Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition

[corneyAmber]

I agree with what has been shared so far and have further suggestions based on personal experience:


1. EM at the lower primary level is fine.
In terms of content, most teachers can cope EM at lower primary
There is only one downside. When a teacher falls sick especially for
prolonged period or on course, a class with the same EM teacher will
suffer no lessons for that period.
This however can be countered by EFFECTIVE
replacement teachers who teach and not just sit in class to maintain
class order only. So if there are more EM teachers, chances of finding
a replacement teacher to teach is higher. Again, this is only possible
if a school has a standard lesson plan which any teacher can take
and run with it if the original teacher is absent.
Summary of problem:
Institute STANDARD lesson plans in school so absence of teachers
become seamless and trained EM teachers become valuable instead
of just sitting in classes. Currently, teachers are empowered on
lesson plan. Lesson plans can be school-specific but challenging
to be teacher-specific.
I believe some schools are practising this especially for schools
which manage their resources well and do not make children feel
the absence of teachers.

2. S begins at P3 so it is not advisable to put a EMS teacher to teach S.
EM is still possible but S should be kept separate. S has to be taught
differently in P3 to lay a good foundation. As for EM being together,
again the absence of EM teachers can hurt a class in a week. E is
about 12-13 hours and M about 14-15 hours.
So the solution in 1 is still applicable.

3. From P4-P6, I would think specialist teachers would serve the children
better. As the topics increase in difficulty, a specialist teacher can try
to uncover more depth in the subject in order to help the children
manage the in-depth syllabus.

Of course when we talk about EMS and its individual specialisation, we also know that teachers should be managed to take on no-core subjects such as CME, Health-Ed etc...otherwise MOE will have real resource crunch if every teacher thinks they are only a specialist.

[alng]

After reading the posts here, I am extremely thankful to my dd’s Chinese Teacher (and school of course). Since P4 (now P6), she is taught by the HOD. The school embarked on a new strategy to teach Chinese in 2010 when my dd was in P4. This explained why my dd is taught by the HOD for P4-P6 because the school is testing out a new teaching strategy. I am not sure if this new teaching strategy an initiative at school level or at MOE level which will be expanded to all the other schools eventually. I did ask the HOD for permission to reveal the compo checklist to my other friends but she said no.


For composition, the teachers grade using a checklist. The 40 marks are allocated to a list of items (items to address in the composition) and the Chinese Compo is graded in accordance to that checklist. For each compo (other than exam), it will be graded and returned with the checklist. The students have to do a second draft (using the graded feedback sheet) if the compo grade is below a certain level. The second draft will be re-graded with marks. The same applies to certain oral practices, which are graded using a checklist. It requires a lot of work on the part of teachers to prepare such feedback on learning. But I believe it can be done if the schools are committed to quality teaching. It will be great if MOE can lead such initiatives.

The school, teachers and parents are looking forward to this year’s PSLE results for Chinese.

[limlim]

verykiasu2010:

It has been eye opening for me to read about the short comings experienced by many parents out there, with regard to the education system and experiences of the kids and parents.

I feel that when we share experiences.. it should be viewed as isolated cases or \"some occurrences\" rather than representative of the overall picture.. I may complain about a school or teacher but it should not be viewed as all schools are like that.

However, we can formulate/feedback/share suggestions or policies(?) to stem and eliminate those shortcomings to make education a more pleasant experience for all.

[corneyAmber]

Thanks for your sharing pixiedust.

Sharing has various levels and I find that when we share the specifics then the problem definition becomes clearer. Certainly what you have shared is good and constructive.

It seems that the parents with Category 3 practices are more at this point of time.

Actually you have also brought up an interesting point for me. Initially I thought people go for tuition because the results showed that they have to go for tuition to push the grades up, i.e. obviously shown in the components of the results. However, now I see that people go for tuition due to not knowing what are the detail grades and use \"tuition\" to buy the insurance that the grades can be maintained or pushed up since there is no idea what is the actual individual component score. So this point seems to contribute to the tuition-notion nation where parents can see the break-down results from the tuition centre better?

[iFirefly]

I am not sure if it is a MOE policy for teachers to teach up to 3 subjects in schools.


However, I do know that all trainee teachers at NIE have been trained to teach 2 subjects (at least during my time). Most of my ex-classmates (now friends), who have been posted to Secondary Schools, have been teaching 2 subjects in their schools (same level diff subjects, or diff levels diff subjects). I was ‘fortunate’ to be posted to a JC upon graduation from NIE, hence, I was only required to teach 1 subject in the JC (Economics) then.

In my DS’ Primary School, My DS2’s English teacher also teaches PE (for other classes), his Science teacher also teaches Math (for other classes), and his Math teacher also teaches Social Studies & Art (for DS2’ class). I think the only group of teachers who teaches only ONE subject in the school are those from the GEP Department (from what I have observed for DS1’s teachers).

Of course, the above cases/examples quoted are from my DS’ school and my own experiences only. Perhaps, more parents can share their experiences of their kids’ schools in this forum, so that we can have a clearer picture of the various situations in different schools (Pri, Sec or JC) in S’pore.

[limlim]

tuition_czar:

You are a councillor, so I guess you have the power to issue warnings in here right?

Whether got the power or not, it is usually better to openly engage than to \"use\" the powers to penalize someone or give warning.

One could be accuse of \"abuse of authority whenever he/she does not agree with the comments\".

Even if the Mod take action, usually they just need a civil reminder.

althou sometimes they \"cold storage\" some posts......? :evil:

[limlim]

ksi:

Jedamum, it is a good idea to get down to the specifics.
Perhaps we can collate the practices of the school list and send to MOE instead to highlight that this may be an area of empowerment in schools that has little value for the children's learning process, the feedback is missing for the children to learn from their errors or strength.

:goodpost:

[corneyAmber]

alng:

After reading the posts here, I am extremely thankful to my dd's Chinese Teacher (and school of course). Since P4 (now P6), she is taught by the HOD. The school embarked on a new strategy to teach Chinese in 2010 when my dd was in P4. This explained why my dd is taught by the HOD for P4-P6 because the school is testing out a new teaching strategy. I am not sure if this new teaching strategy an initiative at school level or at MOE level which will be expanded to all the other schools eventually. I did ask the HOD for permission to reveal the compo checklist to my other friends but she said no.


For composition, the teachers grade using a checklist. The 40 marks are allocated to a list of items (items to address in the composition) and the Chinese Compo is graded in accordance to that checklist. For each compo (other than exam), it will be graded and returned with the checklist. The students have to do a second draft (using the graded feedback sheet) if the compo grade is below a certain level. The second draft will be re-graded with marks. The same applies to certain oral practices, which are graded using a checklist. It requires a lot of work on the part of teachers to prepare such feedback on learning. But I believe it can be done if the schools are committed to quality teaching. It will be great if MOE can lead such initiatives.

The school, teachers and parents are looking forward to this year's PSLE results for Chinese.

Thanks for the good sharing, alng. It is good to know what some schools are doing to help the children perform better.

Say, supposing schools all adopt this approach to give parents more visibility on how their kids can improve on their compos and orals, then will parents be contented if the exam result details of compo and oral are still withheld as part of an overall English and Chinese scores(The Category 3 practice)? Just thinking aloud. :?

[lydia_chin]

pixiedust:

I hope Chenonceau and other's effort to bring about systematic changes to our primary school education will bear some fruit in the near future.

:hugs: .... I admire parents who give constructive feedback here even if MOE does make some changes, it may be too late to impact their child... and I think Chenonceau is one of them.

[Intermezzo]

Chenonceau:

Intermezzo:

[quote=\"Chenonceau\"]
Hmmmm... yeah good point.... does anyone know if GEP teachers subject specialize? I am thinking that if GEP style has infiltrated mainstream, then if GEP teachers subject specialize, it may be a mechanism that is coherent with the new syllabus.

Anyone knows?

for ds who was in GEP, EMSL were always taught by different teachers throughout the 3 years leading to PSLE.

and teacher:students ratio was about 1:25

the interesting thing is, many of his classmates still went for tuition in 1 or more subjects.

You are a GEP Mommy. Ok... I understand now. I am not hitting out at you. I am not jealous of GEP parents. I think GEP benefits a certain population of students. I am glad that at least that part works as evidenced by the many enthousiastically supportive GEP parents.

Yet, allow me to humbly beg your understanding of our experiences in mainstream. Please.
[/quote]thanks for being understanding.
actually, i have another child who was in mainstream for primary school.

i can't remember the P4 bit, but in P5 they did have a specialized Maths teacher.
in P6, her FT took them in EMS. i have no problem with that. as Funz said, there're pros and cons. Time management among the 3 subjects might also be easier.

but throughout the years, there were still many of her classmates going for tuition after tuition, no matter what the teachers were like. for some it's 1:1 at home, for some it's at MindStretcher, etc. there were even a few who did all 3 - EMS at TTL, and MT somewhere else - i can't remember the reason now. isit becos TTL doesn't teach MT?

that's the main reason i feel that tuition has become an obsession - when many parents send the kids for tuition without considering whether they REALLY need it, or whether they have time to rest / play / do nothing / get creative / develop new hobbies, and most importantly, learn how to learn on their own.