P1 Tution -- Necessary?

[jacsplace]

Hi Imami,


I think "trigger" has different meanings to different parents. In my case, the trigger is that I realized my son needed someone to sit down beside him and make him do the work. He has tuition for maths and Tamil. He does well at maths in school, but he is careless. He also says he forgets what he has been taught in school. The tutor helps by giving him extra practice and taking more time to explain. The Tamil tuition is necessary because it’s the only home support that he has.

[Imami]

fable:

Imami, I teach at a local university and have been informally polling my students over the last few years (when I remember) on how much tuition they had. You might be interested to know that consistently, less than 1/4 of my students that went through the local system had any tuition in primary school.


I'm not saying don't give your child tuition, simply that there are lots of kids that do manage well without it. Rather than follow any 'norm', perhaps you could watch to see how well your child learns and get feedback from his preschool teachers?

Thanks fable. Do correct me if I get it wrong - your students are uni students. I am sure about ten to fifteen years back, tuition was not as common as it is today. Back then tuition could be restricted to those who needed a push to pass.

In today's context, tuition serves different meaning. For some, it is like an energy drink to give one a boost to stay at the top. For the others, it may be to fill in any possible gap. I hardly hear people saying that they kid's need tuition because they are failing.

Different strokes for different folks. Whatever it is, I believe most parents know/do what is best for their children. For me, I try to do my best too, as a parent and that's why I am in the ksp community to learn from all of you.

And yes, fable - I would keep in mind your comment to watch my child and see how he progress.

[Imami]

hquek:

hi imami,


Hard to say. I also believe in prevention better than cure. if you talk about real tuition (those 1-1 type, and NOT enrichment classes), I think it may be better to start when you feel there is a problem. In my case, it was the departure of teachers in his kindy that led me to wonder what in the world is going on and how it would impact my going to be P1 kid. So there was that push factor.

Heard from a teacher that P1/2 are easy steps; P3/4 will be a big step forward; P5 they will start learning for PSLE. Unfortunately time don't seem to be on our side. Basically I don't want my kids to reach upper primary and then know they have to struggle to understand what the teachers are talking about.

Yes hquek, that is What i fear. The children are still young and they do not know what is available for them. As parents we need to make decisions on their behalf until they could decide wisely for themselves. Which is why this thread is of interest to me. I hope to understand more in order to make better decision is time to come (although I hope that time will never come).

[Imami]

jacsplace:

Hi Imami,


I think \"trigger\" has different meanings to different parents. In my case, the trigger is that I realized my son needed someone to sit down beside him and make him do the work. He has tuition for maths and Tamil. He does well at maths in school, but he is careless. He also says he forgets what he has been taught in school. The tutor helps by giving him extra practice and taking more time to explain. The Tamil tuition is necessary because it's the only home support that he has.

Thanks jacsplace. How does tuition helps your child about his carelessness? Does the tutor give pointers and tips for him to avoid the common pitfall?

[Champion]

slmkhoo:

Imami:

[quote=\"hquek\"]Heard from a teacher that P1/2 are easy steps; P3/4 will be a big step forward; P5 they will start learning for PSLE. Unfortunately time don't seem to be on our side. Basically I don't want my kids to reach upper primary and then know they have to struggle to understand what the teachers are talking about.

Yes hquek, that is What i fear. The children are still young and they do not know what is available for them. As parents we need to make decisions on their behalf until they could decide wisely for themselves. Which is why this thread is of interest to me. I hope to understand more in order to make better decision is time to come (although I hope that time will never come).

I think it is important to focus on understanding rather than on results. A child may be doing well in school by mechanical learning but not really understanding; conversely a child may be doing poorly because of carelessness, lack of motivation or interest etc, not because of a lack of understanding. .[/quote] :goodpost:
P1 and P2 are the least challenging years of the child's entire career - this is my personal experience but please don't :pokeeye: if you are not agreeable to it. Most schools have done away with the \"standard exams\" CA1, CA2, SA1, SA2 in these 2 years so it is more important to allow the child to transit into P1 comfortably and then focus more on building up his character and subsequently lay a strong foundation on his academic aspect.

My DD1 is P4 (Upper Primary) and DD2 is P1 (Lower Primary) so I am dealing with 2 \"different\" levels concurrently But I apply the same \"technique\" to them (but am still learning, by the way :oops: :oops: ) - Motivation. Am still trying many methods to movtivate them because every child is different - rather that I focus on grades why not I focus on motivating them? After that, as I always tell my kids,\" you need NOT to be 1st or top 20 in the class; you just need to be answerable to yourself that you have done your best and done better than before!\" :evil:

[jacsplace]

Hi Imami,


Yes, the tutor gives him pointers and tips. She is patient and firm with him, which really helps because he is beginning to understand that he needs to take primary school work more seriously than kindy. I let go for quite a lot of things for his kindy work because I wanted him to enjoy his childhood. Looks like the downside of that is that he thinks school is all play play.

[kaitlynangelica]

Here is my two cents worth:-


1) Some people use a tutor as a babysitter to monitor the child’s work, or to get the child to do simple assessments or daily revision.

2) Some parents I know simply cannot coach the child and they feel that farming out to tuition will be better for the relationship.

3) Working parents who come back late have no time to sit down and set assessments for a child, let alone mark. What I found most difficult was coming home to mark the child’s assessments but having no time to go through or walk through the mistakes dd had made.

4) Tutors are helpful where a child is not exam smart.
For eg, section B for the science paper requires answering in a certain manner with keywords and correct tenses or the child will be marked wrong. A good tutor familiar with the school syllabus and what examiners are looking out for in an exam can point that out to a child.

For maths, math statements and showing of workings are essential in problem sums and sometimes, a tutor is needed to guide a child in that.

5) As a means of communication for the 2nd language.

I know parents who hire tutors for the child just to communicate in Mandarin becausethe parent is not competent in the language.

6) Finally, a lot is a matter of expectations. No right or wrong…I know parents who are happy with their child scoring 200 for PSLE. Some want their kid to score 250 and above and if tutors fulfil that, why not?


Above all, as a parent , you know your child best. The parent who sends the child off to tuition even from pre-school will probably have done so as they see an inherent need. No need to question others if it is right or wrong, appropriate and inappropriate. No need to feel insecure if your action is right or wrong. YOU KNOW YOUR CHILD BEST AND WHETHER HE OR SHE NEEDS TUITION.

[hquek]

Agree with what slmkhoo and champion says. Bottomline should be that the child should understand what what is going on and not learn by rote (actually I’m not sure if this is even possible now). All i ask of my kids are that they know they tried their best (that why im happy when they have dont know mistakes, but will be unhappy with careless ones) . Results are only for that term and will not mean anything going forward.


Can only say that when kids are young, parents should focus on getting the languages foundation firmly in place. Once that is in, kid should have little problems for the other subjects also.

[Imami]

Thanks you to all of you for contributing valuable comments and ideas. I see having tuition as taking anti-biotics. Some times, the body just need a some help in getting well. But too much is no good for the body. Having tuition is helpful in certain instances but it may not help a child to acquire the skills needed to learn (not sure if you all understand me?). If tuition becomes spoon feeding, it is not going to do my child any good.

[IrEnE06]

For those parents who are having their kids in P1 next year, do you give them tution?


It’s seems like a norm now for parents to send their kids to tution but is it really necessary for P1?

Reason I asked because, I called up one tution centre and they are teaching
Addition up to 10 for P1 Maths, which I feel is too simple for my coming soon P1 girl. However, being a Kiasu Parent, I do not want my girl to fall behind her peers if she did not attend any tution.

Any advise?