Need for tuition reflects school woes
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I refer to last Sunday's article, 'Tuition fee subsidies for the needy'.
It seems to me that the intention of establishing the Community Tuition Fee Subsidy Scheme is to provide additional academic assistance for students outside of the formal education system.
While I applaud this effort, I wonder if this measure actually allows us to address the root cause of the situation - the quality of education in schools.
I acknowledge that in a minority of cases, the extra help from tuition lessons is necessary as some students genuinely need more time to learn.
However, the need for tutoring outside of formal education could also point to either the schools or the students themselves being inadequately equipped to fulfil their roles.
If the problem lies with the school system, a better solution would be to target the issues that teachers have been raising for years, such as reducing the student-teacher ratio from the current 40:1 to a more manageable 20:1.
Alternatively, having later school starting times to give students more time to rest could result in greater attentiveness in class, as studies have shown.
If it is the case of students being inadequately equipped, then they and their parents could consider alternatives to formal education.
For example, students could consider home schooling, or even taking 'gap years' - an extended time-out from school.
The Community Tuition Fee Subsidy Scheme should not be seen as the be-all and end-all of our education woes.
Rather, the stakeholders in education - students, parents, educators and policymakers - should be proactively exploring ways to improve, or provide alternatives to, formal education in Singapore.
This will definitely be a better way to use our financial resources in the current downturn.http://news.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090413-135068.html
Sigh... same views as me for the following sentence... and I have said that long ago in this forum...
However, the need for tutoring outside of formal education could also point to either the schools or the students themselves being inadequately equipped to fulfil their roles.
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the phenomena of the tuition rage in singapore is not just about the `gaps' in the quality of education. in most instances, singapore would probably rank highly as having as good an education system anywhere in the world both in terms of mindware and hardware.
it is also about the uneccessary focus on exam grades as a main determinant of success in one's education life; peer pressure amongst parents and school friends, the kind of competitive learning environment instilled by the government coupled with the early `boxing' of students in their early formative education lives where the so-called `good' are seperated from the `averages'. all these fans the fervour towards tuition as a `solution' to solve the `big singapore education puzzle'. kiasu parents hence would rely on tuition as a major filler to any gaps that their children have on their school subjects for they know too, if you don't do well in singapore, they is no future for them. and there is no way out for most of them. overseas education or private/foreign school education in singapore is not an economic options to most of us.
my sis-in-law(sil) has a psle son last year. that chap is bright no doubt, but he (still) has to endure tuitions 4 days a week for a year last year, including double science and maths tuitions to drill him into shape in time for his psle. this is not helped by my sil telling everyone she meets that her son aspires to go to nus high school. i am not sure if this is his aspiration or hers. when the results was out late last year, alas, his grades were not good enough (for nus high school) and he has to settle for a neighbourhood school near where he lives. i was told by my wife that the parents were devastated. however, i think it is a great load of pressure off the poor kid's shoulder. he didn't do all too badly but obviously not up to the lofty expectations of his parents. i still think he will do well later in his life.
singapore is still stuck with the `sweat and toil' mentality. the reality of it is so much mobility that if the singapoe govt so craves for smart people, they will come if the condition and price is right. in fact, singapore's immigration policy is already in the mode of readily admiting talents. so, there is no need to over-do its education policy where younger singaporeans go to school not to get a life's education, but to fulfill a government's agenda. the kids should be able to enjoy their education in their formative years(primary and secondary), and if there are genuises in the midst, i am sure they will surface in good time for them to be groomed to their fullest potential.
in that respect, i think tuition is over-glorified in singapore.
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Tuition is pretty much useless anyway. The bright ones can learn themselves while the hopeless ones are, well, hopeless.
anyway redDust, interesting story! funny how that person thought that giving her child intensive tuition can get him into NUS high school. don't think it works that way lah.
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Originally posted by crimson soldier:
Tuition is pretty much useless anyway. The bright ones can learn themselves while the hopeless ones are, well, hopeless.
anyway redDust, interesting story! funny how that person thought that giving her child intensive tuition can get him into NUS high school. don't think it works that way lah.
Tuition is not useless yet because the school education system is insufficient. Tuition helps the bright ones learn even faster (that's where the advantage lies) and the not so good ones better off.
In Singapore, it's all about speed and efficiency. In that sense, tuition fits in by accelerating the student's path to achieve his/her potential.
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Originally posted by eagle:
Tuition is not useless yet because the school education system is insufficient. Tuition helps the bright ones learn even faster (that's where the advantage lies) and the not so good ones better off.
In Singapore, it's all about speed and efficiency. In that sense, tuition fits in by accelerating the student's path to achieve his/her potential.
In short, tuition is like a catalyst. Without it, you still can reach the ending point (results), but slower. With it, you can reach it faster. -
I belong to those who seek for tuition to assist in my studies. Being one of the slower kids in class, just by listening to the teachers and doing their homeworks were insufficient. In fact all the As that I've ahieved so far, I dare to say it was the hardwork of my tutor and I. This applies to most of my friends and classmates too.
What I could say is that, yes, the school system seriously need to be change. To be changed to what, I've haven't got a pretty good idea. Right now from what I feel, the school is just providing the curriculum and backbone of the education, the filling up would then be done by the tutors should parents be able to afford. So actually this scheme is good in a way that students will still be able to benefit from it, however, not to the root of the problem yet.
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Originally posted by TYING:
I belong to those who seek for tuition to assist in my studies. Being one of the slower kids in class, just by listening to the teachers and doing their homeworks were insufficient. In fact all the As that I've ahieved so far, I dare to say it was the hardwork of my tutor and I. This applies to most of my friends and classmates too.
What I could say is that, yes, the school system seriously need to be change. To be changed to what, I've haven't got a pretty good idea. Right now from what I feel, the school is just providing the curriculum and backbone of the education, the filling up would then be done by the tutors should parents be able to afford. So actually this scheme is good in a way that students will still be able to benefit from it, however, not to the root of the problem yet.
But not all students can afford tutors
In the end, if we continue on with this system in the long term, there might be a deeper social divide...
Dunno leh... I just feel like saying these even though I teach a lot of tuition
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Originally posted by eagle:
But not all students can afford tutors
In the end, if we continue on with this system in the long term, there might be a deeper social divide...
Dunno leh... I just feel like saying these even though I teach a lot of tuition
Haha, true.
In the mean time, tuition still must be there for those slower ones to chase up to those brighter ones and be on par with them (me)
Maybe what they can do is to do an individual assessment of all students before they enter school and group them into classes of their individual pace, then coach them from there. Might require more resources, but who knows, might benefit everyone in the long run as each child finds their own potential?
haa, just my two cents worth of comments. =)
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Originally posted by TYING:
Haha, true.
In the mean time, tuition still must be there for those slower ones to chase up to those brighter ones and be on par with them (me)
Maybe what they can do is to do an individual assessment of all students before they enter school and group them into classes of their individual pace, then coach them from there. Might require more resources, but who knows, might benefit everyone in the long run as each child finds their own potential?
haa, just my two cents worth of comments. =)
I think they're already doing with that the streaming at P4/PSLE/Pure Science Stream/O Levels/A Levels.The problem is the resources are being allocated to the better students, not the poor ones. Of course, the American forums i frequent says that it merely forces everyone to a mean (meaning smarter students are made dumber).
Wasn't there a news article regarding a mix up with class allocation in a British school where the poor performing students are tagged as the best class and vice versa? Ended up the lousier students actually did better.
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Originally posted by Stevenson101:
I think they're already doing with that the streaming at P4/PSLE/Pure Science Stream/O Levels/A Levels.The problem is the resources are being allocated to the better students, not the poor ones. Of course, the American forums i frequent says that it merely forces everyone to a mean (meaning smarter students are made dumber).
Wasn't there a news article regarding a mix up with class allocation in a British school where the poor performing students are tagged as the best class and vice versa? Ended up the lousier students actually did better.
woah, do you still have the article or what about the British school. lol. I wasn't aware of this. =)
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Originally posted by TYING:
woah, do you still have the article or what about the British school. lol. I wasn't aware of this. =)
Well don't quote me on this. I only remembered reading that article, but whether it's true or not i wasn't too sure. -
Hi,
Interestingly, our education minister was being interviewed (on TV in 'Good Morning Singapore') and he questioned about the use of marks in assessment which merely ranks students rather than provide specific feedback on areas for improvement.
Thanks!
Cheers,
Wen Shih -
Besides just helping the students improve, i would say these days there are parents who hire tutors just to have someone to oversee their kids and make them study for an extra few hrs each week which would otherwise be spent on play. Most kids and even up to sec sch or even jc might not really bother too much about their results and are happy to just scrap through which is what makes their parents worry quite alot.
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on another hand, consider abt the workload of teachers concerned. I had a lot of remedial in other subjects (i had maths tuition outside school at that time) during my secondary school days.
The ironic thing is this, spend too much time in school (remedial, and stuff), parents complain student go home late. Spend too little time in school, parents say school are not doing enough and therefore sending their kids to tuition.
As i said, mindset of parents must be CORRECT from the start. I understand that different parents have different expectations of their children. But if the children can cope and do better than their peers WITHOUT tuition, then why send the kids to tuition? My brother did not even need any tuition since young and he did very well in his A-level examination.
Heard of law of diminishing marginal returns?
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Originally posted by dkcx:
Besides just helping the students improve, i would say these days there are parents who hire tutors just to have someone to oversee their kids and make them study for an extra few hrs each week which would otherwise be spent on play. Most kids and even up to sec sch or even jc might not really bother too much about their results and are happy to just scrap through which is what makes their parents worry quite alot.
I would say this is a bit of overgeneralisation.When there are as many students just wanting to scrape, get it over and done with, there are also many students who strive and work very hard to achieve good results.
The key is, when the kid is already doing relatively well, more tuitions are pushed to the kid and giving a lot of unnecessary stress when the time could be given to him or her to relax and catch a breath.
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PARENTS all kiasu lo
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Originally posted by hiphop2009:
I would say this is a bit of overgeneralisation.When there are as many students just wanting to scrape, get it over and done with, there are also many students who strive and work very hard to achieve good results.
The key is, when the kid is already doing relatively well, more tuitions are pushed to the kid and giving a lot of unnecessary stress when the time could be given to him or her to relax and catch a breath.
I would say some of the tuition my friends and i are taking now are such people. The parents made it clear that they just want us to try our best and if their children don't want to work hard, theres nothing much they or I can do but they hope that during the few hrs spent each week, their child can manage to learn and remember abit and hopefully 'wakeup'
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as a student, i never had a tutor to guide me along....
now as a tutor, i see that students are not even proficient with the basic requirements of certain topics and it scares me actually.
a student of mine doesnt know how to convert no. of moles to mass and vice versa. sometimes i feel like asking, "what do you learn in school?" (mind you, he is in the same sec sch as i was in & i know who his teachers are) but of course i don't it's too rude.
even in sec sch, abt half of my classmates have tuition. i made it a point not to have tuition as i didnt want to add financial burden to my parents. but what benefits do i see in them who have tuition? i only see that one, they do more questions(so i made it a point to do even more at home)... two, they study certain topics way ahead than what is thought in school hence make a lot of noise when a school teacher is introducing the topic to us non-tuition students.
though i do teach tuition and enjoy the economic benefits there is, i feel that tuition should not one day be commonplace with all students. if it is, something is wrong somewhere. parents/students should know that school education alone should be enough for a good education and schools should deliver this education well. -
I didn't have tuition in JC as well... but most of my students are JC students -.-"
Anyway... for me, most of my students asked for tuition themselves... They wanted it to catch up (and their parents can afford it well)... Perhaps the part that parents are adding more stress to the students by making them go for tuition does not fully apply to my students :D
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I don't know is it me or what, somehow I only started to come across people who have tuitions only when I'm of my age now, or to know that there are actually JC tuitions etc. (I'm ignorant I know.
)When I was in secondary school or JC, I didn't really notice that there were actually people around me who attended tuition. I have never heard of my friend has tuition class after school or what.
So when sinicker said that half of his classmates have tuition, I'm a bit shocked actually.
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if tution is so good or a need....
why dun they offer that in school....
wait... isnt school a all in one center created to cater for all our education need?
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Originally posted by EarlNeo:
if tution is so good or a need....
why dun they offer that in school....
wait... isnt school a all in one center created to cater for all our education need?
Well, they have. Free rememdial lessons.But if you want teachers to stay in the evening to teach, the school must be willing to pay. Afterall, teachers are also 8am-6pm worker.
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Originally posted by d3sT1nY:
Well, they have. Free rememdial lessons.But if you want teachers to stay in the evening to teach, the school must be willing to pay. Afterall, teachers are also 8am-6pm worker.
if have...
why are parent still forcing their kids to take up more tution?
too much money?
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Originally posted by d3sT1nY:
Well, they have. Free rememdial lessons.But if you want teachers to stay in the evening to teach, the school must be willing to pay. Afterall, teachers are also 8am-6pm worker.
U think ah
Teachers are not paid to stay longer, as most govt jobs. And teachers hv to be in sch by 7am, not 8am.
Furthermore, with so many other admin things to do, also CCAs and sai kang projects to take care off, teachers commonly work till 12 midnight daily.
Thing is, students only see what they can see, but don't think of the amount of work teachers have to put in behind the scenes.
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Originally posted by eagle:
I didn't have tuition in JC as well... but most of my students are JC students -.-"
Anyway... for me, most of my students asked for tuition themselves... They wanted it to catch up (and their parents can afford it well)... Perhaps the part that parents are adding more stress to the students by making them go for tuition does not fully apply to my students :D
Its good to find students who are willing to learn on their own since that solves alot of discipline and attitude problems you get from them. I only get such students when i give volunteery tuition. Most of the jobs you can get from tuition agencies are parents who requested the tuition which normally means the child is less than cooperative at times...
Originally posted by d3sT1nY:I don't know is it me or what, somehow I only started to come across people who have tuitions only when I'm of my age now, or to know that there are actually JC tuitions etc. (I'm ignorant I know.
)When I was in secondary school or JC, I didn't really notice that there were actually people around me who attended tuition. I have never heard of my friend has tuition class after school or what.
So when sinicker said that half of his classmates have tuition, I'm a bit shocked actually.
The times u were in sec sch is very different from now and alot have changed even if its just a matter of 5-10 yrs. The school you are in might also have effects since in the past tuition is more for the weaker students but these days even top school students are requring tuition because they are afraid of lossing out to their peers.
Originally posted by EarlNeo:if have...
why are parent still forcing their kids to take up more tution?
too much money?
Extra lessons in school will almost always be group base and parents pay for tuition so that their child can get private attention and have someone to plan the lesson base on the capabilities of their child and not the level of the entire group/class