All About Finding & Evaluating Tuition Centres/Agencies

[tankee]

Are you doing this for profit?


If not, you could try offering your service to Beyond Social Service, a charity organization targeted to help children of lower income families.

[pojo]

tantan777:

Dear Pojo,


I agree with what you have stated as well as the definition you have crafted.

Till date, I cannot seem to find a proper term to define underachievers in psychological terms and I fully agree that it has a very negative label. If I can find a less derogatory meaning to the word, I would definitely replace it.

1)You made a strong point because I understand that nobody is going to want to send their child to a school to be labelled as an underachiever. I wouldn't as well

2) Also, thank you for clarifying that branded centres with central venues is not on your important list. Quality seems till date the top call from our feedback and not branding. (sigh of relief)

I guess what we were trying to highlight was the philosophy our team stood for and craft it in as much honesty as we can.

We define underachieving students as students who have the cognitive ability but are not able to achieve their full potential due to reasons such as lack of direction, lack of motivation, self confidence, wrong strategy etc. i.e. They have immense potential, just that there is certain hindrance in their path, that's why they are not getting the grades that they deserve.

Thanks for clarifying this issue pojo!

If your target is the underachievers as defined, then my point is that these are likely to come from poor or disadvantaged families. This leads to the way to reach out to these families.

One way, of course, is to go the charitable route as pointed out by Tankee.

From my reading, it appears that you are going into this to get some income for you and your colleagues. If so, then my earlier point about making the tuition fee inexpensive and having a larger class size are relevant. Hence you need to find a location with low rent. This business model may work if you locate the centre near where low income families are, charge low fees, and build up a track record.

[elishatan]

Just curious, how do you shortlist a tuition center for your child? Is group tuition better than private? I always thought private is better.

[Classroom Delivery]

Dear parents/fellow forumers,



I have been following several forums related to private tuition and home tutors myself (I am from a tuition agency), I would say that there is a significant increase in number of negative feedbacks on home tuition agencies as compared to years ago.

If possible, we would really appreciate if the parents, students and tutors can offer your invaluable feedback/concern on whether to engage a tuition agency to find a tutor/student, and how we can serve you better. Any comments, feedback are welcome.

We thought it would be a good reference for other agencies as well.

Thank you very much for your time.

Gerald

[JasminNg]

I personally think that group tutition is as good the kid can do peer learning.

[christineng1981]

I put my Child in Group tuition as it will be a good help for them to practice learning and feeling like a school environment


when my eldest was just a primary student i do home 1 to 1 tuition i noticed my child is beggining to depend on the tutor always and was worried how she can be competitive in school so i put her in a tuition centre at first she was really scared as there are other children in there I can still remember she was crying and so shy she was only P3. She did improve on her social interaction and being dependent.

But my problem with that centre is that there are too many students i think 12 to 15 students. So i transfered her to a less crowded tuition centre. Where she really do improve a lot Not too many student and tutor are really good teaching in a group but catering to each individual.

I think the way to determine a Good centre is what are the qualifications of the tutors and what are their teaching method. I think its important that they are NIE trained and I prefer to have someone who only teach one subject so they can have focus.
A good centre must have balance on how many students they have.
A good centre must also have a lesson plan prepared.

[JustinLee]

Original Title: What's Your Criteria When Choosing a Tuition Centre??


Hey parents, need your help! I have been dreaming about starting an education centre for the longest time. My recent attempts to set up a language centre, specialising in English and Chinese only for the pre-schoolers and P1-P6, didn't go so well as we thought we needed more time to prepare our material. I thought that to genuinely produce results fast, the
i) Material and
ii) Tutors
of the centre have to be excellent. Materials should be unique and really interesting to children, and the tutors need to be specialised in their subjects and have the experience and heart to teach.

As much as this makes sense to me, it may not be so to you. So please let me know what would be your very top three criteria when choosing a language centre for your cute little ones. Appreciate your input!

[Jana]

Hi all,

does anyone has any experience with PSLE tuition centres in Novena / Newton / Orchard Road - good or bad ones?
I’m looking for a tuition center for my 10 year old son who needs to improve in almost any subjects exept of maths. His Chinese and English is poor. Do you think it could be because his teachers are not native speaking? Are there big differences in fees for different tuition centres? Does a more expensive centre mean better quality?
Thanks a lot for your advice.
Jana

[AceTutors123]

This has come up from my friend as top 3 criteria:

i) Location
ii) Class Size
iii) Quality of Teacher

Any input dear parents?

[PaynPaydad]

I have a child gg to P1.


To me location does not matter.
The most important thing is good materials and qualified teachers.

Do update your thread when you set up yr ctr

Good luck