Indian families in the Netherlands tend to ask about tutoring prices in the first month and are surprised twice: first by the Dutch hourly rates, then by how little of the market is built for a child aged 6 to 14. This post sets out what the main options cost in 2026, what each one actually delivers, and how to judge value, so that the decision is about the child and not only the invoice.
The price ranges in 2026
| Option | Typical price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Student bijles (tutor is a university student) | €15 to €20 an hour | One-to-one help with homework or a subject, at home or online, from a student without teacher training |
| Experienced bijles | €25 to €40 an hour | A tutor with several years' experience, often a former teacher or a specialist in a subject |
| Qualified teacher | €40 to €60 an hour | A teacher with a Dutch teaching qualification tutoring privately |
| Huiswerkbegeleiding institute | priced per month, typically several hundred euros for several afternoons a week | Supervised homework sessions in a group, mainly for secondary students |
| IB and international-school specialists | €30 to €100 an hour | Tutors marketing to IB Diploma and IGCSE students, often themselves IB teachers |
| Online tutoring from abroad | a fraction of the above | 1-on-1 over a whiteboard with a tutor in another country; quality and programme knowledge vary enormously |
Two patterns run through the market. Packages of ten or twenty hours bring the hourly rate down, and online is cheaper than a tutor who travels to your home. Primary-school tutoring is a little cheaper than secondary because the content is simpler, which is the first hint that the market is built around teenagers.
What each option actually delivers for a 6 to 14 year old
Student bijles. Good for a specific short problem: a chapter, a test next week. The tutor usually does not know the Dutch method's teaching approach, the PYP strands or the MYP criteria, and teaches from the child's book. For a child who needs to be stretched rather than rescued it rarely changes anything.
Experienced bijles and qualified teachers. The right choice for Dutch language, begrijpend lezen and, for a child in a Dutch school, anything where the Dutch itself is the barrier. A Dutch-speaking tutor is worth the higher rate for that. For maths at a stretch level, or for an international programme, few of them know the programme, and you are paying a Dutch teacher's rate for something a Dutch teacher does not specialise in.
Huiswerkbegeleiding. Structure for a teenager who does not do homework alone. Supervision, not teaching. For a primary-age child it is the wrong product, and for a child who is ahead it is money spent on sitting in a room.
IB and international specialists. Excellent for the Diploma years. Nearly all of them focus on ages 16 to 18; for PYP or MYP 1 to 3 you will usually be offered the same tutor at the same rate with less experience of that age group. We described the Dutch IB tutoring market when we chose to work in the Netherlands: nobody was serving the younger years.
Online from abroad. Ranges from a marketplace listing with no programme knowledge to a specialist who knows the Dutch groep order, the MYP criteria and the Cambridge stages. The price tells you nothing about which you are getting; the placement conversation does.
How to judge value rather than price
Five questions, in order:
- Does the tutor know the programme my child is on? Not "maths", but Dutch rekenen at groep 6, PYP phase 3, MYP 2 criterion B, Cambridge Stage 6. If the answer is vague, the tutoring will be generic.
- Is there a plan? A placement first, then a written idea of what will be fixed and in which order, with a review date.
- Is it the same tutor every week? Continuity is most of the value for a young child. Institutes and marketplaces often rotate.
- Is it really 1-on-1? Group sessions at a 1-on-1 price are common.
- Does the school's own measure move within a term? The Cito or IEP level and growth, the PYP outcomes, the MYP criterion levels. If nothing has moved by the second report, the tutoring is not working, whatever it costs.
Two things Indian parents often buy that are not the same as tutoring
Abacus and Vedic maths classes, popular in Amstelveen and Eindhoven, at a monthly fee. Valuable for mental arithmetic and confidence; not school maths, and not what a Cito test or an MYP investigation measures. We compare them honestly in abacus, Vedic maths or school maths.
Apps and worksheet subscriptions. Cheap and useful for practice, useless for the part that actually moves a young child's results: someone who watches them think and corrects the method. A child who is losing marks for the Dutch column layout will lose them faster with an app.
Where we sit
We teach from Chandigarh, 1-on-1, the same tutor every week, in English, and we know the programmes: the Dutch groep order and methods, PYP, MYP, Cambridge and the British curriculum. Because the tutors are in India, the hourly rate is well below a Dutch professional's, and because the classes are weekly and planned, families usually find they need fewer hours than they expected. We quote after the free 30-minute placement, once we know the grade, subjects and frequency, and we say plainly when a Dutch-speaking tutor is what the child needs instead. The full picture of how we work with families in the Netherlands is on the Netherlands page.
If you are comparing quotes, bring them to the placement demo. We will tell you which of the options above fits your child, including when it is not us.
Questions parents ask
1What does bijles cost per hour in the Netherlands?
2What is huiswerkbegeleiding and what does it cost?
3Is cheaper tutoring worse?
4What do you charge?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.