‘Levelling up’ access to private tutoring in England: problem representation in government policy

Governments across the world have responded in different ways, and with different types of policy reforms, to the phenomenon of rising private spending on supplementary tutoring. Underlying such differences are diverse discourses surrounding the tutoring industry, giving rise to differing constructions of problems that expanding tutoring may create. In this paper, I draw on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ framework to scrutinise how private tutoring has been problematised in government policy in England – most recently in the country’s National Tutoring Programme. Analysing policy documents and parliamentary discussions, I show that policy in England has since 2020 presented mass private tutoring as being a positive and desirable phenomenon – the only salient ‘problem’ being that some require greater access to this tutoring. I locate such a position in historical and comparative context, tracing its roots while also arguing that it normalises further and legitimises the practice of mass privately paid-for tutoring, with likely significant implications for children, families and schools. The paper contributes to an emerging body of literature on the way that governments worldwide are reacting to and engaging with the growth of ‘shadow education’.