Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition

[verykiasu2010]

SAHM_TAN:

Chenonceau,


Yes, parents have different ideas about parenting and the scope and it will change as the child is older.

The education system. I'm waiting for the day when no tuition centre can claim the top PSLE student as their student.

why don't parents recognise that those tuition centres who claim the top PSLE student as their students are a lot of advertisement content with just a grain of truth in it ?

I won't say they are falsely advertising, but do they tell the 100% truth ? some students did only one or two subjects there but the claims is as if they have done all subjects there all their life ...... they can make all sorts of claims but parents do not need to believe in any of those claims. Some of the kids I personal know did much better than those who went to that tuition centre.

I hope parents could be more discerning that there are half truths, quarter truths or only a sliver of truth out there in those advertisement

In any case, many of those tuition centres cater to high ability students (with entrance tests) and so it is absolutely not fair to say that their achievements are entirely to the credit of the tuition centre. Didn't some parents posted that the notes from those tuition centre are out of date ? Didn't some principal said that their own child went there but result no good ?

The bashing of the teachers/MOE-schools is over done by too much sweeping statements with no schools being named at all ..... and those tuition centres are over hyped ....

okay I have inflamed lots of people here now ...... :torchme: :siam:

[verykiasu2010]

BeContented:

SAHM_TAN:

I told my dd1, if dunno remember must ask teacher to explain again.


I was awakened by her answer. I asked but the teacher explained the same thing, the same way. I couldn't understand it the first time and I still
cannot understand it the 2nd time. So true.

I understood completely. It's like talking louder when the person is deaf. The person is still unable to hear.

kekeke..... I understand what you say. Do encounter such teachers....but I just wanna say....'cannot capsize the whole boat'. Teachers reading the forum will be feeling very depressed.......

if it is the truths that make the teachers depressed, so be it, and buck up

if not, the teachers will treat this forum as rubbish. period.

[verykiasu2010]

jedamum:

SAHM_TAN:

The teachers don't need to be depressed.


I will ask dd1 to ask in such cases to ask the teacher again and to tell her she didn't understand the explanation, could she explain it in another way.

I don't know if dd1 will have a chance to ask a 2nd time, I will have to wait and see.

We have always impressed upon my boy to approach the teacher to clarify his doubts. Then feedback we get from teacher is he should have been more attentive. So now kids r judged when they asked questions in class when they not sure huh?

why is feedback considered as being judged ? over sensitive ? perhaps should find out more from teachers why the boy is considered not paying enough attention and find out the source of the distraction .... may be really chatting with friends ? or rushing other homework forgotten to do the previous night ?

[verykiasu2010]

BeContented:

DD is 'chairman' of class .....so often like to 'report' to me who & who & who & who & who & who is talking, giggling, not paying attention, reading storybooks under table while teacher teaching, drawing, doing other work etc etc etc etc....until I she would stop. Then I realised.....what the heck is she doing while Teacher is teaching???

I think your DD got it wrong. When teacher is in class, it is teacher's responsibility to control the class, not her duty to note who is talking etc etc ... her duty is to pay attention to what the teacher is teaching.

[janet88]

BeContented:

Dunno never mind. Go home ask your tutor explain again. So cannot say teacher never teach, sometimes students also never bother to ask them to explain again.

My son tells me, 'When I do not understand what the teacher teaches, I ask my tutor.' he said the tutor gives a better explanation. I am worried when I hear that.

[verykiasu2010]

jedamum:

kids who pay attention do not mean they understand what is taught or how to apply what is taught. Kids who know their work do not mean they pay attention in class too. Week after week, we have list of inquiries on stuff we revised through the week n who do we approach if we do not have tutor? Yes, we can approach teachers but after a few times n especially if teacher is busy, won't the teacher feel a bit irritated? It is not easy to catch a teacher's free time to go thru the doubts we need to clarify.

Luckily this day n age, can rely on helpful souls here at KSP.

my ds2 is like your dd! Feedback
from his teachers. then he said he is monitor n they not paying attention so he must report! N he insisted he knew what teacher was teaching.

why should the teacher feel irritated ? if the teacher does not want to feel irritated, then be easily available ..... there are ways / 'tricks' to manage such kind of teachers

[verykiasu2010]

limlim:

jedamum:

We have always impressed upon my boy to approach the teacher to clarify his doubts. Then feedback we get from teacher is he should have been more attentive. So now kids r judged when they asked questions in class when they not sure huh?

my experience is a little different..

Sometimes, my kid may not catch what the teacher is saying due to weak foundation in English. So I told them to just raise hand to ask the teacher to repeat, or spell it out so that she can copy it down.

But the teacher sometimes just ignore their request.

So I told her, after class end, go and ask the teacher again. Just to take down what she said earlier. But she told me that once the bell ring the teacher run off very fast, that she didn't even get a chance to ask...............

follow all the way to staff room, or go with a few friends to ask questions during recess ....

[verykiasu2010]

janet_lee88:

BeContented:

Dunno never mind. Go home ask your tutor explain again. So cannot say teacher never teach, sometimes students also never bother to ask them to explain again.

My son tells me, 'When I do not understand what the teacher teaches, I ask my tutor.' he said the tutor gives a better explanation. I am worried when I hear that.

then you must tell your son to ask the teacher and not rely on tutor and you are going to stop paying the tutor

if you have given the undertaking to your son that the tutor is the fall back, he will jolly well play with his friends and don't pay attention ..... after all there is always the tutor to explain ..... teacher no good ....

you may have unintentionally reinforced the tuition-dependent mentality in your son

[BeContented]

verykiasu2010:

BeContented:

DD is 'chairman' of class .....so often like to 'report' to me who & who & who & who & who & who is talking, giggling, not paying attention, reading storybooks under table while teacher teaching, drawing, doing other work etc etc etc etc....until I she would stop. Then I realised.....what the heck is she doing while Teacher is teaching???

I think your DD got it wrong. When teacher is in class, it is teacher's responsibility to control the class, not her duty to note who is talking etc etc ... her duty is to pay attention to what the teacher is teaching.

Sorry.....think I'm not clear enough.
DD not required to perform her 'chairman' role when teachers are around.....I'm just saying that she is soooooo kapo that instead of paying attention to the teacher in class, she watch her classmates skive...... :slapshead:
That's why she always kena from me instead when she dare complain too much :rotflmao:

[Funz]

There are all kinds of teachers out there. We just have to remember that their role is to teach, so there is nothing wrong with our kids asking them to explain and explain again. Sometimes we project our own reservations on them. The teachers do not find it irritating nor do they judge that easily. We think that they do and as such we do not press on with our questions.


There are all sorts of teachers. Those who are ever ready to answer the kids questions and those who think that their 45mins in class is all they need to give the kids.

DD and DS are in different schools. I can see the difference in the culture of communication in their schools. In DD’s school, communication is open. Teachers email us constantly of the things done in school. I have even received smses from DD’s teachers. Her Higher Chinese teacher even called me personally as she was concerned about DD’s reaction when she got her results for a test. When I had problems trying to get DD to understand certain concepts covered in school, I emailed her math teacher and the teacher went through the concepts again in class the following day and reverted with an email with pointers on how to guide dd on such questions. I did not feel any need to go for any PTCs with DD as information was prompt and we were kept up to date about stuff happening in school. With DS however, I felt the need to meet his teachers just to know how he is faring.

With DS’s teachers, the communication is usually initiated by me. And email no use, I gotta keep calling the school to try to get hold of his teacher. But are his teachers teaching? So far, yes. Does DS say stuff like teacher never teach? Yes also. But when I go through the stuff with him again, he will suddenly go oh yah, teacher did cover this. I forgot or I did not realise this was what was taught the other day.

Oh, another difference, DD has a different teacher for each different subject. Whereas DS form teacher, bao gao liao, English, Math, Art, Music and Misc.

So needless to say, if I were to benchmark DS’s teachers with DD’s teachers, DS’s teachers will fall short.