Can we bring our students' learning away from tuition?

[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!!

[coast]

Chenonceau:

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.

:thankyou:

I guess in my ernest wish that a system could be put in place to ensure schools teach enough following limlim's suggestion (which I did say it is a good idea), I was playing too much of a devil's advocate to the loopholes (as I feel MOE will not implement unless loopholes can be somewhat addressed).

I also don't think we can track parental help ... and in a way we cannot really track private tuition (e.g., people will just say it's cousins, uncles, neighbours, friends etc helping ...) haha

[buds]

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.

Well yep... ideally if MOE just publishes the textbooks and resources/materials and not independent publishers... good. A wee far-fetched for now but i am optimistic it can be done by employing curriculum specialists. I used to furnish ideas and worksheets for the organization i worked with and their syllabus and worksheets are pretty much auto-run now plus children are sufficiently (if not more) prepared for primary school education and i'm not referring to just P1.

Since no one is perfect, yes.. no school CAN be perfect. The head of the school must also have THE drive to motivate and to INSPIRE his/her teachers to strive for the school's vision.. For those who just stay in their offices.. and have the do-not-disturb me look i.e. closed-door-policy.. or any problem attack my frontline staff first hor... :roll: aiyaah.. :slapshead: .. no comment dy lar. Say oso sianz... sigh..

From what i've learnt through the girls' teachers is that... they periodically have to attend workshops that the school organizes or external companies the school engages to share new/creative stuff for the teachers. NIE also calls upon (in phases) their teachers to attend workshops that covers new things implemented in the school syllabus/curriculum, cos they say there are always new things coming up so new things to learn. In a way, they find it helpful and refreshing as it helps them teach their students from a different angle/method that could help stray from boring textbook material.

[Chenonceau]

coast:

I guess in my ernest wish that a system could be put in place to ensure schools teach enough following limlim's suggestion (which I did say it is a good idea), I was playing too much of a devil's advocate to the loopholes (as I feel MOE will not implement unless loopholes can be somewhat addressed).

A wee misunderstanding all around. Words got in the way.

[SlimShady]

Well said, but isn't it disgusting to see parents forgetting the joy of bringing up happy children but instead join the rat race and in doing so putting their kids under this tremendous pressure for the self satisfaction of the parents. Basically the parents want to brag about the kids and be praised on how they have done well to bringing up such intelligent kids. But are these kids street smart? Do they have the necessary EQ to outperform the others holistically? Kiasu Parents ask yourself, do you want happy children or just intelligent ones? A happy child will enjoy the learning process..............


It really saddens me to see our children these days. They do not know how to play!

Joule:

yes, we can bring our students learning away from tuition WHEN

1) grade inflation has stopped and is under control

but grade inflation is but a result of parental 'kiasu-ness' (which is why you are here, no?)

also, in an increasing competitive nation (with more FT kiddos coming in), how do your kids stand out? isn't it to study harder and hopefully become a chicken essence kiddo?

basically, in parent's hearts, I think deep down they still have this ancient china imperial examination mindset. the best and brightest become officials and get to serve the emperor.... wonder who the emperor is going to be, this time....

if marks were not the issue, tuition centres would go out of business.
so being kiasu parents, they subscribe to more tuition, more homework, more enrichment.....more grades...which means scholarship, become an elite official / civil servant and live happily ever after.....