never argue about it.

5. Fix the payment date

Pick a date and keep it. Late payment is the most common reason good tutors leave, and it is entirely within your control.

6. Agree how you will hear about progress

Weekly message, monthly call, whichever — but agree it. Without this you find out how it is going at the exam, which is far too late. This is the step families skip most, and it causes more wasted terms than any other.

7. Set up the room before day one

A table, decent light, and no television. Not a bed, not a sofa. This sounds trivial and it changes how the hour goes.

8. Tell the tutor what is actually wrong

Show them the last exam script. Say which chapters worry you. A tutor who starts from page one of the book because nobody told them otherwise wastes a month finding out what you already knew.

9. Sit nearby for part of the first session

Not the whole hour, not hovering. You are checking one thing: does your child *speak*, or only listen? A silent child is not learning.

10. Use the trial week honestly

If the fit is wrong, say so in week one. Every family that tells us in month three admits they knew in week one. A replacement in week one costs nothing; in month three it costs a term.

The two most often forgotten

Numbers 6 and 8. Families arrange the money and the timetable carefully, then never tell the tutor what the actual problem is and never ask how it is going. Three months later nothing has changed and nobody knows why — which is exactly the situation described here.

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