Comparing English Enrichment Programmes
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love1001:
I just realised Academia has quietly increased its fee? I thought it used to be much cheaper than TLL but now 4 lessons at Academia is $320 versus TLL $420 (both charge 7% GST).sky minecrafter:
[quote=\"Bochapmum3\"]Recall that some time back, there was some discussion on Academia English tuition at Sin Ming. Just to share, recently I check out their P6 classes, and was told that max class size is 16-18. Most of their weekend classes are full, while weekday classes have around 13-14 students. Hmm, thought these class size is pretty huge considering their fees are not exactly cheap at about $80/lesson including GST…
Hi, thank you for sharing. Yes, I'd agree that 18 is big, even for P6, unless there is a teaching assistant(?). A good size would be ~10 (jmo) for a crucial year or even 15 (if there are no students who require more attention from the tutor). My dd has attended one with 12-15 students, & it was a not-fruitful experience even for P1 (with a class of serious learners). The tutor could not mark properly, for instance - there was a chunk of writing which the tutor marked out as irrelevant, & though I personally picked up that piece of work from her, she did not have time to give me her feedback. Now, I'd need to read that lesson's materials & figure out what had gone wrong...
Academia class size is huge almost 20 students as compare to TLL about 13 students. Not all classes have 2 tutors assigned at Academia though same tuition fee applies.
DD1 feedback the class size is too big (classroom is small so it is quite cramp, kind of uncomfortable) and at times, too noisy. She is not benefiting much from the tuition but will still stay put till PSLE. As for DD2, because she is currently in P5, I am now looking at other options, preferably a smaller group tuition similar to HCL. Not more than 10 students per class.
At upper primary, I think smaller group tuition work best due to more personalised attention, at least it works for my girls. After switching over to HCL, both their Chinese grades improved after about 2 terms.[/quote]Hi, my boy also in p5 in the sat 2pm class. Which class is your girl in? Have you seen improvements so far in both your kids after joining academia? -
zav_zay:
Hi, no improvement at all! Now with the exploded class size, I am praying hard that her results do not drop further.
Hi, my boy also in p5 in the sat 2pm class. Which class is your girl in? Have you seen improvements so far in both your kids after joining academia?
My p6 is in weekend class but p5 in weekday class. Planning to pull out my p5 (will wait for her mid year results) at end of term 2 but p6 will stay put as it is not a good idea to change tuition centre at this point.
For my p5, I feel I am being overcharged for paying a tutor who is only an assistant teacher in other classes. There is only 1 tutor assigned to her class. Furthermore that tutor is not even an ex-sch teacher or posses convincing credential, ok to be an assistant teacher but not as the main and only teacher. -
My friend recently asked me about Academia too. Are you able to provide more info on their lessons are like? Previously my son went to a tuition centre nearby called Ace Clinic Education, so my friend wanted more info to compare. Any info would be helpful!
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Academia fees for P6 has increased by another $10/lesson.
In P5, I started paying $70/lesson, then they started to charge GST sometime last year. End Dec 2018,I was told P6 fee is $75/lesson. Come fern 2, the billing becomes $85/lesson. I was told they have actually increased since term 1, but since I paid early for term 1; they did not ‘bother’ to bill me the difference. I expressed my unhappiness about such sneakiness, was told that this increase is necessary because they have 2 Teachers in the class now. Which is also an excuse since even in the much smaller class size last year, they also have an assistant teacher around… -
As I understand, all the while there is an assistant teacher in the class (and smaller class size too), not only now. They should be transparent to parents about the fee increase, not just quietly adjust in the invoice and for parents to find out.
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Learning Lab will also just reflect the increase in its invoice. There is usually no notification to an increase in fees. I guess they all do that? Because it seems a lot of work to write letters to each family to inform everyone about the increase?
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At least, learning lab published its tuition fee on the website, very detailed by level and subject. Parents are well aware the fees they need to pay for the Academic Year.
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Yes that is true, but then they also only started publishing the fees in the recent years. When we started with TLL many years ago (before they were sold), the website did not have much info also. Most tuition centers dont publish their fees online.
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I think this centre is best for a certain type of parent/student. DD was pushed to become consistently top of her class and she has been with under one of the directors for 2 years now. In fact I am very grateful and can see the care and concern when I talk to her teachers. Her main rival in school has just joined this year too and now in all the same tuition centres, ha. For Chinese, we are with HCL and no complaints either. unfortunately Chinese is not her strong suit. TLL for Science as DD love their materials and experiments. Maths is with X Factor.
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Hi joycu,
I presume you joined Academia before this year? Do you also find that your DD’s class size has ballooned a lot this year, and is your DD or you bothered by this change? TBH, since this year, my child has expressed some negativism towards Academia lesson since this year due to the large class size (perhaps too used to the small and cosy class size last year). However I do not know where else is a good place to switch to since it is just 6 more months to PSLE. Last week of the term this week…still in dilemma to stop or continue…
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