Updated 17-September-2026
Most "online tuition trends" content still frames virtual learning as a pandemic-era innovation finding its feet. That framing is out of date. The more relevant story for 2026 is what's changed in how online tuition gets funded and chosen, and what the actual evidence says about how well it works.
The National Tutoring Programme, the government's centrally subsidised school tutoring scheme launched after the pandemic, ran its fourth and final year in 2023-24, with the subsidy that year covering up to 50% of tuition cost, down from 60% the year before. The programme's own statistics series formally closed in December 2024. In practice, that means schools and families are now far more likely to be funding tutoring, including online tutoring, directly and privately rather than through a subsidised national scheme. Anyone researching "online tuition" in 2026 is largely doing so from a different starting point than someone researching it in 2022, when centrally funded places were still widely available.
The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit is the most rigorously reviewed UK evidence base on tuition generally, drawing on 123 studies. It finds one-to-one tuition delivers approximately five additional months' progress on average, rated as moderate-security evidence, with the caveat that there's meaningful unexplained variation between individual study results, so five months is an average, not a guarantee. On delivery mode specifically, the toolkit notes that online delivery costs less than in-person tuition, and that the studies reviewed show broadly similar effectiveness between the two, rather than one clearly outperforming the other.
The realistic case for online tuition is about access and cost, not inherent superiority. It removes geography as a constraint on which tutor a family can work with, and it's typically less expensive to deliver than in-person sessions, which matters more now that programmes aren't subsidising the difference. What the evidence doesn't support is treating online delivery as automatically more effective just because it's more flexible. The quality of the session, the tutor and the structure behind it drive outcomes considerably more than the medium does.
Given that online and in-person tuition show broadly similar effectiveness in the evidence, the more useful question for a parent isn't "online or in-person" but who's teaching, how the session is structured, and how the provider handles the basics most comparison content skips, like safeguarding. We've covered that ground in detail in our guide on how to hire the best online tutors, including what to check before you book a single session.
Merit Tutors runs online tutoring to the same standard as our Forest Gate, Ilford and Plaistow centres: the same diagnostic-first approach, the same DBS-checked and Ofsted-registered oversight, delivered over video rather than in person. Every family starts with a free assessment regardless of which format they choose.
Is online tutoring as effective as in-person tutoring?
The EEF's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, drawing on 123 studies, finds broadly similar effectiveness between the two delivery modes, rather than one clearly outperforming the other. Online tuition's real advantage is access and cost, not inherent superiority.
Has the National Tutoring Programme ended?
Yes. It ran its fourth and final year in 2023-24, with that year's subsidy covering up to 50% of tuition cost, and the programme's statistics series formally closed in December 2024. Families and schools are now largely funding tutoring, including online tutoring, directly and privately.
Is online tutoring cheaper than in-person tutoring?
Generally yes, according to the EEF's toolkit, which notes online delivery typically costs less to deliver than in-person tuition. That's more relevant now that centrally subsidised programmes are no longer covering part of the cost.
If online and in-person are similarly effective, what should actually decide my choice?
Who's teaching, how the session is structured, and how the provider handles safeguarding basics, since the evidence shows the medium itself matters less than the quality of the tutor and structure behind it.
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