France is No1 for home tuition

FRANCE is the country with the largest home tuition market in Europe. An EU researcher, who spent four years studying the topic, estimates €2.2 billion of private tuition work is done in France, followed by Germany (€1-1.5 billion), Greece and Spain.

While this suggests that French parents are dedicated to their children’s education, researcher Mark Bray noted the trend may increase social divides: “It does not so much support children who have a real need for help they can’t get in school, as much as maintain competitive advantages of privileged children who are already succeeding.” “Breaking the silence on this” may help improve European education generally, he added.

Home tuition is known in France as soutien scolaire (educational support) or cours particuliers or à domicile (one-toone or home lessons) and is not exclusively for children – it can, for example, include French lessons for adults.

France is among several countries with tax breaks for using such services. Users benefit from a 50% tax credit for services à la personne (personal help at home): you can have half of the cost of tuition deducted from your income tax, within (generous) limits. Claiming this involves writing money spent on lessons a box in the tax credits section on the last page of the income tax form.

However, some tutors seem to factor this into in their fairly steep fees (eg. adverts that say “€20 an hour”, mentioning in small print that this is after the tax credit; a real cost of €40). An internet search under soutien scolaire, the subject and your town is a way to start looking for what is available. Money off tax is a “credit” only for workers or those who have been or registered unemployed for at least three months in the current year. This allows for a payment to you if the money off is more than your tax owed. In other cases it is a “reduction” against tax owed.

Options include using a registered business (ie. with its own Siret number) or employing the tutor yourself, eg. using the simplified “Cesu” system. For tax credits to apply to firms, they must have Service à la Personne accreditation, allowing them to use the “S!” logo. You can locate a firm here: www.tinyurl.com/firmslist

Tuition via webcam or internet chat is on the rise and is said to offer flexibility (sessions of as little as a quarter of an hour are available) and good value (fees starting from €10/hour). We advise you ask what the tutor’s qualifications are - are they a student or graduate? A qualified primary or secondary school teacher? Agrégé (advanced teaching qualification)? Sites include www.potrailprof.com www.prof express.fr and teacheo.com

Changes to the school week and holidays are being studied again. Primary school weeks may be brought back to a norm of four-and-a-half (shorter) days instead of four, and the summer holidays could be shortened by up to two weeks. No changes are expected to be brought in for another two years.