Why even excellent tutors can be pushed into impossible situations, and how the right framework protects everyone.
Private tutoring is the gold standard of education. It’s the most personal, responsive, and effective model available. A highly skilled educator, working one-to-one, is able to adapt entirely to the needs, the interests, and the learning style of the child in front of them.
But many private tutors will know that that closeness also introduces pressure, particularly when working towards a particular academic goal. With high expectations and a laser-focus on outcomes, there’s an enormous pressure on both student and tutor. And when the ethical lines that are written, regulated, and reinforced by school policy aren’t in place, what’s left is the tutor’s judgement, the family’s values, and the structures behind them.
If those are misaligned, even the best private tutors, and the most well-intentioned educational programme can tip into ethically uncertain ground.
It’s not a topic we shy away from. Adam Caller, our founder and a former schoolteacher and private tutor, has seen first-hand how pressure can distort expectations. With decades of experience in high-stakes education, he founded Tutors International to ensure tutors are never left to navigate those situations alone. Today, he leads a team that places and supports the world’s best tutors in the world’s most demanding households.
The best of intentions can hide pressure
Most families seeking private tuition for their children do so for all the right reasons. They want their child to thrive. They value education. They’re willing to invest in a more personalised model of learning.
But tutoring often begins at a flashpoint. Families often want a tutor when something has gone wrong (although more families are exploring homeschooling for other reasons, which we discuss in other articles).
Those flashpoints might be around exams, university application time, obvious learning gaps, school refusal, or relocations. The margin for error at these points feel small, and parents are protective. They want their children to do well, and teenagers can be resistant. A tutor is hired with the expectation that they’ll fix things, calmly and quickly (and sometimes invisibly — more on that below).
Pressure isn’t always apparent from the start. Parents might say, "We just need him to get over the line" or "Just make it work," and these are good intentions.
But if expectations aren’t clearly agreed at the start, tutors can find themselves responsible not just for teaching, but for outcomes they can’t ethically guarantee.
Even experienced tutors can feel the pressure, so it’s far worse for early-career tutors.
“Desperation and frustration at a teenager’s willful disobedience can drive the best of us to do drastic things. Add to that parental pressure to see results but who palpably fail to support you in your teaching efforts, and you end up with a niggling, persistent solution: cheat. What an impossible situation some private tutors must sometimes find themselves in. This pressure from parents is something I help the tutors that work for me to overcome and turn around.” – Adam Caller
Most stories about academic cheating come from unrealistic expectations, parental pressure, and a lack of backup. That’s why tutors shouldn’t be left to manage those situations alone, and why it’s vital to have an ally.
“I don’t believe that any tutor sets out to be corrupt or unethical. I believe they simply have found themselves unable to deliver what is being unreasonably demanded of them owing to parental pressure and lack the support they need to turn the situation around.”- Adam Caller
At Tutors International, the tutor is employed by us, not the family. We provide the support our tutors need, intervening with parents when it's needed, and providing advice and support for the tutor and the parents at every step.
What cheating looks like in tutoring
There’s no published rulebook for private tuition (although we’re working on it!), but the line is clear:
- Tutors teach skills. They do not supply answers.
- Tutors help students structure and express their thinking. They do not ghostwrite.
- Tutors support academic progress. They do not simulate it.
Once a tutor starts writing a student’s work, correcting it beyond all recognition, or shielding the student from the consequences of disengagement, that relationship has changed from educational to transactional.
The student knows this too. They know when the A-grade isn’t theirs or the admissions essay doesn’t sound like them and it ultimately damages their self-confidence, credibility and it defeats the whole point of having a tutor in the first place.
The value of tutor integrity to the student
Ethical tutoring looks like independence that is built over time. A good private tutor will teach a student how to revise rather than being handed a revision plan. A child with a good private tutor will become proud of their own work, even if it took longer to get there.
When tutors teach a child how to think independently, how to learn, it opens up so many doors. It shows up in admissions interviews, in feedback from teachers, or in the way a teenager starts managing their own time. It leads to lively dinner-time discussions, holding engaging conversations with adults, and a lifelong love of learning.
Tutors International tutor, Juliette, shared these thoughts about equipping the student with the tools they need to excel:
“The long-term aim always is to equip them with tools that will actually allow them to excel. You’re very conscious of Tutors International’s aspirations for each child, and the context in which you are going to be able to deliver that is very carefully thought through.”
The importance of saying no
We’ve declined clients who expected tutors to complete coursework. We’ve ended contracts where students were submitting tutor-written work.
We once supported a university student who requested help with language and structure for a specialist thesis. Our tutor soon realised the student had engaged multiple tutors elsewhere and was passing substantial edits between them. The thesis was being assembled collaboratively without disclosure.
We withdrew immediately.
These situations are, thankfully, rare — but our response is always the same.
"We’d rather lose the client than the tutor’s integrity." – Adam Caller
Our clients understand why this is so important. In fact, many choose us precisely because we are unwilling to compromise. When tutors are protected and the lines are clear, students flourish academically but also in how they see themselves and what they’re capable of.
Know where the line is, and have the strength to hold it
Private tutoring carries responsibility. Those decisions made under pressure will shape a child’s confidence, credibility, and future independence. Tutoring works best for everyone involved when expectations are clear, the pressure is acknowledged, but integrity is non-negotiable.
“You cannot succeed in your job as a private tutor if at least one of the parents is not in full support of what you’re trying to achieve. Unfortunately, some families hire a private tutor and expect a miracle, and may even have it in the back of their minds that it would be easiest for everyone if you acted as ghost-writer for all assignments.” - Adam Caller
For our tutors, the strength to hold the line comes from their deep experience, and from having us as their ally.
“Our tutors are selected not only for their academic expertise, but for their ability to integrate seamlessly into family life. They model professionalism, enthusiasm, and integrity in how they teach and interact.” - Adam Caller
For our clients, that integrity is part of what they’re investing in: not just academic results, but a model of education that stands up to scrutiny and sets their child on the right path for whatever comes next.
