Is Online Tutoring Effective for Australian Students?
Published 13 April 2026 · Merit Tutoring
This is a question worth answering honestly — not with marketing language, but with what the research actually says. The short answer is: yes, tutoring works, when it's done well. But "done well" matters a lot. And online specifically has some advantages and some real limitations that are worth understanding before you commit.
We run Merit Tutoring, so we have an obvious interest here. We'll try to give you the straight picture anyway.
What the Research Actually Says
The best Australian reference point on this is Grattan Institute's 2023 Tackling under-achievement report. It's the most thorough independent analysis of tutoring effectiveness in the Australian context.
The Grattan report's position is clear but specific. High-quality small-group tuition — typically groups of about three students, held roughly three times a week, for sessions of up to an hour, sustained over at least ten weeks — produces meaningful learning gains for students who are falling behind. It's not a modest effect. Grattan estimates that if one in five Australian students who are behind received this kind of tuition, the collective lifetime earnings benefit would be around $6 billion.
That's a striking figure. But notice what it's actually describing: small groups (around three), high frequency (three times a week), consistent duration (at least ten weeks). Not one session a fortnight with a generalist tutor.
The NSW and Victorian post-COVID tutoring programmes are a more cautionary note. Both states ran large-scale in-school small-group tutoring programs after COVID disruption. The evidence on those programs was mixed — some schools showed meaningful gains, others showed limited measurable impact. The NSW Department of Education's own documentation acknowledges that implementation quality varied significantly. Tutoring isn't a silver bullet that works regardless of how it's delivered.
The honest takeaway from the research: tutoring can be very effective. Badly implemented tutoring often isn't. The method, frequency, group size, and quality of the tutor all matter.
Online vs In-Person — What's Actually Different?
There's a common assumption that in-person tutoring is automatically better than online. The evidence doesn't really support that as a blanket claim.
Multiple studies comparing online and in-person tutoring (particularly from post-COVID research when schools were forced to compare them) find that outcomes are broadly similar when the session quality is equivalent. The format — screen vs kitchen table — matters less than whether the teaching is good and the student is engaged.
That said, online tutoring has specific practical advantages. It removes travel time for families, which makes it more consistent — no cancelled sessions because someone was stuck in traffic. Children are often in a more comfortable, familiar environment, which reduces anxiety for some. And online platforms can incorporate interactive tools that genuinely don't exist in a traditional in-person tutoring context.
The historical weakness of online tutoring was engagement. A child passively watching a screen while a tutor talks at them over Zoom is in a worse learning environment than sitting across a table from that same person. That's real. It's why format matters within the online category — a live interactive session is very different from pre-recorded content.
When In-Person Tutoring Might Be Better
Being straight about this: online isn't the right fit for every child.
Some children are easily distracted in their home environment and can't maintain focus at a screen the way they would in a dedicated physical space. Some younger children — particularly in Years 1 and 2 — find the in-person presence of an adult easier to engage with than a face on a screen. Children with certain learning or attentional differences sometimes need the physical structure of a separate location.
If your child has tried online tutoring before and genuinely couldn't maintain focus, that's information worth taking seriously rather than trying to push through.
Some children also simply prefer the routine of going somewhere. Leaving the house, having a specific space for tutoring, coming home — that physical separation between "home time" and "learning time" works for some families.
If you're trying to figure out whether online works for your child before committing to anything, Merit's free 60-minute trial is a low-pressure way to see. One real session tells you more than any amount of research reading.
What Makes Any Tutoring Effective — Online or Not
Strip away the format question and the research is pretty consistent about what actually predicts outcomes.
A live, responsive tutor. Not pre-recorded content, not an AI chatbot. A real person who can see when a student is confused and change approach. This is the single most important variable.
Starting at the right level. A tutor who works on Year 6 content with a child who has a Year 4 gap achieves nothing. The starting point has to be where the child actually is, not where they're supposed to be. This requires a proper initial assessment — not a two-minute placement quiz.
Consistency over time. The Grattan research is explicit about this: ten weeks minimum to see meaningful gains. One or two sessions occasionally doesn't move the needle. Tutoring is a sustained intervention, not a quick fix.
Engagement during sessions. A student who is passively waiting for the session to end is not learning. Whatever the format, the student needs to be actively doing things — answering questions, attempting problems, making decisions. Passive observation does very little.
Parent visibility. Parents who know what their child is working on and how they're progressing can reinforce learning at home. Parents who just pay and wait are missing a significant multiplier.
How to Tell If It's Working for Your Child
Give it at least six to eight weeks before drawing conclusions. Early sessions are partly about assessment and establishing rapport — you won't necessarily see big academic gains in the first two weeks.
Signs it's working: homework in the tutored subject becomes a bit easier or at least less of a battle. Your child can explain what they're working on when you ask. Their confidence in the subject is shifting — even small comments like "I kind of get that now" or "we did that in tutoring" are meaningful. Their school performance in the subject holds steady or improves over a term.
Signs it might not be working: no change in difficulty with schoolwork after two months. Your child continues to dread sessions rather than accepting them as part of the routine. Their tutor can't clearly tell you what your child is working on or where the gaps are.
See how Merit's tutoring works for a full explanation of what our sessions involve — including how the Grow phase gives parents weekly visibility on what's being covered and how their child is tracking.