A new startup called Tuteria has been launched with the goal of connecting tutors with individuals who are in search of private tutoring in different subjects. In an exclusive interview with Innovation Village, Godwin Benson, co-founder of the startup said unlike Tutor.ng, Tuteria allows the tutor and student to meet offline.
He added that he got the idea to start Tuteria after realizing that while many people want to learn various things, they had no way of connecting with people who could teach them, especially when those same people lived within their communities.
“There were other problems of people teaching and struggling to collect payments, or those who pay for lessons and don’t get quality service,” he said.
According to him, Tuteria was built to provide a reliable way for people to find, evaluate and schedule lessons with their preferred tutors within their communities, as well as help people teach what they love to earn extra income.
The founders are currently assessing and registering tutor applicants from across the country.
“Once we have a good number, we’ll launch fully,” he told Innovation Village.
For now, he said only tutors can use the platform – people who want to teach various subjects and skills.
“Right now they can apply, complete ID verification, and create the subjects they want to teach etc. That’s all a user can do on the site right now,” he said.
To ensure that those that are applying to be tutors actually know what they want to teach, he said several qualification verification steps are undertaken before the tutors are allowed on the platform.
He said: “First of all, we manually review every tutor applicant, as well as interview them to ensure Tuteria they have the kind of high quality in personality, passion and communication that can succeed on Tuteria.
“Then for most subjects like academics, languages, music and instruments, various exams like IELTS, SAT, GRE, TOEFL etc., and even some skills like Public Speaking, Data Analytics, Creative Writing, Swimming, etc., we have created standard competency tests that tutors have to pass before they can teach those subjects. The tests are timed, and can only be attempted once per tutor.
“For other subjects that are not testable, like Bead-making, Dance, Photography etc., tutors write about their experience and method of teaching which is reviewed by our quality team, as well as upload samples of their work if applicable. If the review is positive, then they are can teach that subject, otherwise, their application is rejected.
“Beyond that, we also verified tutors’ online and offline identities, facilitate background checks and continuously evaluate tutors performance with previous clients, and only tutors who continue to offer great service to clients can continue on Tuteria.”
He said the platform’s major source of monetization is via commission on every booking a tutor gets on the platform.
“We earn a commission on every booking made via the site. When clients book and pay for lessons online, which is saved in our account and only transferred to tutors after the lessons have been fully delivered, so we take a cut and pay the rest to the tutor,” he told Innovation Village.
He said the platform has been made very simple to use by almost anyone who can read, and also created a help center to guide users. He expects the platform to make significant impacts in academics -especially for kids and high school students.
Benson said: “This is definitely a major area of impact, and also because it’s an area most people are passionate about, as well as skill acquisition. However, I believe as we progress we’ll be better able to determine where our greatest impact lies.”
He concluded that any smart Nigerian with passion for teaching can apply to be tutor on the platform.
“Anyone who is smart, lives in Nigeria and has a passion to teach should apply to become a tutor on Tuteria while it’s still on for now! We’ve built the most reliable platform to help them teach more people in their communities and earn increasing incomes,” he told Innovation Village.
