Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition

[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.

[Funz]

ksi:

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?

For me too, tuition only if results show a need for it. However increasingly I am seeing parents looking for tutors for their children even before they start P1. Various reasons were cited, for insurance, cos they believe must have tuition eventually so want to 'chope' reputable tutor's time, cos parents themselves don't have time to go through kids daily work, so tutor more to follow through day to day stuff rather than to help with weak grades, etc.

[Champion]

Intermezzo:

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.

Already at P4 level - my DD1's classmate - the top girl in the cohort has tuitions for EMS + MT + English Creative class + MT Compo class! :yikes: :shock: DD1 shares that the girl has learned ahead what teacher has to teach and in fact during class, the girl just either plays with her pencil or do some sketching on the paper ( the girl sits in front of DD1 and they are in the same group for class-work).

Well, I just tell DD1 she just has to mind her own business and do the class work together in a group. Well, aside from this top girl's story, for my DD1's case - My expectations are not high. I don't expect my child to ace the subject but by attending tuition at the tuition centre, it does help her to understand better

[corneyAmber]

Funz:

ksi:

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?

For me too, tuition only if results show a need for it. However increasingly I am seeing parents looking for tutors for their children even before they start P1. Various reasons were cited, for insurance, cos they believe must have tuition eventually so want to 'chope' reputable tutor's time, cos parents themselves don't have time to go through kids daily work, so tutor more to follow through day to day stuff rather than to help with weak grades, etc.

Yeah, would that be considered enrichment, i.e. good to have since there is no problem to solve? I distinguish between enrichment and tuition. I know many of the bright kids go for enrichment as a good to have. Centres like TLL is enrichment to me, children go there to pick up lifestyle habits like Heelys. Mindstretcher is both an enrichment and a tuition centre. Berries is more of an enrichment centre because if a primary school child is identified to have a problem in Chinese, it would be tough to follow the syllabus in Berries at the same level as syllabus is not MOE driven but extended, Tien Hsia caters more for tuition as they follow MOE syllabus closely but I am not sure if they have started enrichment version as well. So are we an enrichment-centric nation or a tuition-centric nation? :?

[corneyAmber]

Champion:

Intermezzo:

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.

Already at P4 level - my DD1's classmate - the top girl in the cohort has tuitions for EMS + MT + English Creative class + MT Compo class! :yikes: :shock: DD1 shares that the girl has learned ahead what teacher has to teach and in fact during class, the girl just either plays with her pencil or do some sketching on the paper ( the girl sits in front of DD1 and they are in the same group for class-work).

Well, I just tell DD1 she just has to mind her own business and do the class work together in a group. Well, aside from this top girl's story, for my DD1's case - My expectations are not high. I don't expect my child to ace the subject but by attending tuition at the tuition centre, it does help her to understand better

Champs, the top girl is doing enrichment.