This paper explores empirical findings regarding educational stakeholders’ perspectives across all countries on pupils’ individual characteristics related and contributing to the use of PT. Until recently, the importance of pupils’ individual characteristics has often been overlooked in PT research. The aim of this paper is to present stakeholders’ perspectives on the way cognitive abilities and personality traits of pupils contribute to PT use. Findings indicate that the varied cognitive abilities of pupils are strongly related to PT use. Another group of pupils that appear to make large use of PT services are those whose personality traits hamper learning at regular schools. Arguably, the lack of attention to the individual differences between pupils in mainstream education is a core driving factor behind PT use for both groups. In all contexts, use of private tutors is the only available way of keeping on track with the learning pace required in mainstream system. Therefore, parents choose to hire a private tutor to make learning more individualised and pupil-centred. This paper will conclude by exploring possible strategies for providing a higher degree of individualisation in mainstream teaching approaches, thus reducing the need for PT.