Letter to Heng Swee Keat
-
verykiasu2010:
Singapore going down the same path? Think already started? There are certain tutors more popular? There are also some branded tuotion centreperhaps Hong Kong is worse than in Singapore ....
http://www.straitstimes.com
Published on May 30, 2011
Exam-obsessed Hong Kong makes celebrity tutors rich
HONG KONG - CUT-THROAT competition for exam success in Hong Kong's high-pressure education system has spawned a new breed of teacher - celebrity tutors with near cult-like status and millionaire lifestyles.
With their glamorous photographs showing megawatt grins and flashy attire splashed across billboards and buses, the star teachers claim to transform failing students into A-grade pupils - and earn up to US$1.5 million (S$1.85 million) a year.
The former British colony's tutoring industry is reportedly worth at least HK$400 million (S$63.4 million), with official figures showing as many as half of secondary school seniors seek private tutoring after school.
Hong Kong parents, often desperate to help their children succeed in the city's intense public-exam system, are more than willing to shell out handsome sums for extracurricular help.
'Hong Kong has a very examination-oriented school culture and tutoring is regarded as a kind of educational investment,' said Kelly Mok, an English tutor who teaches at King's Glory, one of the largest tutorial schools in Hong Kong. That focus on academic success at almost any cost has turned celebrity tutor Mr Richard Eng into a rich man who wheels around the teeming city in a Lamborghini, wears expensive watches and lives in a multi-million dollar mansion in the city's Yuen Long district.
'Enrolment in tutorial schools is astoundingly high - we are talking about 100,000 students every year,' Mr Eng told AFP. Mr Eng and other top tutors have successfully tapped that demand, using flashy, commercial marketing tactics to make themselves household names or academic superstars, otherwise known as 'tutor kings' in Cantonese. His empire, Beacon College, employs over 100 tutors and Eng plans to take the firm public. -- AFP
Copyright
2010 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_674159.html -
My close friend was born a daughter of a push-cart street hawker and she married the son of a laundry woman. Guess where they are now? My friend is now a lawyer and her husband is a high ranking engineer in an MNC. Both commented that they would not be able to climb up this far in their education and career if they grew up in last 10 years.
They commented that the current education system that is reliant on parental coaching and private tuition is no longer a meritocratic system.
Meaning eventually, the country will not progress because the best person does not always get the job, because the job goes to the most well-connected person. -
The basic premise of meritocracy is that opportunities come to those who are able to demonstrate greater competency by some standardized measure, regardless of birth-rights or wealth.
If meritocracy is about being \"fair\", playing the devil's advocate, if we believe that access to tuition is key to a student's academic success, and we take action to provide or subsidize only students from poorer families to good tuition teachers, are we not discriminating against students from wealthier families?
In reality, meritocracy has nothing to do with \"fairness\" - it simply says that people should be hired based on their capability. Students, wealthy or not, will still have to sit for the same exams. Wealthier students may be able to spot more questions because of the additional access to resources - but they will still need to put in the necessary effort to learn the material. Poorer students may lack quality resources, but they will be hungrier and are more motivated to put in the extra effort to do better than their peers.
I feel that the real focus should be on the level of difficulty that students are being examined and tested against. The benchmark increases every year because educationists feel that this is how they can grow better \"crops\" each year. The question is whether the standard of education should be equated to that of economic growth. Unfortunately, this is the key limitation of meritocracy - because everyone knows their academic performance will determine the level of opportunities coming their way, everyone simply \"mug\" their way and become \"exam-smart\", which has nothing to do with actually appreciating or really understanding or learning the material. Students memorize prepared answers, and do 10-years series over and over again. That is the reason why the number of quality passes is always increasing, because of the abundance of such materials! In the same way, children can be trained to do well in the GEP tests just so they get into the classes. This completely warps the original publicly-stated intent of the GEP being a programme for special-needs and naturally gifted children. And why do parents want their children to be in GEP? Because of the Direct School Admission which gives priority to such children!
As long as meritocracy remains the cornerstone of compensation in Singapore, it will be impossible to reduce the level of stress that our young ones have to go through. It is really easy for non-parents to call us parents kiasu and other derogatory terms, and to blame us for creating stress in our children. In fact, it is the meritocracy that created this problem. The last thing we parents want is to scream and yell and learn Primary school material so that we can teach our children ourselves :faint: -
Well said, Chief! :goodpost:
-
ChiefKiasu:
The benchmark increases every year because educationists feel that this is how they can grow better \"crops\" each year.
:goodpost: Chief.
On the above post, I believe benchmark increases not because they wanted to grow better \"crops\" but they are trying to force fit the students into the \"Bell-curve\". As the years go, the \"Bell curve\" kept moving towards to the right, so the PSLE papers will generally get tougher and tougher in order to differentiate the cohort. -
Well put Chief. I couldn't agree more.
added some of my thoughts below ...ChiefKiasu:
This would not have been a problem if our education is sufficiently developed and capable of preparing students for such level of difficulty in these exams, or have we incorporated tuition centres as a part of our education?...
I feel that the real focus should be on the level of difficulty that students are being examined and tested against. The benchmark increases every year because educationists feel that this is how they can grow better \"crops\" each year.
...ChiefKiasu:
Most of us do not have another choice. Very few have the luxury of education without the need to earn a living....
The question is whether the standard of education should be equated to that of economic growth.
...
realistically, our kids will need tuition. right? :? -
verykiasu2010:
dun worry la, we sure overtake them, no porblem!perhaps Hong Kong is worse than in Singapore ....
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_674159.html -
dunnoleh:
Tuition for how many subjects? I can understand if it is for one or two weaker subjects, but if for all ... then er ... my question would be why? If a child is weak in all subjects, I would suspect the child has a learning difficulty that would need to be addressed. Tuition may not help much.
realistically, our kids will need tuition. right? :?
Sometimes I wonder, how different is the tuition classroom settings from the school classroom settings? If they are identical, isn't the problem replicated outside school environment?
However, I see exception to small group (max 5 pupils) or 1:1 tuition as this will be more targeted and the approach will be more individualised for the child involved. -
Trapwithin:
I am curious....is the educationists the only ones trying to differentiate the cohort?ChiefKiasu:
The benchmark increases every year because educationists feel that this is how they can grow better \"crops\" each year.
:goodpost: Chief.
On the above post, I believe benchmark increases not because they wanted to grow better \"crops\" but they are trying to force fit the students into the \"Bell-curve\". As the years go, the \"Bell curve\" kept moving towards to the right, so the PSLE papers will generally get tougher and tougher in order to differentiate the cohort.
When our children are doing well in school, are WE NOT interested to know where they stand in their cohort?
Are WE satisfied with just knowing our child is doing well or HOW WELL?
When we have 15 of them all scoring 99/100 in their papers, do we not lament over the paper being too easy?
When there is a BIG pool of average kids, are WE not concerned over where exactly do they fall under this average pool? top, middle or low...NO??
I believe there must be some tools/systems/methods etc to differentiate so that the truly good ones can be developed fully and help for the weaker ones.
I hope that more can be done to value-add and help the less privileged/weaker ones.
I think the system is created fair to start with, but it's the after school activities and expectation that eventually tweaked the system. -
cwc:
Personally, no... I am not interested in how they stand in their cohort. I didn't bother in P1 and P3 because I knew there was no streaming (at least for my kids, there weren't). I had to pay attention in P2 and P4 because they streamed into ability classes. If (hypothetically, because a pure form of mixed ability teaching may have serious downsides) all secondary schools were created equal, and the opportunities in secondary didn't differ greatly from one school to another... then I wouldn't even bother about PSLE.When our children are doing well in school, are WE NOT interested to know where they stand in their cohort?
cwc:
I agree that we had a nice system. Unfortunately, they've gone and enhanced it and enhanced it in the same direction - adding salt and more salt to a good dish, thus throwing everything out of whack.I think the system is created fair to start with, but it's the after school activities and expectation that eventually tweaked the system.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login