Coming out of the shadows: investing in English private tutoring at a transition point in Kazakhstan’s education system during the global pandemic

Figures & data

Figure 1. The final thematic map derived from student data.

Figure 2. Modes of EPT delivery.

Table 1. Reasons for having EPT.

Reasons	Frequency (N = 318)	Percentage
Preparing for the university entrance exam	222	69.8
To understand the subject better	102	32.1
To prepare for the IELTS exam	60	18.86
Formal school online classes were badly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak	28	8.8
It was helpful for me in the past	18	5.7.
My teachers recommended it	10	3.1
Many of my classmates were doing it	9	2.8
My parents chose it for me	7	2.2
Other reasons	18	5.7

Table 2. Advantages and disadvantages of online EPT.

Advantages of online EPT	Disadvantages of online EPT
It is more convenient With online tutoring, I saved the time spent on the road and money on a taxi. it's more convenient because you just sat down and study. In my case, the tutors recorded the sessions so that if we didn’t understand something we could review these lessons. (Student 10, School A) Individual attention with a clear explanation The material was better assimilated by the tutor than my schoolteacher during the online education. We could freely ask the tutor to explain a specific idea again and discuss it with peers in Zoom breakout rooms … Unfortunately, my English teacher sometimes ignores our questions when we type them on Zoom chat. (Student 2, School B)	Slow or intermittent Internet connection Sometimes my internet lags. Then the router needs to be restarted. While I reboot, I miss some parts of the tutorial session because my English tutor sometimes did not record the Zoom session. She might be afraid we could share the recording with other students. (Student 6, School B) Create financial burden on the family Everything is expensive in Almaty, including private tutoring. My mother paid almost 50,000 Tenge (105$) for the tutorial centre per month. I feel her suffering by spending this amount on my tutoring … Without tutoring, I wouldn’t not get high scores and win the grant. (Student 2, School A) Private tutoring is somehow expensive. My parents paid 15,000 (32$) Tenge for each subject per month. This created pressure on me to study hard. (Student 3, School B)
Prepare the teaching materials in advance Our English tutor sent us the teaching materials in advance … This allowed us to have more time to think about how to solve the tasks. We can watch the recorded online sessions several times (Student 5, School A)	Emergence of less qualified/unspecialised English tutors During the COVID-19, online tutoring became so popular. Some people created their own websites and said many things about themselves on Instagram although English was not their own specialisation. Unfortunately, I had this bad experience with one tutor whom I discovered later that she didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree. (Student 6, School B) The first tutorial centre wasn’t good. The English tutor had little experience in teaching and was actually an engineer. (Student 2, School A)

Figure 3. Costs of EPT.