Online tuition for NRI students, country by country: CBSE or the local curriculum, class times from India, what it costs in the UK, Australia, Canada, the UAE and the USA, Hindi, and planning for a move back to India

"Online tuition for NRI students" covers two quite different children. One is in an Indian school in Dubai or Doha, on CBSE, in a section of forty, and needs what any child in Kochi or Pune gets after school. The other is in a state school in Leicester or a public school in New Jersey, doing well enough, with parents who wonder whether the maths is as strong as it would be in India, whether the Hindi will survive, and what happens if the family moves back. Both are NRI students and both need tuition, but they need different tuition. This guide separates the two, then goes country by country: the school system, what NRI families there usually want, class times from a tutor in India, and what it costs against the local options.

The two situations, and what each one needs

A tutor who teaches the first kind of child well is not automatically right for the second. Ask any tutor which of the two they mostly teach.

Country by country

UK

NRI children in the UK are almost all in English schools: Key Stage 2 SATs in Year 6, the 11-plus in grammar-school areas, GCSEs in Year 11 and A-levels in Year 13. The common worries are whether the maths is strong enough for the 11-plus, how to get from a grade 6 to a 9 at GCSE, and A-level maths and the sciences for medicine or engineering. A tutor from India suits this well if they teach the English curriculum and the exam board, not CBSE with GCSE words. Class times: 4.5 to 5.5 hours behind India, so 5 to 7 pm UK is 10:30 pm to 12:30 am in India in winter, and a tutor who works Indian late evenings is needed. Local 1-on-1 tutors charge £30 to £50 an hour; a qualified tutor from India about £8 to £12. Our UK page has the GCSE, A-level and 11-plus details.

Australia and New Zealand

Australian NRI children follow the Australian Curriculum through a state system: NAPLAN in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, selective-school and OC tests in New South Wales, and the HSC (NSW) or VCE (Victoria) at the end. Many families also keep CBSE-standard maths going because the Australian sequence reaches some topics later. Australia is ahead of India (2.5 to 5.5 hours depending on the state and the season), so a 4 pm class in Sydney is mid-morning to early afternoon in India, the easiest time difference of all. Local tutors charge A$60 to A$90 an hour; a tutor from India about A$14 to A$20. See our Australia page.

Canada

Canadian NRI families, many of them recent arrivals, meet a provincial system: Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia each have their own courses, and Grade 12 university-prep maths (Ontario's MHF4U and MCV4U, Alberta's Math 30-1) is what universities read. The common need is a child who was strong in CBSE and finds the Canadian word problems and the calculator-heavy style unfamiliar, or a high school student choosing courses for engineering or medicine. Canada is 9.5 to 13.5 hours behind India, so classes run at 7 am before school, after 4 pm and at weekends, local time. Local tutors charge C$40 to C$80; a tutor from India about C$14 to C$20. See our Canada page.

The UAE and the Gulf

Here most NRI children are in Indian schools on CBSE, in sections of forty or more, sitting the same board papers on the same dates as India. What they need is ordinary Indian tuition: the NCERT chapter in the school's order, the sample-paper pattern from Class 9, pre-boards from December. The Gulf is 1.5 to 2.5 hours behind India, so the same tutor can teach after school all year at an Indian evening hour. Local tutors in Dubai and Doha charge AED 100 to 250 or more an hour; a tutor from India about AED 37 to 55. Our guides cover the UAE, Oman, Qatar and the Indian schools in Riyadh and Jeddah, Kuwait and Bahrain.

USA

US NRI children are in public or private schools on the Common Core: state tests every year from Grade 3, a high school sequence of Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus, then AP courses and the SAT or ACT. The two things Indian parents most often ask for are maths ahead of the school (a CBSE-trained child is often a course ahead in computation and behind in data and word problems at the same time) and help with AP Calculus, AP Physics and the SAT. Our US math syllabus by grade maps each US grade to the CBSE class. Class times are the same as Canada's. Local tutors charge $40 to $100 an hour; a tutor from India $10 to $15. See online tutoring from India to the USA and our page for CBSE students in the US.

Singapore and Malaysia

Singapore NRI children split between the Indian international schools on CBSE or IB (GIIS, DPS International, NPS, Yuvabharathi), the local MOE schools (PSLE, then O-levels or the IP) and other international schools on IGCSE and IB. Singapore is 2.5 hours ahead of India. Our guide to CBSE schools in Singapore covers the choice of school.

Europe

In the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the rest of Europe, NRI children are in local or international schools, usually IB or IGCSE in the international ones, and the family's two concerns are the local language and keeping maths and Hindi at a level that allows a move back. Our guide to keeping a child CBSE-ready in a Dutch school applies across Europe.

The class times, in one table

North America is the one region where the time difference shapes the timetable: 7 am before school, after 4 pm (which is early morning in India) and weekend mornings work; a weekday evening after dinner does not.

Hindi for children growing up abroad

The most common thing NRI parents say after the school subjects is "they understand Hindi but they will not speak it." A child who grows up in English keeps listening Hindi for years and loses speaking first and reading never starts. Weekly 1-on-1 Hindi classes that start with conversation and add the Devanagari script once the child is speaking work at any age from five. Our guide to online Hindi classes for kids covers what a good class teaches at each age, and the Hindi page has the details of ours.

Planning for a move back to India

Many NRI families do not know whether they will move back. Plan for the possibility anyway:

• The best moments to move are before Class 9 or before Class 11. CBSE treats Classes 9 and 10, and Classes 11 and 12, as two-year courses for the board exams, and allows new admission into Class 10 and Class 12 only in limited cases with the board's permission. Ask the school in India early.
• Maths is the usual gap. A child from a UK or US school can be a year behind NCERT in algebra at 13 and ahead in data handling. A year of CBSE maths alongside the local school, an hour a week, closes it.
• Hindi is the other one. Most CBSE schools require a second language to Class 10; Hindi Course B exists for children who learned less Hindi.
• Keep the paperwork. The transfer certificate and the last two report cards from the school abroad; some Indian schools ask for an equivalence or eligibility certificate for students from a foreign board, so ask what they need before you book flights.

How to choose a tutor from India

1. Ask which situation they mostly teach. CBSE in the Gulf, or the local curriculum in the UK, USA, Canada or Australia. Both are skilled work; few tutors do both equally.
2. Check the qualification. A master's degree in the subject and years of teaching that curriculum. Ask for the tutor's name and stay with the same tutor.
3. Ask for the class time in your local time, all year. Daylight saving moves the UK, Europe and North America by an hour twice a year.
4. Insist on recordings. Every class recorded and sent to you, so you can see what is taught.
5. Take a free first class with the child's current chapter. The tutor should end it with a short written note of where the child is and a plan.

Our guide to online tuition from India for foreign students covers the checks in more detail.

Where we fit

Science with Shobha has taught NRI students since 2018: a team of 20+ women educators in Chandigarh, each with a master's degree in her subject, teaching 1-on-1 on a shared whiteboard, in English, Hindi or Punjabi. We teach both situations in this guide: CBSE and ICSE for the Indian schools of the Gulf and Singapore, and the local curriculum for the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe, with Indian-standard maths and Hindi where the family wants them. US$10 to $13 an hour, billed monthly in your currency, every class recorded. Our page for online tuition for NRI students has the class times and the price for each country, and the first class is free.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →