Watson, L. (2009). Private Expectations and public schooling: the growth of private tutoring in Australia. In P. Jeffrey (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Research Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education 2008 (pp. 1-15). (Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Proceedings). Australian Association for Research in Education.

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"Why do parents pay for private tutoring? 

International literature suggests that parents purchase private tutoring for one of two main purposes: first, for enrichment purposes by academically able students who are seeking to capitalise on their abilities; and second, for remedial assistance to students who are struggling to “keep up” with mainstream academic expectations. Private tutoring is more likely to be used as an enrichment strategy in education systems where there are “clear high-stakes 6 decision points” like public examinations for selective secondary schools and/or intense competition for limited university places (Bray and Silova 2006, p. 32). However Baker et al. (2001) argue that most private tutoring is for remedial education purposes, particularly in countries where there is a high level of parental awareness of the economic importance of successfully completing secondary school."