Can we bring our students' learning away from tuition?

[Chenonceau]

buds:

Now... if we can go back to the thread header and direction... \"Can we bring our students' learning away from tuition?\" The answer is YES. Most issues raised by some parents are honestly (in my opinion) teacher and school subjective. Not every school or their teachers are the types who don't teach or don't distribute sufficient (or extras?) materials beyond school texts or syllabus.


My girls have attended two different schools. Both neighborhood. Both ONz and both schools had/have teachers with exemplary passion and commitment for their work and the well-being (EQ) and potential (IQ) of their students.

The previous school gave a lot of notes for parents information and also different set of notes for the children. Where parents have the time to read and assist go ahead, whilst the others who may not have time to go thru the materials, at least for being informed bah.

The current school starts Supplementary Classes at P3 level. Classes conducted after curriculum hours. Yes, while they do state attendance is compulsory... exceptions can be made case-by-case basis.

When i asked the direction the school is taking and whether it is a tad kiasu to start like so early in P3... the teacher answered... early preparation and to help develop or instill a child's interest in the subjects beyond classroom-whiteboard settings. Plus also to prep the child for the demands of upper primary syllabus so they won't feel overwhelmed as they move up levels. Finally, the school's vision is also in the hope that teachers (in this school) can teach children enough or perhaps even extra... so that children can enjoy their remaining afternoons for rest or play and so parents DO NOT HAVE TO TURN TO TUITION.

That said however, (the teacher continued).... if parents still want to outsource for extra external help, it is a matter of personal/individual choice. As a whole, we KNOW we prepare our children well.

Well, what can i say....

Nothing.

I was impressed :please: and i signed the form :D...
Except for the days my children have external lessons... i.e.. aesthetic ones (non-academic.... YET... :nail bite:... the rest of the days, they attend supplementary happily.

Why happily? Cos they learn fun things during supplementary lessons... which should be so.... since the word supplementary means to supplement the current syllabus offered in other creative ways that can engage children. Just to cite one example... After the first 3 weeks of Maths Supplementary, the students organized a Maths Fair/Carnival with Math games they have come up with during supplementary lessons to share with all their other schoolmates; that they have discussed with their group members or partners and guaranteed to add fun to learning the different Math concepts.

Kudos to the school! :celebrate:

You should name this school. Such school deserves public recognition so that other schools will be encouraged to follow suit. I won't name my DS' school because I have little nice to say ever since he got into P5. Name the school and give it the recognition it deserves. But... only if you feel comfy lah...

My son's P3 and P4 Teacher was the absolute BEST. I miss her sooooooooooooooo much.

[Nebbermind]

maybe some schools are not so ONz coz they have affilated sec school and fear losing their top brains to others schools...so help majority of them to get T-score of 240~255 would be good enough!!

[coast]

limlim:

coast:

So say MOE goes ahead and do ONLY the above .. and penalise the schools by % of students having tuition by ONLY those who attend enrichment/ tuition centres. But it might not work (nor fair) because we are only \"regulating\" centres without considering private tuition or extensive parent coaching. In other words, parents should have a choice if they feel that the schools are not teaching well ... be it sending their kids for centres, private tutor, own coaching, ... We cannot \"regulate\" ONLY the centres thinking this will serve the objective of making schools teach better.

ok, perhaps the way I put it doesn't sounds right..

Or I put it in another way. Tracking tuition centers is the first step to collect data.. and maybe advises the schools accordingly. It is purely for feedback and statistics.. there should be no penalty yet as it is not very fair.

Next, tuition industry can be regulated in the sense that all tutors must register with MOE. Thereafter, some ways can be devised for the tutors to submit data to MOE.

After monitoring the data and trends, and covers all commercial aspects of the tuition industry, the ministry can then decide whether to implement some measures to curb the trend, such as penalties/rewards. This can be in the form of increasing/decreasing funding etc..

The reason why I suggested all these is mainly influenced by 1 of the posts.. where the school commented that \"they don't have to teach so much bcoz most of the students got tuition/enrichment classes\".. I feel the schools that are guilty of such practices/phenomenon should really be given a wake up call..

The only loophole, if any, would be SAHM. But that is only a small % considering many parents here are struggling to make ends meet. And, I doubt any school would cry foul bcoz the school at the other side of the road has got more students whose parent stay at home to coach their kids..

:goodpost:

Thanks for explaining.

My earlier post was just to point out that there are loopholes if we only track the tuition centres since if the schools are still not teaching enough, SOME parents (being discouraged by schools to send their kids to tuition) will feel it is unfair if CERTAIN parents (yes small %) can AFFORD to quit full time to coach their kids. I am not referring to parents in general who become SAHM due to various factors which has nothing to do with this topic. Is this clear? :? I should have used my words better to relay my point. My apologies :imsorry:

[buds]

Name the school and risk being identified? :yikes:


:siam:

Yes, as much as i am itching to declare these gems of neighbourhood schools and their wonderful wonderful teachers so that they get the recognition they deserve..... i believe they already know how committed they are to their teaching purpose.

I constantly give the different teachers teaching my children the credit they deserve. They say that parents' affirmation and appreciation goes a long way and that pat on the back keeps them wanting to do more for the children/students.

Most have hubs' and my number on their mobile phonebook. A couple of us text one another like frenz, but still maintain teacher-parent relationship as professional measure. Never underestimate too, the good rapport with school teachers. You understand and appreciate their work & they in turn take real good care of your children. :grphug:

[Chenonceau]

coast:

limlim:

[quote=\"coast\"]
So say MOE goes ahead and do ONLY the above .. and penalise the schools by % of students having tuition by ONLY those who attend enrichment/ tuition centres. But it might not work (nor fair) because we are only \"regulating\" centres without considering private tuition or extensive parent coaching. In other words, parents should have a choice if they feel that the schools are not teaching well ... be it sending their kids for centres, private tutor, own coaching, ... We cannot \"regulate\" ONLY the centres thinking this will serve the objective of making schools teach better.

ok, perhaps the way I put it doesn't sounds right..

Or I put it in another way. Tracking tuition centers is the first step to collect data.. and maybe advises the schools accordingly. It is purely for feedback and statistics.. there should be no penalty yet as it is not very fair.

Next, tuition industry can be regulated in the sense that all tutors must register with MOE. Thereafter, some ways can be devised for the tutors to submit data to MOE.

After monitoring the data and trends, and covers all commercial aspects of the tuition industry, the ministry can then decide whether to implement some measures to curb the trend, such as penalties/rewards. This can be in the form of increasing/decreasing funding etc..

The reason why I suggested all these is mainly influenced by 1 of the posts.. where the school commented that \"they don't have to teach so much bcoz most of the students got tuition/enrichment classes\".. I feel the schools that are guilty of such practices/phenomenon should really be given a wake up call..

The only loophole, if any, would be SAHM. But that is only a small % considering many parents here are struggling to make ends meet. And, I doubt any school would cry foul bcoz the school at the other side of the road has got more students whose parent stay at home to coach their kids..

:goodpost:

Thanks for explaining.

My earlier post was just to point out that there are loopholes if we only track the tuition centres since if the schools are still not teaching enough, SOME parents (being discouraged by schools to send their kids to tuition) will feel it is unfair if CERTAIN parents (yes small %) can AFFORD to quit full time to coach their kids. I am not referring to parents in general who become SAHM due to various factors which has nothing to do with this topic. Is this clear? :? I should have used my words better to relay my point. My apologies :imsorry:[/quote]Is ok lah :hugs: ... I did get your point. But I also did get the point by limlim that the aim was to put in a measure to ensure that schools test what they do teach (or give resources for)... and not what they don't.

So I kept quiet.

Your point was quite clear to me because I had followed the discussion for sometime. I kinda wondered how one could track parental help though... I say my son has no tuition but I do give help by providing a lot of resources.

[buds]

limlim:

The only loophole, if any, would be SAHM. But that is only a small % considering many parents here are struggling to make ends meet. And, I doubt any school would cry foul bcoz the school at the other side of the road has got more students whose parent stay at home to coach their kids..

Wah seh... another :goodpost:.

Psst limlim... your posts here make sense as compared to your other posts i've followed.

[Chenonceau]

buds:

Not every school or their teachers are the types who don't teach or don't distribute sufficient (or extras?) materials beyond school texts or syllabus.

If 10%... 20%... 30%... 40% of schools don't distribute sufficient resources to cover what they test (so not extras but needed to pass exams), does it become a system problem then? How large a percentage of low performing schools is systemic?

Even if only 1% of schools don't distribute sufficient resources, it does mean a few hundred students a year. No one expects all schools to be perfect. It is a sign of a robust system to have redundancies and contingencies. Hence, if textbooks were more comprehensive, it would go some way to help students in the 1% of schools which aren't well run... without them having to turn to tuition.

[buds]

Nebbermind:

maybe some schools are not so ONz coz they have affilated sec school and fear losing their top brains to others schools...so help majority of them to get T-score of 240~255 would be good enough!!

:rotflmao: Liddat say oso can arh!

[Chenonceau]

buds:

limlim:

The only loophole, if any, would be SAHM. But that is only a small % considering many parents here are struggling to make ends meet. And, I doubt any school would cry foul bcoz the school at the other side of the road has got more students whose parent stay at home to coach their kids..

Wah seh... another :goodpost:.

Psst limlim... your posts here make sense as compared to your other posts i've followed.

Yeah!! Limlim is a BRAIN!!

[Chenonceau]

buds:

Nebbermind:

maybe some schools are not so ONz coz they have affilated sec school and fear losing their top brains to others schools...so help majority of them to get T-score of 240~255 would be good enough!!

:rotflmao: Liddat say oso can arh!

No lah... my DS no name school has no affiliation. Can say brand name good. Can say neighbourhood also good. I've come across really good brand name and really good neighbourhood too... Unfortunately for my DS... Sob!!