A £100-an-hour maths tutor who polishes the skills of children at elite private schools is launching a scheme to donate the same help to the poorest state school pupils after feeling guilty about his impact on social mobility.
Muhammad Ali, a banker turned tutor in London, has started offering booster sessions to children on free school meals, refugees and other indications of relative poverty. The scheme is an effort to reverse some of the educational inequalities Ali fears the burgeoning private tuition sector is responsible for widening even if tutors are trying to fill gaps “left by a broken education system”. He has signed up 15 other private tutors and is seeking funds from philanthropists to widen the programme.
Ali is in high demand among the affluent families of north London and has delivered 15,000 hours of private teaching since he quit a job at a hedge fund. His pupils include children at private schools such as Benenden and Eton who are already benefiting from educations costing more than £40,000 a year.
