Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition
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blessed777:
where in the article is any proof or evidence of how the 90% is arrived at ? based on personal interaction / estimates as a motivational speaker ? all hot air to hookwind kiasuparents ......but credit to the writer, his conclusion is parents' mind set problemshttp://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 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.
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
Parents send their children for tuition classes because they fear their children getting left behind. 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.
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.
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
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.
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. -
Chenonceau:
so it does not end there. engage the school and the MOE simultaneously lor....this is such a critical issue it should not be allowed to rest and die of natural death without a solution
Ummmm... I have given specific details and evidence. In good faith, I have. The evidence I provided was clear. The proposals and suggestions for solutions were also clear. The answer was - it's the school's problem.verykiasu2010:
I think there is a lot of bullshit in saying 90% of kids having tuition is due to school teaching less and testing beyond scope.
The writer whose article was quoted in this thread concluded that the high % (without evidence, just personal \"observation\", which means your word against my word) of kids having tuition is mainly due to kiasuparents mind set.
It is 'wonderful' to see the herd instinct to straight away pin point it to teachers not teaching.
If it is really just teachers not teaching, or testing beyond scope, it is a very simple issue. Bring it up to MOE. Document it and submit it to Mr Heng Swee Kiat and c.c. it to PM Lee, I am sure they will attend to it.
As a start, please name the school, subject, level, class, teacher name, topic not taught but tested in school and examined in PSLE. Be not afraid to reveal your identity, if the school and teacher dare to victimise you / your child as a result of this feedback / complaint, lagi best -- another documentation of evidence to submit to Heng Swee Kiat and PM Lee.
C'mon, for the sake of the country, let's do it
useful email addresses are below :
[email protected] (director general, MOE)
[email protected] (director general, curriculum)
[email protected] (perm secr - education policy)
[email protected] (perm secr - education development)
[email protected]
[email protected]
http://app.sgdi.gov.sg/listing.asp?agency_subtype=dept&agency_id=0000000003 -
verykiasu2010:
so it does not end there. engage the school and the MOE simultaneously lor....this is such a critical issue it should not be allowed to rest and die of natural death without a solution[/quote]That is what I am doing, as is cherryc... Ian Tan... oxyleo plus others who write into forum pages. Cherryc is not following the herd instinct. She has her own story of pain... far more painful than mine.
Ummmm... I have given specific details and evidence. In good faith, I have. The evidence I provided was clear. The proposals and suggestions for solutions were also clear. The answer was - it's the school's problem.Chenonceau:
[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]I think there is a lot of bullshit in saying 90% of kids having tuition is due to school teaching less and testing beyond scope.
The writer whose article was quoted in this thread concluded that the high % (without evidence, just personal \"observation\", which means your word against my word) of kids having tuition is mainly due to kiasuparents mind set.
It is 'wonderful' to see the herd instinct to straight away pin point it to teachers not teaching.
If it is really just teachers not teaching, or testing beyond scope, it is a very simple issue. Bring it up to MOE. Document it and submit it to Mr Heng Swee Kiat and c.c. it to PM Lee, I am sure they will attend to it.
As a start, please name the school, subject, level, class, teacher name, topic not taught but tested in school and examined in PSLE. Be not afraid to reveal your identity, if the school and teacher dare to victimise you / your child as a result of this feedback / complaint, lagi best -- another documentation of evidence to submit to Heng Swee Kiat and PM Lee.
C'mon, for the sake of the country, let's do it
I did propose to MOE to gather quantitative data on this issue. Statistical methods exist to determine how much tuition accounts for school results... and how much is due to Teacher's teaching. I'm not great at stats but I do know how it can be done. It's not rocket science. There are people in MOE familiar with Structural Equation Modelling. If MOE took us at all seriously, they would collect the numbers so that we need not get mad at conjectured numbers.
I did show to MOE a causal model built from a sample set of data. -
why write to Forum pages ? please don’t expect them to wash too much dirty linen in public. they have million and one reasons to justify not publishing your letter, and there is a 400 words cap.
document your cases and send it straight to those email list in the earlier post, and please, c.c. to the principal of the school concerned.
if want to act, must make sure they will act too. -
verykiasu2010:
I don't understand. They did publish the letters. I also don't understand why you think that emails to relevant people have not been written? I believe people gave private feedback first and only started to speak up publicly (and write in) when they could not get a satisfactory response.why write to Forum pages ? please don't expect them to wash too much dirty linen in public. they have million and one reasons to justify not publishing your letter, and there is a 400 words cap.
document your cases and send it straight to those email list in the earlier post, and please, c.c. to the principal of the school concerned.
if want to act, must make sure they will act too.
I am not sure how I can arm twist anyone into acting... when public letters to the forum pages don't work... or even when parents meet up directly with Curriculum Specialists a few years back to discuss, nothing has been done for the past few years...
I too want action... but words are all I have to make things happen. -
Chenonceau:
my bad, the way this issue being aired here sound as if nothing else is done
I don't understand. They did publish the letters. I also don't understand why you think that emails to relevant people have not been written?verykiasu2010:
why write to Forum pages ? please don't expect them to wash too much dirty linen in public. they have million and one reasons to justify not publishing your letter, and there is a 400 words cap.
document your cases and send it straight to those email list in the earlier post, and please, c.c. to the principal of the school concerned.
if want to act, must make sure they will act too.
obviously the recipients of those emails have not been convinced yet
or you have the documented evidence of 90% ? -
verykiasu2010:
I don't understand. They did publish the letters. I also don't understand why you think that emails to relevant people have not been written?Chenonceau:
[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]why write to Forum pages ? please don't expect them to wash too much dirty linen in public. they have million and one reasons to justify not publishing your letter, and there is a 400 words cap.
document your cases and send it straight to those email list in the earlier post, and please, c.c. to the principal of the school concerned.
if want to act, must make sure they will act too.
my bad, the way this issue being aired here sound as if nothing else is done
obviously the recipients of those emails have not been convinced yet
or you have the documented evidence of 90% ?[/quote]Ummm... to clarify, I never quoted 90% (though I am not surprised if that were the statistic). What I did do was to propose to MOE a method to capture that data... and make it speak. That way, things would be clear. And mind you... I did that PRIVATELY, POLITELY and with great trust. MOE would have nothing of it. MOE merely wants parents to deal direct with schools.
It's none of MOE's business you see.
So we are back to Square One. If you have direct access to the PM, then please help us. But even then, are you sure PM won't say \"I won't micro-manage my Ministries\"? -
retired people like me have no access to anyone high up dare
on municipal issues I email the MP and things get done within a few weeks, typically you see the MP replying (and c.c. to me) and directing the various departments to look into it and invariably, issues get resolved promptly.
for the education issues we talk about here, my guess i that they are not convinced. you got to strategise how to ensure your data and evidence are convincing proofs and make them uncomfortable not to do anything. -
Jennifer:
Self-study, self exploration is good. The idea is good.. But, can they execute it skillfully?
We are taking away the innate drive for knowledge via self-study, self exploration?
I think it is dangerous to think we can only learn in some institutions, be it govt or private.
If what happens now is, school takes away essential material and end up the student bought it back from private establishments, the system fails.
If the information that was taken away could be bought at a price \"outside\", it would be better if the information is provided in the schools in the first place, that is what I'm trying to say.
Below is an example of what I would regard as quality education..
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANdt8LuPaEg][/youtube]
He didn't teach a lot.. but arouses the curiosity of his students to learn more..
probably a successful example of teach less, learn more.
To really benefit from \"Teach Less, Learn More\", the school must be able to execute skillfully, and not just \"take away\" part of the lesson content from class....... -
verykiasu2010:
Thanks for the advice. The proofs were convincing. I'm not sure how to make people UNCOMFORTABLE, apart from writing in here (which obviously cheeses you off). I would much rather sit down and discuss. Many others aren't sure either how to make people UNCOMFORTABLE apart from writing to the forum pages. If you have any ideas that will help... or any contacts...retired people like me have no access to anyone high up dare
on municipal issues I email the MP and things get done within a few weeks, typically you see the MP replying (and c.c. to me) and directing the various departments to look into it and invariably, issues get resolved promptly.
for the education issues we talk about here, my guess i that they are not convinced. you got to strategise how to ensure your data and evidence are convincing proofs and make them uncomfortable not to do anything.
Seriously, I admire your judgment and intellect... and don't wish to cheese you off, but you cannot take away our stories of pain so I only ask that you understand that there are people in Singapore who are suffering through this system... even if you and yours did not. I am happy that you are a good parent who knew what to do with your kids. I am happy that you have the money to enrich your kids. I am happy that you are happy with the schools your kids went to.
Your happiness does not help my pain... and that of cherryc's... and that of many parents who come by to get coached by me on ways to teach.
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