The world is getting even flatter

You know that America is facing global challenges when India is now tutoring U.S. students in math, science and even English — and at a fraction of the price of U.S. tutors. TutorVista, based in India, says it provides unlimited, around-the-clock, one-on-one online tutoring for only $99.99 per month.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

14 Comments

  1. writerdog
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 2:41 am | Permalink

    I saw it mentioned on a report of how India is taking over our tech market. Try getting help from sbc yahoo! Yes sad in deed.

  2. rm6046
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 9:40 am | Permalink

    If parents would spend time working with their children on homework from kindergarden forward, they wouldn’t need to get Rajeb online. If the parents are too stupid to do that, (a) they shouldn’t have had kids in the first place, and (b) I doubt their kid has online access at home or the $100 to hire Rageb anyhow.

  3. Ben Huie
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 10:13 am | Permalink

    Even before Kindergarten Bob. Sitting with a 1-year-old in your lap readung a book to/with them gets them off to a good start. And they LOVE reading books.

  4. Ben Huie
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 10:14 am | Permalink

    Even before Kindergarten Bob. Sitting with a 1-year-old in your lap readung a book to/with them gets them off to a good start. And they LOVE reading books.

  5. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 10:21 am | Permalink

    No surprise here. We’ve outsourced everything including our food supply. Why not education as well?

  6. rm6046
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 11:20 am | Permalink

    absolutely, Ben … I was just focused on “homework”, & should have expanded to pre-school days. Loosely speaking, my grandsons have to “earn” video game time by reading — e.g., 30 minutes reading earns 30 minutes video game time — neither of which occurs before assigned homework for the older one. I am really proud of my daughter for coming up with that and enforcing it — it was 100% her idea, not mine.

  7. Wiseman
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 1:47 pm | Permalink

    Something does not feel right about business ventures that cannot be supported within its own boundaries that it has to seek outside its boundaries to survive or is it just a Capitalist Pirate’s greed?

  8. Vaughn Tolle
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 3:04 pm | Permalink

    It seems tutoring is subject to price elasticity of demand. Who would have thunk?

  9. brian
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 5:52 pm | Permalink

    Wiseman, what boundaries are you talking about? And which business ventures are you refering to?

  10. ideaman
    Posted February 12, 2007 at 10:06 pm | Permalink

    I wonder if there is a way to outsource healthcare…

  11. Vaughn Tolle
    Posted February 13, 2007 at 10:18 am | Permalink

    While not, perhaps, technically “outsourcing”, there are several stories on various web sites discussing folks traveling to India, e.g., for certain types of medical treatment and surgery. So, ideaman, look around; there might be a clinic in New Dehli just waiting to deliver what you are seeking at a reasonable cost.

  12. Econ101
    Posted February 13, 2007 at 1:21 pm | Permalink

    Hey, India’s scientists are SMART! They don’t buy into Global Warming propaganda:http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1925164,0008.htm

  13. WSClark
    Posted February 13, 2007 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

    Paul, the article you linked is the opinion of ONE man, not the consensus of the Indian scientific community.

    That is the opinion of just one person – hardly a movement in the making.

  14. heartlander
    Posted February 13, 2007 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    This story was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle last fall. I only know about it because it was published when my wife was visiting her parents there, and she brought it back to Kansas. An Indian software designer in Silicon Valley realized that Indian schools have produced millions of mathematically capable students, not all of whom can get jobs at home that utilize their skills. Ample math talent willing to work cheaply + cheap broadband + quite a few parents in America (mostly Asian-American, including Korean and Chinese immigrants thus far) who recognize that our schools aren’t up to world-class standards in math = a nice fit.

    Distance education isn’t optimal, but at $99/mo (which, let’s face it, means the customers are high-five and six-figure-income families) it’s way cheaper than $25-75/hr in-person American tutoring by math-knowledgeable people. E.g. 2 hours per week at $50/hr (Bay Area average) is $100/WEEK. And people of means pay this, mostly affluent Caucasian parents who send their kids to private school, and want to give them “an edge” (as if they don’t already have one).

    At any rate, a $100,000 family income is middle class in the Bay Area, where a 30 year old un-updated 1600 square foot house, costs $700,000 to buy, and if you can’t afford that, then you can rent it for $3500/mo, without a mortgage deduction.