How to choose a tuition centre: 10 questions to ask

The ten questions

1. 1. Who will actually teach my child, and what are they qualified in?Not "our faculty are highly experienced" - a name and a qualification. A centre that cannot tell you who takes Wednesday’s Maths class has not assigned one.
2. 2. How many students in the batch?Ask for a number, then ask what happens when it grows. A batch of 12 that becomes 30 by December is a different product from the one you bought.
3. 3. Do you follow my child’s school syllabus and sequence?Tuition that runs on its own schedule leaves the child managing two syllabi. Tuition that tracks the school reinforces this week’s lesson while it still matters.
4. 4. How often are there tests, and what do I see afterwards?The right answer includes what happens after the test. A score with no diagnosis is a report card, not teaching.
5. 5. What happens when my child is weak in one specific topic?Listen for a mechanism - re-teaching, extra practice, a doubt session. Listen for a name: can they already tell you which topic your child is weak in?
6. 6. Can I speak to the teacher directly, not the office?In a small centre this is trivially yes. Where it is routed through an administrator, expect to learn about problems late.
7. 7. Is there a trial class?A centre confident in its teaching will let you watch it. Refusal is information.
8. 8. What is the total cost through the year?Monthly fee, admission fee, material fee, test-series fee, exam-batch fee. Get the annual number.
9. 9. What happens if we miss classes, or need to switch to online?Illness, travel and relocation all happen. Ask whether the same teacher and batch continue online.
10. 10. Can I speak to a current parent?The most informative question on this list, and the one most centres deflect.

Answers that should worry you

• "We guarantee 90%." Nobody can guarantee another person’s exam result.
• "Our faculty are all IITians." A credential is not a teaching method. It is genuinely useful for Grade 11-12 Maths and Physics and largely irrelevant for Grade 7 Science, so the answer that should reassure you is a specific one — which tutor, for which subject, and why. A blanket institute claim across every grade is marketing. (For the record, Erevna’s own position: our regular batches are taught by our named faculty, and IIT, NIT and BITS tutors are available on request for senior Maths and Science.)
• "Batch size depends." It does not depend; they simply do not cap it.
• "You will get a report at the end of the term." Three months is too long to discover a problem.
• "Fees are non-refundable, pay for the year now." Reasonable for a term, a red flag as a condition of the trial.

What matters less than parents think

• Building and furniture. Weakly correlated with teaching quality.
• Volume of printed material. Thick booklets often substitute for teaching rather than support it.
• Toppers on the hoarding. Without knowing the denominator, a wall of rank-holders tells you nothing.
• Distance, within reason. A slightly further centre with the right teacher beats a nearby one with the wrong one - and online removes the question entirely.

How Erevna answers these ten

For the record, since it would be odd to publish this list and dodge it: our faculty page names every teacher and their qualification; batches are kept small by design; teaching tracks each student’s school syllabus; tests are followed by analysis of the failed topic; parents speak to teachers directly; a trial class is standard; and every offline batch is also available online with the same teacher. Fees are quoted per grade and subject count on a call - +91 99595 39486.