Stepping Stones Tuition, a UK-wide agency based in Lincolnshire with more than 2,000 tutors on its books, reported an annual increase in business of 50 per cent and weekly bookings worth up to pound;60,000 during peak periods. The size of the market is difficult to quantify but agencies estimate that parents spend around pound;100 million a year on personal tutors. Some of this is spent on two-year-olds.

Personal Tutors, a national agency with 10,000 registered tutors, says a marked increase in demand in 2000 has been sustained this year. “We have had a lot more enquiries about tuition for pupils preparing for key stage 1 and 2 national tests,” said a spokeswoman for the agency. “It’s partly peer pressure; parents don’t want their child to get a lower mark than everyone else. The schools also put pressure on 11-year-olds to get Level 4 in maths and English. And because of national tests, parents are now more aware of when their children are not keeping up.”

Teacher shortages are another reason why parents seek private tuition, costing pound;11 to pound;25 an hour, depending on the child’s age and the size of the group. “We have pupils who’ve had four supply teachers in one term, which makes parents very anxious that their children are falling behind,” said the Personal Tutors spokeswoman.

Shaun Drury, director of the Extra Tuition Centre with 30 branches in Kent, says parents seldom voice criticisms of their children’s schools, but their confidence has been dented by the “relentless” attacks on state education.

Parents are seeking help earlier. One child aged two-and-a-half received help from a Stepping Stones tutor. The toddler had to point to his name on the blackboard and hone social skills to win a private nursery school place.

Top Tutors, a London-based agency with 3,000 registered tutors, said it had frequent requests from parents of two-year-olds for help, although it refused to take children under three. John Coe, a spokesman for the National Association for Primary Education, said that it was “beyond the pale” to prepare children for the baseline assessments which generally take place when pupils are four. He also condemned “cramming” for SATs.

“Coaching often distorts the learning process and could be stressful for the child,” he said. But Dr Coe felt that extra one-to-one tuition could help junior children who were placed in large classes or had gaps in their learning, provided the school and the tutor worked closely together.

* A leading think-tank has urged that support staff be trained to provide emergency cover to ensure children’s education is not put at risk by teacher shortages.

A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research into the use of supply teachers says that schools are increasingly turning to classroom assistants and other unqualified teachers to fill in.

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers has warned that schools leave themselves open to legal action if anything happens to children while being supervised by an unqualified teacher.

Leader, 18 Analysis, 22-23 Have your say: www.tes.co.uk