Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition
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BeContented:
So eliminate ALL forms of selection?
Getting passionate teachers is something that MOE can't really control..limlim:
[quote=\"BeContented\"]
I often wonder......
So how do we get motivated teachers? And in the great number that we require for the education system to teach smaller classes?
Sometimes I will equate teachers to the ministers......one needs the 'passion to serve'. But how many of such people are around, still around? Passion = cannot increase pay/selfless/sacrifice......but how many can sustain such passion for long term?
Can you? Have you been 'serving/sacrificing' for your passion esp. for others?
I can't. I dun have the ability. I have not. And neither have I been teaching my kids to have this selfless/serve the nations value system. :oops:
So I :salute: those who are willing to do it.
:siam: :siam:
However, settings standards is something within their control.
What I feel is, the school should test what their teachings can deliver. If they cannot teach so much, don't test so much.
So what if 90% of the students got an \"A\". It simply means 90% can absorb what was taught and apply according.
The problem with the current \"elitist\" education system is, they not want to just make sure the students are \"educated\", but rather, they try to single out the \"elites\" from the average.. hereby creating a rat-race situation where everyone tries to be in front of the race, and employing whatever help or advantage that they can lay their hands on.. such as enrichment classes.
If their aim is to educate the nation, then, as long as the student can manage what was taught, they can score 100% (for e.g.). And, if the parents find their kids can score 100%, why would they spend extra on tuition if their kid is 1 of the 20 or so \"100 marks students\" in a class? with this system, the need for tuition would disappear by itself.
Teach what is necessary. Test what is taught.
100% = no need for tuition?
Sorry, but I seriously do not believe so. I have kid in lousy school, when DS score 100% for P6 SA1 maths + a few others....my first thot was paper too easy. Teacher confirmed that the standard was not pegged to PSLE to make kids happy. Yap, kids happy but parents?? All you'll hear from parents are
- paper easy so results not realistic/reflective, must do difficult paper ie. top school paper etc. (why do you think top school papers are such a top-seller??)
I also know some other top students....who score >95% but yet tuition all 4 subjects...cos' paper easy mah but yet never get 100% plus sooooo many others also score so well.
Every year the top students from P1-4/5 apply for transfer to better schools ie. schools that set difficult exams = higher standard.
Every year, loads of parents (some exceptions of course) die die must try to send their children into these top schools irregardless of distance despite knowing the school sets tough exams.
Ironical ?? :roll:limlim:
Ummmm. Either rid of ALL means of identifying or the vicious cycle will just continue. As long as there is any chance of being 'better'.....parents will find means to put/squeeze/force/train their kids for such programmes. Just look at GEP....
Maybe, they can offer additional subjects/papers to identify gifted students. But these subjects/papers would not be factored into secondary school or university admission. Something like \"S\" paper for A levels. You can leverage on it for scholarships etc.. but it is not taken into account for university admission.
Guess I'm one of the broken record with a minority view.
Will try to revert back to be a silent reader........
[/quote] :goodpost:
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Melodies:
Hello!Hi Imami,
Which sec school they are in now? Do they attend tuition class now? Did they attend any tuition class during primary school?
They are in one ip in the very western part of sg. I thought I better not name the school... Since they are not my children.
They don't attend tuition at all, not since pri1. But both had at least one enrichment class during primary school years. One is piano and the other is math. -
It’s hard to get people to be teachers…it’s even harder to keep them with such long hours of teaching/marking books with a pathetic pay. Not to forget,
HODs constantly breathe down their necks with targets.
Singaporean parents are obsessed with tuition bcos we cannot do without tutors. Regarding this issue of testing what is taught in school. Schools cannot even teach the basic ‘skeleton’. How can students build on what is taught at home? How can students pass school exams?
Everyone is hard pressed for time. -
It puzzles me. Each child spends about 5 hrs per day x 5 days = 25 hrs per week in school. 25 divided by 4 and that is 6.25 hrs per subject per week. They spend an average of less than 2 hrs per subject per week for tuition. Yet the impact from tuition is so great. Something is very wrong with the school environment or the teaching method.
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I guess we all spend a lot of time tutoring or kids at home. I certainly do.
I am shocked at one thing though. I get the feeling, frm recent posts, that Singapore educaton success is mostly attributable to out of school tutoring rather than the perceived quality of your schools. Am I right? I thought your schools were world-class. -
optimistforum:
.... I get the feeling, frm recent posts, that Singapore educaton success is mostly attributable to out of school tutoring rather than the perceived quality of your schools. Am I right? ....
An average kid (quite hardworking) without tuition or supplementary exercises from parents will be very lucky to get 220 in PSLE, generally will be less than 210. Any normal playful kid without tuition or supplementary exercises from parents is guaranteed 200 and below. Relevant extra work is definitely needed to achieve 240 and above. Perhaps tutors know better in what is relevant. My figures are from \"thin air\". -
optimistforum:
you have heard of the \"silent majority\" and hence what you hear is from the minorityI guess we all spend a lot of time tutoring or kids at home. I certainly do.
I am shocked at one thing though. I get the feeling, frm recent posts, that Singapore educaton success is mostly attributable to out of school tutoring rather than the perceived quality of your schools. Am I right? I thought your schools were world-class.
of course there will people who will say they are too busy to complain about the education system in Singapore
by the way, we are a nation of complaint kings/queens
people tend to lump together \"tuition\" and \"enrichment\" which are by definition different.
some parents send their kids to tuition for fear of failing a subject, some are doing so in order to ensure the kids continue to score way ahead of the cohort ..... which to many people may not be necessary to have tuition at all
some parents want their kids to score among the top so that they can enter the perceived top / elite secondary schools to enhance chances of post-secondary scholarship, networking, and perhaps from among them will be one's life partner, and being in top school will enhance the chance to enter top uni around the world
it is a rat race, but not a compulsion to join the race
by and large the schools are very okay compared with public schools in UK or US -
atutor2001:
It puzzles me. Each child spends about 5 hrs per day x 5 days = 25 hrs per week in school. 25 divided by 4 and that is 6.25 hrs per subject per week. They spend an average of less than 2 hrs per subject per week for tuition. Yet the impact from tuition is so great. Something is very wrong with the school environment or the teaching method.
the way you put it is as if the whole nation is like that, and you are over-simplifying matters
a better sense of proportion in needed
by the way, there is lessons for PE, music, health education, IT, civics and moral education, whole host of non-examinable subjects -
atutor2001:
alarmist ?optimistforum:
.... I get the feeling, frm recent posts, that Singapore educaton success is mostly attributable to out of school tutoring rather than the perceived quality of your schools. Am I right? ....
An average kid (quite hardworking) without tuition or supplementary exercises from parents will be very lucky to get 220 in PSLE, generally will be less than 210. Any normal playful kid without tuition or supplementary exercises from parents is guaranteed 200 and below. Relevant extra work is definitely needed to achieve 240 and above. Perhaps tutors know better in what is relevant. My figures are from \"thin air\".
t-score of 250 and above is way at the top 10% of the cohort.
the main bulk is below 23X (my guess), and please don't forget, t-score is just a national ranking exercise, it is NOT an indication of knowledge acquired by Pri 6.
taking the 62.9% for 'express' plus 23.1% for normal acad = 86% qualifying for normal 5 years of secondary school. note, only S'pore has the 4-year express stream where as UK/HK/M'sia etc are all using 5 year system for secondary school
Performance of 2011 Primary 6 Cohort 1,2
A total of 45,261 Primary 6 pupils sat for the PSLE this year. Among these pupils, 44,106 pupils (or 97.4%) are assessed as suitable to proceed to secondary school. In terms of course eligibility, 62.9% are eligible for the Express course, 23.1% for the Normal (Academic) and 11.4% for the Normal (Technical) course.
There are 1,155 pupils (or 2.6%) who are assessed to be not yet ready for secondary school or more suited for vocational training. Of these, pupils who have attempted PSLE once and are not overaged may choose to apply to Assumption Pathway School (APS) or NorthLight School (NLS) based on recommendations of their primary school principals, or spend another year in Primary 6 to consolidate their learning. The remaining pupils are those who have been unsuccessful after repeated attempts at the PSLE or are overage. These pupils will be offered a place in APS or NLS.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2011/11/release-of-the-2011-psle-results.php -
blessed777:
yes, the conclusion is :- parents' mindset, not that the schools are all so hopeless, not that all the teachers don't teach, not that all the schools are testing beyond what was taught ....... it is all in the mindset of parents who cannot accept when their kids score lower than the peers. it is really a mindset problem of the parents, too small minded that they cannot accept the fact their kids' scores is just 0.000000001 lower than the next guy in t-scorehttp://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/things-consider-sending-child-tuition-classes-102823408.html
Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition
By Yahoo! Singapore | SingaporeScene – Wed, Jun 13, 2012
By Daniel Wong
Singapore is a tuition nation.
Previous reports from the Department of Statistics show that households spent $820 million a year on both centre and home-based private tuition.
In addition, the number of tuition centres has increased five times over the past decade. There are now more than 500 centres in Singapore.
In comparison, there are fewer than 400 primary and secondary schools in total.
Through my work as an education excellence coach and speaker, I've had the privilege of speaking to and working with thousands of students. Through these interactions, I estimate (estimate only, not a scientifically derived number) that more than 90% of students attend some form of tuition classes.
Students continually complain about their huge struggle to complete their school and tuition homework, participate actively in their co-curricular activities, and lead a somewhat balanced life.
Most students tell me that they don't get more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep every night because there's just so much they have to do!
Clearly, there's something wrong with this picture.
or the picture is painted wrongly ??
In this article, I'll share my observations about how our obsession with tuition reveals deeper issues we face as a society—issues that go far beyond the pursuit of academic success.
The fear of failure starts with parents(not because the schools are no good nor because the schools don't teach as some parents like to over-generalise)
Parents send their children for tuition classes because they fear their children getting left behind(not because they are stupid). That's a reasonable fear, because it seems like every other student attends classes outside of school.
But the bigger fear that parents have is the fear of failure, not just for their children, but for themselves, too. (nothing to do with education system, everything to do with parents' attitude and mindset)
It's difficult to measure your performance as a parent, so parents often subconsciously gauge their success by how their children are doing in school.
Your child is a straight-A student? Then you must be doing a wonderful job!
Your child is struggling academically? Then you're failing as a parent.
Few parents verbalize it, but these thoughts are at the core of their decision to send their children for tuition classes. At the end of the day, no parent wants to feel like a failure. -- again it is parents, not school nor the system
What parents really want for their children
There are other implications, too. Parents' fear of failure gets passed on to their children, who grow up thinking that the best path is the one that's free from failure, risk and disappointment.
But is that really the best path? No, that's merely the good path, yet it's also the one that parents unintentionally push their children to pursue. A lot of the time, the best path is the one that's full of uncertainty and adversity.
That's why it's generally incorrect to say that parents want what's best for their children, because they usually only want what's good.
Be curious, not competitive
Moreover, parents who are fixated on their children's academic performance instill a spirit of competition in their children. In today's Information Age, however, what's needed in order to excel is a spirit of curiosity, rather than a spirit of competition.
There's an incredible amount of information available on the internet, which means that if you want to become knowledgeable in some field, you probably could. It just requires that you have enough genuine curiosity to compel you to look up the information online.
If students are caught up trying to compete with their peers and outperform them, it's difficult to cultivate a real love for learning and discovery—the things that form the basis of a meaningful education and of long-term success in the Information Age.
Success is more about will than skill (sure or not ? no skill with will power means that over time, the necessary skill is acquired, or acquired by spending a inordinate amount of time on it....sure, eventually succeed, with skill!)
Furthermore, if students feel like they're being forced to improve academically, there's a limit to how successful they can become. To achieve success—I'll go one step further and use the word \"greatness\"—in any field, you need to make a conscious decision to be great.
After all, no great pianist, athlete, engineer, doctor, mechanic, nurse or entrepreneur became that way without intentionally choosing the path of excellence.
You can't force anyone to become great. It's possible to force someone to become mediocre or even good, but greatness requires commitment.
If parents make their children go for tuition classes without also empowering them to take full responsibility for their own education, it's impossible for the children to become great students.
At the heart of it, greatness is much more a matter of will than it is of skill. Before we teach our students the skill of studying more effectively and of doing better on exams, we need to encourage them to make a deliberate choice about their education, their future and their life.
Tuition isn't a bad thing
Just to be clear, on its own, tuition isn't a horrible thing. I have no doubt that tuition classes can help children to become more disciplined, knowledgeable, hardworking and determined.
Nevertheless, if it's not done with the correct mindset, sending children for tuition classes can be dangerous.
It's possible that we're currently creating a generation of sleep-deprived, overworked, unfulfilled, and unhappy students. I fear that this generation of unhappy students is going to become a generation of unhappy workers and, later on, a generation of unhappy parents. so simplistic !
This is a problem we cannot ignore.
So whether you, as a parent, decide to send your children for tuition classes or not, I urge you to make that decision with the right perspective. Make sure your children understand that it's more important to finish well than it is to finish first.
The future of our country depends on it.
Daniel Wong is the author of \"The Happy Student: 5 Steps to Academic Fulfillment and Success\". He is also an education excellence coach and speaker. He writes regularly about topics related to education, career and personal development at Living Large.
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