Panic pays well
which makes it a business model for edtech startups
Benjamin Riley shared a story from the New York Times on Twitter today that reminded me of my private tutor past in France. The piece is about the French “Bac”, the nation wide finishing exam that takes place every June for an entire week.
Now much has been written about broken education systems but frankly, you haven’t seen a broken system until you saw the one in France. It’s a disaster, especially for a country that claims to be a driving force in Europe.
When I moved to France in 2006, I first started out as a private tutor for German and English. I could dedicate an entire series about my experiences with students, parents and teachers during that time but the main takeaway for me was the discrepancy between the dogma that learning only has to take place in school and the hunch of the parents that this was by far not enough.
I had done the same job in Germany for a couple of years during my studies and over there parents saw private tutoring as an investment into the future of their children who would need to survive in a more and more competitive workplace. On the other hand, teachers also proactively contacted parents if a student fell back, advising them to take private lessons.
Not in France. French teachers generally seem to feel that they have the monopoly on education. Getting private lessons for your child is often seen as an affront, an accusation that the teacher isn’t doing a good job. Hence parents didn’t want me to get in touch with the teachers as they kept the private lessons almost as a secret. If the student then improved their results it was of course due to the teacher, not the private tutor.
And then there is the (in)famous bac, short for baccalauréat. It is in the center of the broken system. Nowadays 70% of French students pass this exam which tells you a lot about its actual value. No, not even the French are all geniuses. The bac has been watered down so much that basically anyone can pass it with a bit of preparation. It is just a big retrieval of what has been covered in class, anyway.
In my tutoring days the months from April to June always made the best period of the year. Parents, all of a sudden, noticed that their kids might not be that well prepared to pass the bac. Students also realized that it might have been a good idea to work a bit more outside of the school (but who would when you come home at 5pm or later) in order to be prepared. So naturally panic breaks out.
Panic pays well. It’s a good lesson for every education startup. I always point out that for the vast majority of people, from children to adults, learning isn’t something they want to do. They do it when they need to. If you offer a service that targets exactly that need, people will throw money at you to save them.
