The Real Reason Why We Send Our Children to Tuition
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Dilbert_A1:
I am sure most teachers want to do what they set out to...ie TEACH. Pressuring school leaders to allow their teachers to teach more and cut down on non-core teaching is not going to work if their bosses in MOE think otherwise. Strange thing is, schools want to engage parents as partners in their children's education.
If you really want your child's teacher to improve dramatically on quality of teaching, talk to the principal and school leaders. Tell them to stop pressuring their teachers to do more in order to score points for promotion and performance bonus. Tell them to save the crap of 'all-rounded' education.
Just for your info, turnover rate is high, despite outsiders envying teachers as having 'iron rice bowl'. If you want your school teachers to teach better so that you can spend less on tuition, then you need to apply pressure on the school leaders and get them to focus on teaching, and stop the wayang.
BTW, when Minister Heng said he wanted to focus more on moral education and less on results, it simply means teachers have to set aside more time to plan and draft more Civics Education lesson packages. There is no reduction in other workload.
As parents, you would ask yourself if the school system (including top primary and secondary) is so good, why do you need to spend so much on tuition still?
I hope I shed some light on what is happening on in the schools. Most teachers would really want to focus on teaching. But circumstances and higher powers decided otherwise.
The wayang, sad to say, will continue. Tuition will continue to be part of most children's lives. School/miscellaneous fees are cheap for Singaporeans...money to pass major exams is paid to tuition centers/tutors. -
longmao.irene:
I agree too! There are just so many things for them to do now as compared to our time
Agreed totally! U forgot to mention d tons of paper / admin work they r facing as compare to our times as well.. I really feel for them, especially d kids & parents r nOt as easy to teach n deal wif as compare to olden days. True, technology bring upon efficiency etc.. Bt come on teaching is abt passion aka \"software cant b overload\"Dilbert_A1:
You should have a good talk with your daughter's teachers, not to find fault, but rather, to discover for yourself the challenges the teacher is facing. That piece of info is very crucial, somewhat like the missing part of a jigsaw puzzle.
A beginning teacher usually has no resources and has to develop from scratch. Many more experienced teachers often are not willing to share, simply because of a ranking system in school that encourages competition rather than cooperation. So, the quality of the notes may differ from teacher to teacher. Not all schools use standardized teaching materials across the board.
Even if a teacher is experienced, the teacher is very distracted. Admin work is just one part. There are department projects, CCA, competition, school plays, science projects, Action Research thesis/projects.
If you really want your child's teacher to improve dramatically on quality of teaching, talk to the principal and school leaders. Tell them to stop pressuring their teachers to do more in order to score points for promotion and performance bonus. Tell them to save the crap of 'all-rounded' education.
Everyone has the same 24 hours a day. If the teacher spends more time on CCA and other school projects, it simply means that the teacher will spend less time on marking, lesson preparation and remedial. In school, the phrase 'time management' simply means bring the work home to do.
Just for your info, turnover rate is high, despite outsiders envying teachers as having 'iron rice bowl'. If you want your school teachers to teach better so that you can spend less on tuition, then you need to apply pressure on the school leaders and get them to focus on teaching, and stop the wayang.
BTW, when Minister Heng said he wanted to focus more on moral education and less on results, it simply means teachers have to set aside more time to plan and draft more Civics Education lesson packages. There is no reduction in other workload.
As parents, you would ask yourself if the school system (including top primary and secondary) is so good, why do you need to spend so much on tuition still?
I hope I shed some light on what is happening on in the schools. Most teachers would really want to focus on teaching. But circumstances and higher powers decided otherwise. -
peanut_butter:
Cannot give teachers allowance...or we get treated to coffee at CPIB.How did those leaders ended up in MOE when they know nothing about education?
Parents, do your part, give your school teacher an allowance, so that they may be allowed to fail the MOE system and teach freely. -
A report by a research firm in Singapore (Blackbox Research) reveals just how parents think of having private tuition for their kids. Check out the report and key stats: http://schooloftutors.com/blog/how-about-another-white-paper-on-private-tuition-in-singapore-that-is/.
Are we really a Tuition nation? -
SchoolOfTutors:
We are NOT the only tuition nation. Asian countries like Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan are all the same.
Are we really a Tuition nation? -
Beautyful Minds:
Let's just say I got a lot of inside info.
That's very insightful, are you a teacher?Dilbert_A1:
You should have a good talk with your daughter's teachers, not to find fault, but rather, to discover for yourself the challenges the teacher is facing. That piece of info is very crucial, somewhat like the missing part of a jigsaw puzzle.
A beginning teacher usually has no resources and has to develop from scratch. Many more experienced teachers often are not willing to share, simply because of a ranking system in school that encourages competition rather than cooperation. So, the quality of the notes may differ from teacher to teacher. Not all schools use standardized teaching materials across the board.
Even if a teacher is experienced, the teacher is very distracted. Admin work is just one part. There are department projects, CCA, competition, school plays, science projects, Action Research thesis/projects.
If you really want your child's teacher to improve dramatically on quality of teaching, talk to the principal and school leaders. Tell them to stop pressuring their teachers to do more in order to score points for promotion and performance bonus. Tell them to save the crap of 'all-rounded' education.
Everyone has the same 24 hours a day. If the teacher spends more time on CCA and other school projects, it simply means that the teacher will spend less time on marking, lesson preparation and remedial. In school, the phrase 'time management' simply means bring the work home to do.
Just for your info, turnover rate is high, despite outsiders envying teachers as having 'iron rice bowl'. If you want your school teachers to teach better so that you can spend less on tuition, then you need to apply pressure on the school leaders and get them to focus on teaching, and stop the wayang.
BTW, when Minister Heng said he wanted to focus more on moral education and less on results, it simply means teachers have to set aside more time to plan and draft more Civics Education lesson packages. There is no reduction in other workload.
As parents, you would ask yourself if the school system (including top primary and secondary) is so good, why do you need to spend so much on tuition still?
I hope I shed some light on what is happening on in the schools. Most teachers would really want to focus on teaching. But circumstances and higher powers decided otherwise.
Key problem is that there are too many demands made on the same teacher. The demands can be met, but it means cutting on quality. Regardless of how much you pay teachers, teachers are humans, not God.
If you make someone do too many different things, quality has to go down because time is spread out more thinly over all the different matters. Time management can only help so much.
A less qualified tutor can often teach better than a more qualified teacher. The main reason is because the tutor needs only to focus on teaching, while for the teacher, teaching is only one of the many duties. And given the current trend in schools, it is gradually becoming not the most important duty anymore.
Most teachers I know of, personally or casual acquaintances, spend a lot more time on their CCA and various school projects than they do on marking and lesson preparation. So, kids have to fend for themselves more and more, or fork out money for tuition. -
Times have changed…education standards/expectations have increased tremendously. Even parents now are more demanding. Teachers are saddled with either project or CCA/admin work…they also have to teach several classes…how can kids go without tuition? Come exams, are the kids prepared if they do not have tutors??? Tutors can remember child’s weaknesses and target those areas…can a teacher possibly do that? She can’t…bcos her hands are full.
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Parents have every right to know what’s going on in order to provide support for their children, but questioning someone’s professionalism and competence is quite different from genuinely wanting to know what’s going on.
A friend told me that during a meet-the-parents session, a rude parent ‘asked’ him,"Is it because the teachers are very lazy, that’s why you all don’t do compos on a weekly basis?"
If you are a teacher and a parent tells that right into your face, would you think that’s a genuine question?
And she’s just a lowly-educated housewife.
I once heard a retired teacher say this:
In the past, teachers are gods;
Now, teachers are dogs. -
rains:
Here is why teachers don't do compos on a weekly basis:Parents have every right to know what's going on in order to provide support for their children, but questioning someone's professionalism and competence is quite different from genuinely wanting to know what's going on.
A friend told me that during a meet-the-parents session, a rude parent 'asked' him,\"Is it because the teachers are very lazy, that's why you all don't do compos on a weekly basis?\"
If you are a teacher and a parent tells that right into your face, would you think that's a genuine question?
And she's just a lowly-educated housewife.
I once heard a retired teacher say this:
In the past, teachers are gods;
Now, teachers are dogs.
It takes a teacher around 5-10 minutes to grade one compo properly. In a class of 40 students, it would take at least 200 minutes (nearly 3 hours) to finish marking the compo.
And that is only for one class. Most teachers teach at least 4 different classes in secondary schools, or teach the same class 3 subjects in primary school.
As such, homework given out has to be controlled strictly. If not, the teacher would be overwhelmed by all the marking.
And btw, schools have inofficially mandated that marking of homework is of lesser priority. This can be seen by the school's taking up of the teacher's time through meetings, CCAs and various school projects. Schools operate on the basis that teachers are expected to work 10 hours a day at least in school, and another 2-3 hours from home every weekday, and probably another 2-3 hours over every weekend.
I bet your school never told you all these during PTM. -
The multiple tasking of teachers is not something new and has gone on for generations. What has changed is the parent’s and society’s expectations.
When my father was a primary school principal he put in long hours not only doing admin work, but also teaching classes in his school, attending various meetings as a principal, attending RC meetings as principal, attending school committee meetings, organising and running workshops for teachers, giving talks, reviewing the weekly class teaching plans of each teacher, officiating at various activities outside school.
The teachers today have similar heavy workloads but have to deal with demanding parents who are not able to grasp the full workload of the teachers including the stress of disciplining a class of boisterous primary school kids who by their nature are full of energy.
Tutors do not have these demands on their time and rightly so as the objectives of tuition are clearly different. Tutors are not meant to be developers of the holistic child unlike the school teacher. BUT I must say the MOE can and should give much more support to MOE teachers so that they can actually perform the role of holistic teaching.
CCAs should be handled completely by allied educators or teaching assistants, admin work should be handled by allied educators or teaching assistants, certain class projects should be supervised by allied educators or teaching assistants.
Getting this balance right will allow the MOE teachers to teach and to reduce the reliance on tutors (but will never completely eliminate it)
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