CatMoon:

fable:

[quote=\"zbear\"]

Thanks for sharing. After reading, I conclude that you are blessed with a sensible n matured son who knows how to take ownership of his life.

Generally, GE kids are up 1 vs MS kids so with proper parental support and guidance, they perform better in both academic and non academic fields (able to manage time). Tuition for GE kids is not as common as for MS kids and parents are lucky to be able to save $$$$ on tuition.

This is my observation from feedback given by parents of GE kids vs MS (averages ability) kids.

According to my son, all his classmates have tuition except him! It really surprised me because at the beginning of P4 he was one of the few who had tuition.

fable:

zbear:

Thanks for sharing. After reading, I conclude that you are blessed with a sensible n matured son who knows how to take ownership of his life.

Generally, GE kids are up 1 vs MS kids so with proper parental support and guidance, they perform better in both academic and non academic fields (able to manage time). Tuition for GE kids is not as common as for MS kids and parents are lucky to be able to save $$$$ on tuition.

This is my observation from feedback given by parents of GE kids vs MS (averages ability) kids.

According to my son, all his classmates have tuition except him! It really surprised me because at the beginning of P4 he was one of the few who had tuition.

zbear:

Thanks for sharing. After reading, I conclude that you are blessed with a sensible n matured son who knows how to take ownership of his life.

Generally, GE kids are up 1 vs MS kids so with proper parental support and guidance, they perform better in both academic and non academic fields (able to manage time). Tuition for GE kids is not as common as for MS kids and parents are lucky to be able to save $$$$ on tuition.

This is my observation from feedback given by parents of GE kids vs MS (averages ability) kids.

fable:

My son is in P5 (in GE) and he doesn't have tuition. In P3 and 4, he had one-on-one Chinese tuition but when his tutor couldn't continue teaching for personal reasons, I discussed it with my son, and decided not to replace him. My son's Chinese is not great. He moved from a very english speaking christian brothers school to a SAP GEP school, and i dare say he's in the bottom 1/3 of the class in HCL. But we dropped tuition for a couple of reasons:
1) I want him to be responsible for his learning. He is fairly motivated, and I think for him it works to be able to tell him as we did after this year's mid-year exams - see no tuition and no help from me and you improved over last year. This is a result of your hard work.
2)His school Chinese Teachers are very good, and they seem to be keeping an eye on him. While he is comfortably over the benchmark, when his Chinese teacher heard from us that he has no tuition, he was invited to join his remedial sessions of an hour a week.
3) His base standard has reached a level where I think he can teach himself. Meaning if he couldn't read many of the words in his texts then it would be asking too much to self study. But he understands enough to be able to guess at the meanings of words he doesn't know.
4) It saves time and stress. My son has a crazy busy schedule doing things he enjoys - swimming, running, drums, wushu, rubik's cube, anime, cycling. The weekly 2 hours of chinese tuition really affected how much time he had to chill. This year Fridays are alot more relaxed for him coz all he needs to do is complete his homework, and he can rest all weekend.

While I work part time and do have time to help him with his work if needed, I very very very seldom do this. If he doesn't understand a concept I ask him to speak to his teachers. He doesn't do assessment papers either, although nearer the mid year exam, he asked me to get some exam papers for him to practice as revision. What I do is look at his marked homework regularly and ask him if he understands why he got certain questions wrong, and whether he knows how to do the question now. My job is mainly to remind him to finish his work, think about its quality and make sure he packs it - he is incredibly disorganised!

I have also told him that if he feels he needs help, I will find him tuition teachers. While he should rightfully be proud of being able to handle the work on his own, this pride should not stop him from looking for help should he need it. He knows that he earns the right to go for his almost daily sports sessions by completing his homework and keeping his grades at a decent level. And he knows that his mama is super anal about sleep time. I aim for 10 hours a night but have been negotiated down to 9 - 9.5 hours. These two things are not (further) negotiable.

He is in no way some superhuman, perfect kid that does everything perfectly on his own. He is careless and forgetful and argumentative. And we haven't yet hit the dreaded PSLE year. But all in all, I think he is doing ok, and I'm grateful for all the money he is saving us in tuition and assessment books. Cross my fingers that the next several years stay on track!

ChiefKiasu:

I believe there is general consensus that tuition is good and necessary for kids who are weak in subjects, ie. failing or near failing. Things are less clear if the child is already performing reasonably well, ie. scoring 70 and above in subjects. It seems that many people frown when kids in this category are sent for tuition to push them to score above 90 and get A*.

kaitlynangelica:

I have to disagree with you based on my experience.


Seriously, the teaching is touch and go.Its even worse in secondary school where the teacher can cover the whole chapter in one lesson and then chuck a whole stack of worksheets on the students.

For my daughter, she mentioned that even when she does try to ask the teacher, the teacher either doesn't have time, cannot be found or even worse still accuses her of not paying attention in class.If the schools were so good, then there would have been no need for tuition centres to sprout up everywhere.

A good tutor can be there to mentor the child, clarify doubts on the subject and even help in exam techniques.

kaitlynangelica:

There is no need to compare who goes for tuition or who doesn't.


As parents, we know what our kids need best.

If the child is weak and struggling, and the parent cannot teach and yet managed to find a good tutor who can help the child grasp well, what is wrong with sending for tuition?

Our school syllabus is such that the teaching is touch and go....and yet the depth of understanding required is deep. So if a tutor / mentor can help coach the kid and bring her / him to the maximum potential, then why not?

There is no need to compare who sends or who doesn't send for tuition.

Those who have had success in coaching their kids and didn't have to send for tuition do not need to make those who send for tuition feel guilty. Likewise those who have had to send their kids for tuition do not need to envy those who did not have to.

Every child functions differently.

ImMeeMee:

My three girls have not had tuition so far. DH coaches our P6 and P5 girls on Math and science, and I share the load on MT and HMT. They are generally in the A range, occasionally dropping to B, but hardly any A*.


I coach my P3 girl myself. She has special needs and reading mainstream curriculum. This SA she had borderline fail for more than one subject. But we still think it is best to coach her ourselves cos we can customise our teaching approach according to her learning objectives and based on her strengths and challenges. Its tough, and a lot of hard work on her part and mine, but I am not certain that having a tuition teacher will improve her grades any better than currently.

JMHO.

mathtuition88:

Overall, the life of a student in Singapore is tough; arguably even tougher than the life of an adult who has a 8-5pm job. A student's \"job\" of studying in Singapore ranges from 7am in the morning to late at night, including weekends. There is not much rest during the \"school holidays\" as there may be exams coming right up.

kaitlynangelica:

There is no need to compare who goes for tuition or who doesn't.


As parents, we know what our kids need best.

If the child is weak and struggling, and the parent cannot teach and yet managed to find a good tutor who can help the child grasp well, what is wrong with sending for tuition?

Our school syllabus is such that the teaching is touch and go....and yet the depth of understanding required is deep. So if a tutor / mentor can help coach the kid and bring her / him to the maximum potential, then why not?

There is no need to compare who sends or who doesn't send for tuition.

Those who have had success in coaching their kids and didn't have to send for tuition do not need to make those who send for tuition feel guilty. Likewise those who have had to send their kids for tuition do not need to envy those who did not have to.

Every child functions differently.

ChiefKiasu:

I believe there is general consensus that tuition is good and necessary for kids who are weak in subjects, ie. failing or near failing. Things are less clear if the child is already performing reasonably well, ie. scoring 70 and above in subjects. It seems that many people frown when kids in this category are sent for tuition to push them to score above 90 and get A*.