Understanding Students' Demand for Supplementary Mathematics Tutoring: A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Time Commitment Among Secondary School Students in Ibadan, Nigeria
Persistent poor performance in mathematics among Nigerian secondary school students has contributed to increasing reliance on supplementary paid tutoring. While previous studies have examined factors associated with mathematics achievement, little is known about students' willingness to participate in supplementary tutoring when time commitment is considered as a behavioral cost. This study applied a behavioral economics framework to examine secondary school students' willingness to participate in paid mathematics tutoring and to quantify the amount of weekly tutoring time they were willing to commit. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 62 secondary school students in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. A modified Hypothetical Purchase Task (HPT) was used to assess willingness across 16 hypothetical tutoring durations ranging from 0 to 15 hours per week (P0 to P15), assuming that parents or guardians covered the financial cost of tutoring. Demand curves were generated from the proportion of students willing to participate at each time-cost level. Generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the effects of tutoring duration, gender, and educational level on willingness. Willingness was highest at lower time commitments, with 95.2% of students willing to participate at one hour per week. Demand declined progressively as tutoring duration increased, with willingness at 50% between 7 and 8 hours. The mixed-effects model showed that increasing tutoring duration significantly reduced willingness to participate (β =-0.329, p < .001). Gender was not significantly associated with willingness (p = .308), whereas senior secondary school students demonstrated significantly greater willingness than junior secondary school students (β = 0.83, p = .031). Time commitment is an important behavioral constraint influencing demand for supplementary mathematics tutoring. Behavioral economic approaches, such as the Hypothetical Purchase Task, provide a useful framework for understanding educational decision-making and may help inform the design of tutoring programmes that maximize student participation.