Anonymous
map-marker Woodbridge, Ontario

Its crap

i am in grade 5 and they gev me HOMEK for plus and riting for grade 1 and i funiht devgon AND I AM MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD BEACUSE OF THES MELONHED KUMON I HATE ITTT BUT MY PRINS WONT GET ME OUT OF KUMON
View full review

User's recommendation: DOOOOOO NOT GOOOOOOOO IN TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KUMON PLEZ

Anonymous
map-marker Hyattsville, Maryland

Very bad bully siting at the font desk

Very bad treatment. Not responding properly. Making mistakes with student work even if we pointed not willing to accept the wrong mistake and calculations
View full review
Anonymous
map-marker Dover, Delaware

Hema Patel at Kumon Dover DE is SO RUDE!

I have been a student at Kumon for about 7 months. IT SUCKS HARD. Hema Patel at Dover DE kumon center is so unbearibly rude. She threatened to hit an innocent kid for not knowing how to do a math problem. She also lies to parents, is rude, and is EXTREMELY STRICT. She loves to repeat work to students that have no idea how to do it. I WANT TO LEAVE.
View full review

User's recommendation: NEVER GO HERE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.

Anonymous

Kumon is horrible.

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
The teachers at the kumon center were HORRIBLE they didn't even tell my kids where to put their things. further more my child keeps complaining about the math packets, and the were give packets that you were supposed to do in first grade.
View full review

User's recommendation: Do not use it.

Anonymous
map-marker Surabaya, East Java

Unreasonable Account Disabling

My account was disable at no reason, we do not find any reasonable deletion as we do not upload any spam message or content, any unethical content, and etc. Why the account of Kumon Kaliwaron just got disabled? Even we tried to make a new Kumon Kaliwaron account, but IT GOT DISABLED RIGHT AFTER WE CREATED IT. Could you please explain?
View full review

User's recommendation: Please do not easily disable an account, we are so troubled doing business through IG and other Facebook subsidiaries

terry x

Sharing Experience

It is not a complaint, Kumon is good but depends on how you manage it. My son was doing fine at Kumon, and he has improved his learning skill. However, I like my son to get more comprehensive subjects via extra work outside school. I found that Beestar is a great online platform that provides different subjects to students.
View full review
Anonymous
map-marker Dover, Delaware

It was utterly unbearible.

Kumon was by far the worst experience of my entire life. All they want is your money.

My parents love it and think it is the best thing in the world. They don't listen to me. It has left me emotionally scarred. I am constantly feeling depressed and angry at myself randomly.

Don't sign any of their bogus contracts. The instructors there aren't real teachers. My life has been extremely rough and seeing what other families went through brought anger to me all around. That company's behavior is completely unacceptable.

It is a complete waste of time and money. I've seen students literally driven to tears. I don't know about you, I WON'T STAND FOR THAT! They also give you no days off.

A well-earned work free vacation has now turned into a work filled vacation. (If you could even call it a vacation.) I have 10 front and back pages of both reading and math, and let me tell you, IT IS AN ABSOLUTE PAIN IN THE NECK!

Parents, if your child does Kumon, pull them out before it's too late! Parents who don't have their children enrolled in that heck hole, You're doing a great job!

View full review
Anonymous
map-marker Dover, Delaware

Unhappy with Kumon

Kumon is by far the worst experience in my entire life. I feel so much pressure from my parents, especially my Mother to do get everything done accurately and quickly.

I absolutely hate it. My parents love it and think it is the best thing in the world. They never listen to me. Whatever you do, DON'T SIGN THE CONTRACTS!

Frankly, some people there are very rude, they are not teachers, AND THE WORKSHEETS ARE REPETITIVE AND USELESS! I have 10 front and back pages of reading and math! My parents love it. I KEEP TELLING THEM IT'S A USELESS SCAM AND I NEVER WANT TO DO IT EVER AGAIN!

Because of it, I know have work on a vacation that I have been waiting for over 7 months! It is ruining my life, and I am constantly feeling depressed and overly angry at myself.

For all parents out there.....it is a scam! If you have a child enrolled in Kumon, pull them out before it's too late!

View full review
Anonymous
map-marker Chicago, Illinois

FRANCHISE SCAM - WARNING!

Kumon is the worst franchise to own here in the U.S. I quit a high paying job in Chicago in 2010 to start a Kumon learning center. Initially, everyone was friendly and painted rosy picture about the franchise. I went through the motions and finally got my center up and running after investing close to $120,000 in build-out, lease, furniture, training etc.

No sooner started my Kumon learning center, I was asked to spend $4000 on advertising. I was told that I could advertise anywhere. So I did, only to get into the cross hairs of another Kumon learning center franchise owner. My signs were taken out, posters ripped etc. The Kumon office intervened and "I" was told not to advertise by the same people who told me to do so in the first place.

The problem is that Kumon does not have assigned territories. So anytime a center can open anywhere even next door to you. It makes your Kumon center vulnerable to competition.

The rent I pay is over $4000 per month with CAM extra. In the first 12 months I just had about 60 students, and by the end of 2 years I just had 110. I am deep in the red, and am worse off than I was with a high paying job that I quit. The royalties are about 35% of the tuition. Tuition is $100 per month. I would like to increase it but other Kumon franchisees seriously undercut me on the price that one can do nothing about.

Older franchisees bad mouth newer franchisees like me claiming more Kumon experience and by putting some fake awards on their walls.

Management at Kumon is in total disarray. My field support manager provides me with no support. She comes once in a while, looks around, smiles and leaves. The staff are poorly trained to support franchisees. You call up the Chicago branch office and you are sure that your call will never be answered or returned. At the instructor conference this year, I heard that the problem goes right to the top. Recently the President Akira Hamanaka and Executive Vice President Atsushi Nose were fired from Kumon North America. This happened after all franchisees were promised better days to come at the conference by the President and CFO.

If you are reading this and are planning to open a Kumon learning center, take my advice and DO NOT invest your hard earned money in Kumon.

- Kumon is an outdated program and has not changed in over 50 years. It does not match the school curriculum and is below school standards in the U.S.

- Overall Kumon has a bad reputation among students and parents. Parents and students who quit the program usually never come back.

- If you complain about your student numbers with the Kumon staff, they blame the franchisee saying that "it is your fault that your students are quitting you."

- Older Kumon franchisees get a free pass. They can do whatever they want, even run a center from non-retail space.

- Older Kumon franchisees bad mouth new franchisees like me.

- There are no clearly assigned territories.

- There is poor advertising support.

- Management at Kumon is bad.

- There is no quality control in other Kumon centers.

- Royalties are very steep and margins slim to none.

- Kumon staff are inept, poorly skilled, arrogant and condescending.

- Worksheets similar to Kumon and of better quality are freely available on the internet.

- Many parents have switched to online learning on advice from their school teachers.

- Kumon has a bad reputation among Schools and School Teachers in the U.S.

- There is no resale value for one's Kumon center. I have been trying to sell my center but I cannot even recoup 10% of my investment.

- There are many, many better programs like EyeLevel, Aloha Math etc. which offer lower royalties and assigned territories.

- Franchisees that I met all hate the management and staff at Kumon.

- If you fall sick or are unable to run your center, the Kumon management will shut you down.

My advice is DON'T OPEN a Kumon learning center even if you are sold about it. You will regret it just as badly as me.

View full review
Loss:
$100000
106 comments
Guest

KUMON IS A SCAM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Guest

my three kids (7, 12, 15) have recently started (2 months ago) Kumon math and reading program, and I already see improvements in their speed and accuracy. I plan to continue for at least a year and re-evaluate, but so far I am happy with the Kumon programs.

Guest

Maybe he just didn't know how to run a business. My kids are now in high school and Kumon allow them to enter high school early by one year and the public school math is still too easy for them.

Guest

Kumon is the absolute worst franchise in the world. They wanted $600 a month to teach my two children math and reading only two times per week ($150 per subject per month).

Then when I observed a kumon class in action it became clear that it's just like sitting in a school classroom with barely any direct help from anyone working at the kumon center unless you are stuck and raise your hand and wait for about 10 minutes before someone (usually a teenager working at the center) comes over to help. What kind of tutoring is this? Isn't tutoring mean one on one teaching and not merely sitting in a classroom like the student has already done all day at school? I also looked at the worksheets and they seem pretty easy, even for a child/student.

I asked the center instructor why ipads were not being used to teach instead of these flimsy cheap looking paper worksheets and he told me that Kumon Instructors have basically given up waiting for any modern technology to be introduced as a learning and teaching tool as they were promised that a tablet like product would be rolled out 5 years ago and so far nothing.

The Kumon classroom itself is more like a noisy playground than anything else as children throw things at each other and also chase each other around the classroom. The instructor apparently has no idea how to handle this, as he retreats into his office many times during class time, especially when it gets loud and unruly.

Parents are also allowed to walk into the classroom and talk with the instructor during class time which seems to be very inappropriate. They are suppose to either make an appointment with the insteuctor during office hours or wait until after class is over until approaching the instructor.

Not at this center, as the instructor permits conversations (that are sometimes very long) all throughout class time. Since these conversations with parents take place in the main classroom and not in the Instructors office so that the instructor can presumably keep one eye on what is happening in the classroom, this is highly distracting and noisy for serious students who are relying to study their materials. The study environment is therefore horrible as a result of the poor judgment of the instructor. I really don't know if he is simply afraid to enforce rules that will benefit his students or if he is merely clueless in terms of the impact of this chaos is having on the classroom.

I don't really care what the reason is.

All I know is that I am not paying $600 per month for my children to be part of this type of disruptive environment that one simply cannot learn in. I have oy had one experience at this one kumon center but I give the center and the instructor a grade of *** which in my part of the world is a failing grade.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1313061

I have been trying to sell my center for nearly two years and it is virtually worthless in terms of getting any kind of resale value from prospective buyers who are few and far in between. The problem with the kumon business model is that it cannot be traditionally valued.

This has created tremendous headaches for me as no one will make me any type of decent offer because they don't believe that students will remain in the program for very long. This means that my business is virtually valueless if potential buyers are looking at valuing it in this way. I don't want to just walk away because I have put in an incredible amount of time an effort building my kumon franchise. If kumon would just find a way for us Instructors to be able to keep our students then there might be more identified tangible business value that someone is willing to actually pay for.

As things sit today no one recognizes this which is reflected in the low offers that I am receiving. If I had any idea that I would have this problem when I first decided to.olen a kumon center then I would have taken a pass and have opened a subway or a pizza franchise, as you can actually build and sell this type of franchise for real money. I have asked for lots of help.and assistance towards selling my center but have received nothing in return. The first poster of this board also mentioned that they were relying to sell their center and could only receive offers that were approximately 10 percent of the actual value of the center.

Welcome to the club as I am in the exact same situation. I am extremely upset and disappointed because of how trapped that I feel.

Next time I will be more careful with the type of business that open. So far this entire experience has been one big disaster for.myself and my family.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1313867

Please call Toru Kumon. He helps buy everyone's centers. He was the Conman #1.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1313061

My son did Kumon for ten years. It worked for him and it was inexpensive considering the cost of other learning centers.

Kumon is not a traditional tutoring center. It is there to guide your child to teach themselves by looking at the examples and trying to solve them themselves. However, if the student is not getting it, instructors do help them. There is a New Material table where the student is more closely observed to see if he/she understands.

If not, the instructor helps the student. Parents must do their part at home by observing them and should ask questions about the material, if the parents are confused.$600 a month sounds like a lot of money, but I am sure you have more than one child doing Kumon taking two subjects each. Perhaps 3 kids? Take them to Sylvan or Huntington.

They will charge you at least $20 per hour. It is one on one tutoring though and it may be a better fit for your kids and for you.

Guest

My wife opened a kumon franchise in a large US city and could never gain any traction in terms of gaining enough new students to make her kumon franchise work. Kumon did absolute nothing to help her to get new students except telling her to print flyers and put them on car windshields in parking lots.

Her actual center was in a run down mall and her lease did not contain a non-compete meaning that a mathnasium moved into the same mall. Kumon had apparently not noticed that her facility lease did not contain a non-compete clause. In addition, Kumon advised us not to incorporate, telling us that it was a waste of money to bother. Since we ate both not very business save, we listened to this advice and are still paying for it, as we personally still owe creditors one year after the center has closed.

It seems like any advice that we received from kumon was the exact opposite advice that a business professional would have provided. Even though we are still kicking ourselves to this day for.not first consulting with a business or accounting professional before proceeding forward with our Kumon franchise, we still blame kumon for the bad advice that they provided. For example, they told us that the mall had many potential kumon students closeby which proved not to be the case. We should have asked for supporting data but we trusted that Kumon was telling us the truth.

We lost lots of money to say the least and are literally still paying to this day. If we had incorporated our business then we could have at least walked away losing nothing greater than all of our corporate owned assets. We just sold our jeep to make a payment to our landlord and we will have to sell a few more family assets before this nightmare is over with.

Everyone please beware of what kumon tells you.

I really don't believe that Kumon employs enough experts in different areas of starting and operating a business in order to truly help their franchisees. We are so disappointed, stressed out and out of.money that I really don't know how we will ever truly recover from this disaster. The lesson is not to trust anything kumon tells you and to go out and seek professional advice. This was, you can potentially avoid a kumon nightmare like we experienced.

I do blame kumon for our troubles more than anyone else. They should have been there supporting us with proper advice and guidance. After all, isn't this their role as a franchisor?

Finally, Kumon never returns our calls anymore. This is a very sad situation for my family all thanks to kumon.

Moss Awa

Everyone on this site should be aware of the fact that Kumon does not require their Instructors to be qualified educators and teachers which is a little known and unspoken fact. Before taking your child or children to a kumon center you should request to see a formal copy of the Instructors educational and teaching qualifications.

Chances are that they will have nothing. Does kumon really just take anyone off the street to teach in their centers. It unfortunately looks that way.

Please spread the word that Kumon Instructors are typically unqualified from a formal teaching standpoint. I would therefore keep my children as far away from a kumon center as possible.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Moss Awa

RTimmons you raise an excellent point which I am.now going to add to my why I hate kumon list:

-Better competitors out there who actually tutor properly versus this independent self learning garbage.

- Competitors and tutors don't only teach math and reading like kumon only does but they also teach languages, science, and the very important test prep.

- Kumon is a joke amongst educators and the academic community. They view kumon as a get rich quick scheme on the part of the company and at the expense of students.

- The Kumon classrooms are often dirty and messy with teenage staff making and eating meals during class which is very unprofessional.

- I have seen many Instructors talking on their cell phone during classroom hours which is very unprofessional. Take your personal calls on your own time and not time that I am paying for! - there is no study showing that Kumon students do better in school versus other students. There is no proof of concept that the kumon method actually works. - Paper worksheets, pencils, and erasers serve to transform a kumon classroom back into the 1950s. I find it ironic that siblings are waiting for their brothers or sisters using their iphones and tablets while their sibling is using pencil and paper. What year are we in? Where is the technology that both parents and students expect these days? Is the kumon product itself so weak that it can only be delivered via paper? Once again, a very questionable value proposition. I could go on and on about how kumon is an absolute joke of a company but I will leave it to you to read what others have to say. I just needed to get my feelings off my mind. One last thing. I give kumon an *** as a company and as a so called learning product.

View more comments (105)
Anonymous

Honest Review from Kumon Assistant Instructor

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
I worked as a part-time assistant in a local Kumon centre for nearly three years. Having seen so many students going through the program, I felt the urge to admit that Kumon just isn't for everyone. While Kumon can be quite helpful in improving children's arithmetic fluency, the strict enforcement of repetition policies and standard completion times are often demotivating to students. I was lucky to have a head instructor who was reasonable enough. She does not repeat worksheets more than 5 times, she does not "downgrade" students for any reason, and she makes sure the assistants explain the work to students in case they do not understand. She jokingly claimed that she was the lone ranger, because in other Kumon centres, instructors would leave students to figure out the maths on their own. When students encounter a stumbling block, most instructors couldn't offer anything more than merely repeating the same worksheets/ more basic material. To make things worse, most instructors do not know maths beyond level J, and instead of working on improving own maths skills, they are more interested in seeking ways to increase their monthly enrollments. It is true that Kumon is a self-learning program, but certain parts of the curriculum are just too difficult that I doubt even 1% of the population on earth was able to solve/comprehend them. As a university student who had never done Kumon before, I would say that I appreciate the higher levels in Kumon a lot. That is probably the main reason I worked with Kumon for three years despite the horrendously low pay. The material/topics covered in Kumon were so difficult to the point where, I felt that my university's Multivariable Calculus AB and Linear Algebra courses were so easy compared to Kumon. As a result, I obtained perfect scores for both courses, and I excelled in other Maths-oriented courses for that year. Imagine a scenario where the lecturer was explaining about factorisation and the factor theorem applied in solving equations with eigenvalues. Everyone in the class seemed puzzled, while you were (probably) the only one who had solved it before the lecturer started writing anything on the board. Imagine another scenario where the lecturer was explaining why (sin x)/x converges to 1 as x approaches zero, while you already learnt the rigorous proof and its applications in Kumon. Imagine another situation where everyone in the class was cracking their head solving a problem on definite integrals, while you immediately knew what substitution trick to use because you had seen a similar problem in Kumon. There were endless scenarios where Kumon had helped me throughout my Maths journey, and perhaps for this one time I have to agree with the power of "rote learning" by Kumon. I know that my opinion is most probably biased, since not everyone wishes to pursue a field in STEM, and would benefit to the same extent as I did. Based on my observation throughout the years, Kumon has been most valuable to students who already have a strong foundation in Maths, especially students who are active participants in Maths competition/contest. Another important consideration is the quality of instructor and assistants in the centre. Listen to what their customers/parents have to say. That is probably the only way to identify if the instructor cares most about your child's learning, or she/he is just a repeat machine. Successful Kumon centres tend to place more focus on students who are doing level J~O, since they understood the importance of addressing the needs of such students. If your child is diligent and independent, and the instructor is flexible (not by the book) and possesses decent maths knowledge, give it a try!
View full review
Anonymous
map-marker Ottawa, Ontario

NEVER SIGN UP

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
Hello, I am a parent of an ex-Kumon child, and I am here to tell you why you should NEVER sign your kids up. First of all, It teaches them nothing. It makes them do repetitive work with problems they don't know how to solve. Also, It costs way too much. My kids walked in for the first time they had no one telling them what to do and had no idea where to go. No one taught them how to do it or where to put their stuff. Terrible.
View full review

User's recommendation: Waste of money

CC o

Just my thoughts

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
I must admit, Kumon DID help me with progressing my math level which helped me in school. However, IT WAS SO STRESSFUL. I ABSOLUTELY HATED their homework system! They gave you homework EVERY SINGLE DAY. They don't give you A SINGLE day off. Not even Christmas! They think we are going to forget everything in one freaking day! Like we don't have memory loss! I'm pretty sure the INSTRUCTORS don't have to worry about that because when it's Christmas or New Year, they can happily relax without thinking about their homework. JUST THINK about us for a change...
View full review

Preferred solution: Change in the homework system??

User's recommendation: EH. If you are young and you don't have a lot of homework from school, go for it but be warned...

Priya D

Teacher Student ratio is not being managed

Hi, My kid studying in Kumon, Adyar, chennai, India. There is no 1 to 1 interaction &;;; there are 8 students per teacher, we need waiting time of 10 minutes to get answer for a query. Franchise owner Deepa Roy is not soft spoken. Please treat this priority that will help students.
View full review

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

Anonymous

Joe Nativo fathered a child with a subordinate staff member

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full

Joe Nativo got a young staff member in SF pregnant. She had the baby.

Joe’s marriage crashed. The lawyer Rob Lichtenstein will have you fired if you dare to bring it up.

View full review
5 comments
Guest

How many children did he father? Can anyone tell me please.

Tell fast. His wife Darryl is my good friend from college

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1794183

Who knows? Do you think about 5-6 babies?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1894180

I was once introduced to him at a Kumon instructor conference as the Jeffrey Epstein.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1794183

When McDonald's canned Stephen Easterbrook as CEO in 2019 for having what he and the company described as a consensual relationship with an employee, the parting was relatively straightforward — and highly lucrative for the ousted CEO, who walked away with a compensation package reportedly worth more than $40 million. Eight months later, the fast-food giant is suing its former chief executive to recoup the money, claiming he had sexual relationships with multiple employees and tried to cover them up.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware, McDonald's accuses Easterbrook of having relationships with an additional three employees in the year before his termination, alleging he "concealed evidence and lied about his wrongdoing." The suit further alleges that Easterbrook approved an extraordinary stock grant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for one of the workers. The company's case against Easterbrook includes dozens of naked or explicit photographs and videos of different women — including some McDonald's employees — that Easterbrook allegedly sent as attachments to his personal email account from his work account in late 2018 or early 2019.

Guest

Old news. We reported this to kumon japan after the u.s.

headquarters didn't do anything.

how many lives does he have? he's already been busted for mishandling funds which includes using royalty fees for call girls in nyc with his japanese bosses.

View more comments (4)
Anonymous
map-marker Lasalle, Quebec

Stress

I've been studying in kumon for most of my life. My parents think it's helping me but honestly it's causing me more stress then help.

My high school's schedule is already packed enough as it is and the additional kumon homework sheets make it even harder for me. My school itself doesn't make me stress, kumon does. Kumon brings me so much more stress than help. I didn't even need math classes, my grades were and still are already high enough as they are.

It's *** because I waste precious time of studying and working by doing stupid kumon i don't even understand how to do. it's utter *** I hate it so much.

I'm responsible enough to know how to do math, THE STAFF DONT EVEN TRY TO HELP ME UNDERSTAND. *** *** It's causing more anxiety than it should.

View full review
Cons:
  • Stress built up on children