School Examinations Too Difficult

[janet88]

mummy of three:

Sometimes they copy and the schoolteachers don’t seem to care!

Son is fed-up going to school.
Homework is marked by swopping his paper with classmate...teacher will tell the answers. Go to school for what ? Just yest after school, son asked me for a file. You know for what ? The teacher is going to give them past year papers and as such, need to file them. :faint: this is called PSLE preparation ??? This is the way kids are prepared ? :slapshead:

[moomel]

I’m a tuition teacher and I can vouch for the failure of our system at times. My secondary 4 student gains little from copying answers off the white board. I have to go through the worksheet with her to ensure she has learned something. I wonder what other students are doing, especially if they do not have a tuition teacher.

[janet88]

moomel:

I'm a tuition teacher and I can vouch for the failure of our system at times. My secondary 4 student gains little from copying answers off the white board. I have to go through the worksheet with her to ensure she has learned something. I wonder what other students are doing, especially if they do not have a tuition teacher.

My tutors do give past year exam papers...but that's after he/she has taught. Getting past year papers done is a form of exposure to what type of questions can appear. It cannot be used as a form of teaching. Sadly, our schools are NOT teaching sufficiently to prepare students what will appear. Why are the tutors doing the job for teachers? What's the point of going to school?

[moomel]

Truthfully, I am doing the school teacher’s job. Singapore has fee education but not quality. Imagine 40 kids to one teacher plus the teacher has to deal with admin and projects. The one to one tutoring is when real learning takes place. Problem for parents also is searching for a good tutor. Tuition agencies are packed with undergrads and inexperienced ones. I recommend all parents to get tutors from word of mouth, not agencies.

[janet88]

moomel:

Truthfully, I am doing the school teacher's job. Singapore has fee education but not quality. Imagine 40 kids to one teacher plus the teacher has to deal with admin and projects. The one to one tutoring is when real learning takes place.

We should be celebrating TUTORS' Day, not Teachers' Day.
Dumping admin, CCA & projects on teachers is idiotic...these stuff take away time meant for precious teaching. As it is, 40 kids to 1 teacher is very tough. Doing all those unnecessary stuff makes the teacher tired and perhaps to a certain degree, disillusioned with his core job.

[moomel]

Having said all this though, I do recognize that teachers are trying their best. Some are. Some have resigned to the fate that they’re job is to finish the syllabus and that’s it.


Some teachers are passionate and impact lives. I recognize their achievements esp when kids come home and tell their parents that they admire their teacher.

But many kids are lost in the system. Some are too under-advantaged to have personal tutors. Some parents go to tuition centres where the many to one ratio occurs again.

I’m glad my brood of 15 tutees are under my care.

[janet88]

moomel:

Some teachers are passionate and impact lives. I recognize their achievements esp when kids come home and tell their parents that they admire their teacher.


But many kids are lost in the system. Some are too under-advantaged to have personal tutors. Some parents go to tuition centres where the many to one ratio occurs again.

There are still passionate and dedicated ones. This is very true.
My younger one loves school and her teachers very much. They show concern and teach the class to the best they can.

When kids attend tuition centres, there are several in a class...again, like what you mentioned, it's no different from going to school. Not every child has advantage to attend tuition and when they meet with many to one ratio again, the child learns next to nothing.

[Mychildren]

janet_lee88:

moomel:

Some teachers are passionate and impact lives. I recognize their achievements esp when kids come home and tell their parents that they admire their teacher.


But many kids are lost in the system. Some are too under-advantaged to have personal tutors. Some parents go to tuition centres where the many to one ratio occurs again.

There are still passionate and dedicated ones. This is very true.
My younger one loves school and her teachers very much. They show concern and teach the class to the best they can.

When kids attend tuition centres, there are several in a class...again, like what you mentioned, it's no different from going to school. Not every child has advantage to attend tuition and when they meet with many to one ratio again, the child learns next to nothing.

That's why I prefer to coach my children myself instead of sending them for tuition. Save $$ and get to know first hand what my children really don't understand and target on the right areas to work with them correctly & efficiently. Of course, I must also do some work myself (reading up and understanding before I can coach.)

But its indeed tiring and time consuming. However, I still have the passion to coach them so maybe this is the motivation force behind me!

[moomel]

Yes I think that’s a very good move Mychildren. It took me a year to familiarise myself with the subjects. Even now, I’m still learning about it.


Its good for parents to learn the syllabus along with their children. It keeps the neurons firing. Also, ifyou are a stay at hm parent, then you can potentially give tuition to other kids, when yours have grown up.

[jedamum]

I am very hands on in coaching my boy from p1. This year no stamina. Although I only do bits of chinese and science paper 2, I see myself getting lazy and tired when I have to coach my ds2 and spend time with him on top of coaching ds1. And sometimes I free he not free and vice versa. Now time also tight, by the time he reaches home from school activities, it’s my cooking time and his homework time. Even if he dismisses on time, after his lunch and rest time, it , ds2 then reaches home and I be busy with his tea break and piano pract. Then after tthat, they decide they miss each other and start chatting random stuff. Then time flies and I need to prep dinner. Afterhis dinner , I have to have dinner with my husband who reaches home late. By the time I finish dinner- and dishes, it’s ds2’s bedtime. So I hardly have time for ds1 although I sahm. Weekends is tuition and grandparents visit day. No much time for me to coach him. My expectations of my ds1 is such that I now expects him to take initiative to try his best to self learn or approach teachers, tutors for help. He no longer discuss math with me as he deemed that I know nothing which is true. Sigh.