Asia spending billions on tutors: study
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oxyleo:
I apologise for splitting hairs a little here:
besides contentment which is a godly virtue, there is also a peer pressure to keep upverykiasu2010:
[quote=\"BeContented\"]
Human expectation/desire is a tricky thing, that's why must always try to have some balance and be able let go. When we push and the child achieve it, what happens next? Expectation goes up, push further.....all these FULL Potential thingy. Good to stretch a bit.....but must know when to stop.
yes must know where is the limit and when to stop and smell the roses
rising expectation could be a scary thing
I think there's a difference between feeling contented for living the ultimate blessed and blissful life including a home to be proud of, a nice car to drive , a supportive spouse and good, clever and intelligent children VS contentment when life is in a mess.
I agree contentment is indeed a godly virtue especially so if we declare happiness even when life is in a mess and the odds are highly stacked against u, but i think a large majority of vocal writers here lean more towards the former. Not sure if we qualify to give ourselves a pat on the back when we feel happy with life and consider that as virtuous. Grateful maybe? If we have arrived and are grateful for it, is it right to tell those that havent to just be contented? Life's not fair? Build resilience. Dont think that will go down so well if we find ourselves on the other side. My own opinion.
Indeed, reacting to rising expectations. U see, it is tricky because even if u are contented, as I'm sure the Forest people and aborigines were, other less contented humans became greedier, lazier and hungrier for new inventions and advancement, and progressed toward city life. One does wonder on looking back if the virtue was for the better or for the worse. We may openly marvel at how amazing it must be for these people to have sustained themselves on so little, with no desire or expectation to move ahead (contentment), whilst others moved so far ahead.in secret, I'm sure we would wonder what they must have been thinking to stick to their course.
Just my own musing.[/quote]
I do agree with alot of oxyleo's views. I salute her for her courage to put it in words what the few of us feel. By and large, I would believe ( not 100%) many of the parents here who feel that MOE, teachers should not be made to shoulder all the blame are parents who have been blessed with more compliant, relatively bright kids who can do well without tuition but will do much better with it.The discussion here sometimes takes on a heated tone becoz it springs from a sense of exasperation that those not in the situation of these helpless struggling parents , are not able to fully empathise with their plight. Even some parents whose children are doing fine are now very uptight coz PSLE is round the corner, so what more those who are having a hard time just praying that the kids are just able to clear this ist major exam?
I know we should not blame the system , or teachers or even parents squarely for the problems of the education landscape now, but we should not dismiss the fact that if the children do not at least clear this PSLE (at all costs to some parents), their self esteem will definitely take a hit, whether it'll be a fatal one or not, it depends on the child's character whether resilience is in him.
I think some parents here are talking about diff things regarding a child's abilities. Of course one with learning disabilities will not be expected to \"bloom\" or flourish academically like normal children even with the best educators. But as parents of such children , we'll hope to give them the best training to at least equip them with basic life skills for earning a living in future. Well, what the other parents like oxyleo or ksi pointed out is that when a child (assuming no learning difficulties)is struggling with schoolwork, we do not sit by and watch doing nothing thinking that's the way to train the child to be indep , face consequences etc.. It's like a child having a fever, do we sit by and watch hoping the body will fight the infection and he'll emerge stronger from it without resorting to anti-biotics? No of course not, but we don't want to do too much either as as the immune system will take a reliance on stronger antibiotics to get well.
Tuition is like antibiotics. It's effective when we really need it, but over-reliance on it when our body can try to fight the infection, will have detrimental effects over the long term.And is tuition part of the problem or part of the solution? Maybe abit of both. So I don't think it's fair to blame parents solely for the tuition phenomenon just as we should not do so to MOE or teachers. Each has a part to play to ensure the best education experience for our young.
bear with my $2 worth of lengthy post.. -
limlim:
Strange no one defended the teachers in this aspect so far..
In summary, using public funded resources for private profit.Busymom:
Now you may say that 1 teacher from school A may also possess proprietary materials developed by teacher(s) from school A. If this teacher teaches or shares these materials with students from school B through a private tuition session, why should MOE care about this or what kind of conflict of interest are we talking about here? The only party who may not be happy with this would be school A or the parents of students from school A.
I'm impressed.
Of coz, we can say, \"not all teachers are like that\".. which is of coz true.
But, why we cannot move towards the direction of \"All teachers are NOT like that\", with proper policies and regulation in place?
It is not to impose some unreasonable standards on teachers, but rather, for MOE to be aligned with standard industrial practices. What is wrong with that?
Just bcoz some parents are asking for MOE to adopt widely accepted industrial practices, it is being inhumane? as some suggests? -
hi nice to see that there are parents on both sides of the argument.
To me the whole issue of tuition is not about individuals and whether u want, dowan or no choice…Neither is it about MOE or ultra-kiasu parents. Every parents wants the best for their child. It may be by giving tuition, enrichment, hobbies, holidays, personal grooming etc etc.
Looking at tuition from an individualistic point of view really favors the elites and breeds an elitist mentality. We have been brought up in this generation where everyone wants to remain elite, become elite or get closer to being elite. It has been inculcated in us that the only way to make it in life is to do well in education. Study hard, go uni, get a good job blahblah.
Looking at the bigger picture, tuition is not only responsible for perpetuating this elitism but it is also widening the income gap and reducing social mobility. But who to blame? No point blaming the parents for wanting the best, no point blaming MOE for teacher standards or setting harder than syllabus papers.
If everyone had no tuition, no matter how hard they set the papers there’ll still be t-scores according to the bell curves, only diff is the bell curve would have a lower correlation to the income of the parents. It is a fact that kids from higher income families (even in developed countries without tuition culture) tend to do better as they have greater family support and more stable family structures. But the fact that tuition has come into play has further skewed the results in favor of the richer parents. This is of course unfair to society at large and definitely unfair to the smart kid from a poor home.
In the 60s, 70s and 80s social mobility was rife and everyone who was determined and worked hard could move up the social ladder. But now with the tuition from a very young age and a very ‘uneven’ schooling system plus other advantages the rich kid has over his peers, the less affluent can no longer compete. In order to enhance social mobility, so that the poorer have a better chance of moving up, we should look at it from a societal point of view and our policies should be changed to promote more fairness and less elitism.
i really don’t know how to accomplish this but our million dollar ministers who have a wealth of knowledge and have studied systems from all over the world should make it a mission to promote lowering the income gap and enhancing social mobility in singapore.
After some discussion with friends, some suggestions might be:
– longer school day with (subcontracted) homework supervision and extra activities available for all within the school setting. (Parents would not have to worry about child care too)
– lower the stakes of PSLE: No selective transition from Pri to Sec. Kids below 12 have lower intrinsic motivation and hence need more adult involvement. (tutor or parental coaching favors the rich). IMHO good PSLE results is not necessarily a reflection of a child’s true intelligence or motivation (just a measure of how much coaching he’s had). I also think a child with too much external pushing will have trouble developing his own intrinsic motivation to do well independantly later in life. (but thats another issue)
– no more elite schools: truly equal opportunities for all. e.g.: setting a quota based on household income (e.g. every school must have 20 % of the lowest 20%tile), trying to make core teaching more uniform across all schools, less focus on t-scores.
That was a rant about a much discussed issues within my circle of friends.
Feel free to disagree would love to hear other opinions. -
We need data. Students who attended enrichment/tuition, their results, schools, household income etc…
It could turn out that MOE is doing everything right and parent’s worries are unfounded… But, w/o data for tuition and the demographics and makeup, nothing can be concluded.
In order to collect data, some system have to be in place.
Why not take the first step, and put the pieces together to provide the whole picture? Only with good data, can the correct approach be taken. -
Strparent:
:goodpost:
:faint: :faint: :slapshead: :slapshead: nvr heard that one b4schweppes:
Of course, there are some over-zealous parents out there... must be 1st in class/level or else, must be the best of the best or else.... and the latest one, blaming one's own parents for putting them in the \"wrong\" primary school as that affects his own child's current p1 registration now..
that type must![](\"http://i50.tinypic.com/2r5s4so.gif\")
http://i50.tinypic.com/2r5s4so.gif\">
if anything to blame on own parents, better blame they raised an ingrate son/daughter :mad: -
Class A taught by a passionate and diligent teacher A, all passed. Because Teacher A is very good, None of the students require tuition.
Class B taught by an incompetent and bochup Teacher B. Student learnt Nil from the teacher B. All the students seek tuition. All passed. Average result better than class A.
End of the year, both got the same raise, bonus etc… or maybe Teacher B got promoted becasue the class result is better and other KPI the same.
Is it fair to teacher A?
Will it kill her passion?
Will she follow teacher B, teach less, learn more (outside)?
Negative motivation?
Shouldn’t we have some means to REWARD teacher A? The fact that none of her student requires tuition is a wonderful feat by itself. -
limlim:
(Black hat on )Class A taught by a passionate and diligent teacher A, all passed. Because Teacher A is very good, None of the students require tuition.
Class B taught by an incompetent and bochup Teacher B. Student learnt Nil from the teacher B. All the students seek tuition. All passed. Average result better than class A.
End of the year, both got the same raise, bonus etc.. or maybe Teacher B got promoted becasue the class result is better and other KPI the same.
Is it fair to teacher A?
Will it kill her passion?
Will she follow teacher B, teach less, learn more (outside)?
Negative motivation?
Shouldn't we have some means to REWARD teacher A? The fact that none of her student requires tuition is a wonderful feat by itself.
How about this angle ?
Next year, the next set of students enter the class A. However the all students have tution already. Maybe they had the misfortune of meeting TeacherB clones in previous years, maybe they had high expectation parents, maybe they had everyone goes-to-TLL-means-it-is-goo-so-my-child-will-too kind of parents.
All do well . So Teacher A is penalized because her students opted for tution even though she is a fantastic teacher? -
Sun_2010:
The student's parent may also drop the tuition as they have encountered a good teacher. Most pple whom I have came across, would not want to waste money on tuition if they had a choice. Sometimes, once the kid's result improve, they would stop the tuition.
(Black hat on )
How about this angle ?
Next year, the next set of students enter the class A. However the all students have tution already. Maybe they had the misfortune of meeting TeacherB clones in previous years, maybe they had high expectation parents, maybe they had everyone goes-to-TLL-means-it-is-goo-so-my-child-will-too kind of parents.
All do well . So Teacher A is penalized because her students opted for tution even though she is a fantastic teacher?
I wonder how many parents are the super kiasu type who would want tuition at all cost.. Maybe.. maybe only the RICH ones who always want their kids to top the class. From what I read here, even some quite well-to-do parents would not want tuition if they could.
Also, we could look at rewarding good teachers instead of penalizing the not-so-good ones. No harm having more incentives, isn't it?
There are 2 different types of views here..
One is, parents are kiasu, they send their kids to tuition regardless of what they can learn in school
The other view is, tuition is out of desperation. they would not want it, whether for the welfare of the kid or the cost involved.
If you belong to the first group, you will not understand the frustration of the other group.
Instead of trying to help the 2nd group, they ignore all pleads, just becoz they believe all parents are like the first group.
Whereas for those whose experience are like the 2nd group, choose to take steps to improve the situation, and do not discount the existence of the 1st group. -
schweppes:
:hi5: again schweppes, we are in synch on this and I execute similarly as you with realistic checkpoints and feedback from my child.The thing about failures and setbacks is that it is said to mould one's character and build resilience. Last thing we want is when failures and setbacks happen one to many times, and that can make the child feel resigned to fate. Or worse, breaks his spirit completely. No parent wants that to happen.
So, whether parents scramble to coach their own kids or outsource to tutors/ enrichment centers, it's about all about helping the child as best as can be or at the very least, help the child to cope in school.
Of course, there are some over-zealous parents out there... must be 1st in class/level or else, must be the best of the best or else.... and the latest one, blaming one's own parents for putting them in the \"wrong\" primary school as that affects his own child's current p1 registration now.. Can't do much about those. Takes all sorts to make the world.
End of day, who is to say who is right or wrong? Each family dynamics is different.
I can't speak for other parents but I do want my kids to perform to the best of their abilities. And if I can, push them a little - out of their comfort zone, challenge their boundaries, just a tad. As their mother, I owe it to my kids to develop their strengths, instill the right values and educate them well.
At the same time, I am also very mindful of their limitations and what they can or can't do. Whilst I want them to do their best and be the best that they can be, I am also realistic. I am consciously mindful that I need to calibrate my expectations as well.
Looking at my kids, I'm glad I pushed dd1's capabilities. I think if my dh and I didn't do that, we would have denied her the opportunities to develop her to her full potential. And we wd have failed as her parents for not nurturing her to be the best she can be, to where she is now.
Just my personal sharing. -
Strparent:
This is one example of the outcome of education skewed towards more academic pursuit with less focus on character building.
:faint: :faint: :slapshead: :slapshead: nvr heard that one b4schweppes:
Of course, there are some over-zealous parents out there... must be 1st in class/level or else, must be the best of the best or else.... and the latest one, blaming one's own parents for putting them in the \"wrong\" primary school as that affects his own child's current p1 registration now..
that type must
if anything to blame on own parents, better blame they raised an ingrate son/daughter :mad:
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