It is around quarter past 5 in the morning when Ms. Anjali Maini is all ready to start. She swivels her chair hurriedly to face the computer. She puts on her headset and says in a slightly American accent “hello Maria, how are you?" the response appears in real time “I am fine Anjali, what about you?" Anjali is a 26 year old girl who has been appointed to teach extra lessons for maths to Maria, who is in the 6th grade, the only point to be noted here is that these lessons happen over an internet enabled computer. The reason is that while Maria is based at Malibu, California her online tutor Anjali is placed at New Delhi, India.



It's the latest form of outsourcing: tutors in India providing math help to American children over the Internet. Many companies like TransWebTutors (transwebtutors.com), Brain Fuse, TransTutors and Growing stars are into this ever growing online tutoring model. The market has stretched tremendously since the No Child Left Behind Act. The law requires schools identified as “failing" to offer private tutoring which has meant more business for these online tutoring companies.

“I was very worried when Maria was not performing well in her studies, some of my friends suggested private tuitions but then we could not afford one." Says Kimble Jackson, mother of Maria. “All this was until I learned about tutors from India; I thought of giving it a try and the results are in front of you. From C’s and B’s Maria has moved to A’s today. All this thanks to online tutoring!"

The teachers are well selected with good academic and teaching records and are trained well enough to handle the American teenager. So an Indian teacher would not be surprised when her student calls her by the first name! That’s the modern day education outsourcing.

Tutoring is a huge business, and is expanding. Millions of students in both private and public schools are using private, one on one tutors as well as education hubs like Kaplan, Kumon and Princeton Review for supplementary educational needs of education starved America. What was once linked only to the upper class has now become a pervasive part of everyday education for everybody.

By means of a simulated whiteboard on their internet enabled computers, and a copy of the American textbook for the subject to be taught the online tutor guides the American teenager through the intricacies of subjects like maths, science, English and what not. And the guidance is not just restricted to K12 studies but also to pre college level and college level subjects and curriculum. These online tutors also prepare students for various exams like SAT, GRE, TOEFL, etc.

Homework outsourcing as this is popularly known as these days is driven by cost like all types of outsourcing models. Companies like TransWebTutors in India charge American students $15 an hour for private tutoring, contrast this with $50 or more that their American counterparts charge and you know the reason why online tutoring is such a huge hit! Online tutoring has risen very much in the recent past and is a tremendous weapon in the hands of education starved America. It would certainly emerge as a success and silence everything its critics have to say against it.