To rains & meinteel, I am not angry or emotional. Infact, i replied in kind & style to TheAnswer Kiasu Grandmaster. Looks like she is more emotional & angry than me. I have already make peace with her after she made it clear that she has no hard feelings. Looks like she had exited from this forum after i have logged in, being away from a long businesss trip. I do miss the drama she injected into this forum ...

The Full story - The New Paper On Sunday 12 May 2013, Pg 12-13


Give us a watchdog for tutors


Heartlanders are wondering if anything can be done to help verify tutors’ qualifications


MAUREEN KOH


Tuition. It’s a magic word that affects most of us, whether we are grandparents, parents or children.The spotlight was thrown on tuition providers again after The New Paper reported on Wednesday that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is investigating the founder and managing director of a tuition centre, Raffles EduHub, who claimed to be a locum medical doctor and a child psychologist.

Checks with both the Singapore Medical Council and MOH showed that her name is not on their lists of registered doctors.

Heartlanders whom this correspondent spoke to wanted to know what can be done to prevent such false claims.They feel that the claim of being a doctor could have atrracted parents to sign up with the tuition centre.

And it makes them worry about the state of the tuition industry today.
Subsequent stories in TNP revealed that almost anyone can set up a tuition agency.

One 21-year-old said that he had 30,000 tutors on his toll, and that he was matching them to clients. He did not check their qualifications. This comes on the back of another incident last year where a tutor - who proclaimed he’d been in the Gifted Education Programme - had his bluff called.

Housewife Sandie Tan, 48, sends her children, 14 and 11, to two different tuition centres for coaching in three subjects.
She says: "Every time I read such reports, I start to worry about my kids’ tutors.
I mean, if a tuition centre can operate for nine years (such as Raffles Eduhub) before someone finds out something is not quite right, how can I be sure (the others) are fine?"

Mr Gan Peck Chin, 41, a sales executive, is just as concerned each time he comes across such reports.

"What frustrates me more is that we are constantly reminded that there is no official authority that we can approach to verify a tutor’s or a centre’s claim and qualifications," says the father of three young children.

Mr Gan’s frustration is shared by 28 out of the 30 parents randomly approached by this heartland aunty.

All of them offer stories of bad experiences with tutors, tuition centres and even tuition agencies at one time or another.
Most times, they merely drop the current ones and engage the services of new ones.

Says the mother of a pair of twins in Mandarin: "It’s not like I can go to one particular organisation to complain.

Moreover when a problem comes up, parents are more worried about finding a replacement quickly so that our children won’t waste more time."
And complaints against errant tutors or agencies, unlike tuition centres which have to be registered with Ministry of Education (MOE), can be a waste of time, say those polled.

Mr Joel Ho, 38, a shop assistant says: "We have nowhere or no one really from which to seek redress. And by the time we get something going, our children’s exams may be round the corner."

A check with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) indicates that the number of complaints made against tuition centres or tutors since 2010 hovered below 10. The numbers refer to both filed and assisted cases, says Case’s executive director Seah Seng Choon.

This heartland aunty thinks a few or no complaints don’t mean that all is well. Unlike my older child, who has gone through his primary school years without any tuition, I sent my daughter to a tuition centre for two months last year when she was preparing for her PSLE. By the second month, I did not see an improvement in her grades. She also failed one of her Math test.

That was it.I pulled her out of the centre at once. There was no time for complaints. Getting help for her as quickly as possible was the only thing on my mind.

Of course, I still lament that there is no form of regulation for an industry that caters to almost one in two Singaporean parents (and their children), according to some surveys.

An Asian Development Bank report (ADB) pegged parents’ spending on tuition here at $820 million in 2008.

It also said the amount spent on private supplementary tutoring has been on the rise and has doubled from 10 years ago.

I can only imagine what the spending is now five years since the report, when there is a plethora of tuition centres, agencies and tutors - some of which charge thousands a month for the privilege of attending their classes (yes, a student has to take a test and ace it before they get to attend tuition at the centre).

Now, back to the state of our industry - or rather, the unregulated state of the industry. There is of course, caveat emptor or "let the buyer beware".We can urge parents to verify such claims.

As Case’s Mr Seah advises: "We like to urge consumers to do their due diligence and check the credentials of the tutors they engage for their children.

"They should verify the tutor’s credentials with the Ministry of Education or the institutions which issue the credentials, so that they do not fall into traps of dubious tuition agencies or private tutors."

While I agree that parents have to take responsibility for who they hire, can you imagine the volume of inquiries that would come into the inboxes of the authories should every parent check?

Seems like there is a need for a more holistic solution.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating for a heavily regulated Singapore, but surely some form of regulation in this multi-million dollar industry is justificate?

Maybe anyone who wants to be a tutor should have to file her qualifications with a Government agency, say, the Council for Private Education, which has private education institutions within its ambit?
It’s not too far stretch to say these tuition centres, agencies are private education institutions too, right?

The agency can also run background checks so that the person teaching my child would have had no previous issues with child molestation, for instance.

This way, tuition agencies (which fall outside the purview of MOE) will be have to ensure that they engage safe, and qualified tutors who can really deliver what they promise.

Steps to screen tutors

1 Ask to see academic certificates and transcripts.You have every right to them. No qualified tutor will turn down the request.

2 Ask tutors for their National Institute of Education (NIE) transcripts, which will indicate which subjects they have been trained to teach.Note that tuition agencies (which provide tutor-student matches) do not have to be registered with MOE, unlike tuition centres which operate as schools.

3 Research online. Read reviews in forums or ask your friends on Facebook. Google the tutor or centre and chances are, there will be some form of traces that can offer crucial information or details.

4 Sit in on one session. It gives you the opportunity to gauge a tutor’s skills and how your child reacts to him/her. You can also see how professional or friendly the tutor is.

5 Have a chat with the tutor. A personal chat gives you a chance to suss out the tutor. You can ask him/her about work experience, track record or even school background.

To Kiasu Grandmaster, Likewise I feel about you

Thank you for the understanding and the encouragement. Anyway, I do not wish to participate in this discussion before I get even more misunderstood…I always believe that the forum should be respectful and to treat the other forum participant rationally. Unless one has adequate and practical references, I don’t think it is appropriate to make any allegations on someone on their personal character.

I had said and I quote "to conclude, I find the tuition market to be very unstable and volatile one" and i explain all these in the context of my friend. And these are my personal opinion. Everyone was entitled to it. Secondly I wasn’t refer to tutoring but the setting up of the tuition centres in the context of a friend. I hope someone had read this with an open mind in this open country and do not insinuate that I am making this very personal in spreading "despise" message in this forum. I had wished this had been an open adult discussion & sharing. Everyone is free to share their perspectives and experiences. Some may share very good and some bad…we are all here to learn, no flaming each other?


What with this "What is wrong with being a taxi driver or insurance agent? Do you despise them? Have you not heard of tutors or insurance agents who earn more than 10K a month? Give us proper respect. We are all making an honest living with the knowledge we have." Anything wrong personally from me? There is nothing wrong with being a tutor or insurance agents. In fact in my opening context, i quote "It may be true only for the very successful enrichment centre who found their niche in this market. It is a fallacy that tuition Centre was anything but easy."

I think this is absurd for somebody to totally take me out of context! How do you want me to answer your question or i would call allegation that i cannot absolve myself from blame but to totally provide evidence to prove my innocence? "Give us proper respect. We are all making an honest living with the knowledge we have. " Did i say you are not making an honest living. I am merely sharing my friend’s experiences and i got flamed. What a forum!!! The next, I may be getting threats as I have already gotten in another forum. I don’t intend anyone to read beyond what I wrote, but obviously someone did…and i was mortified and ashamed of being part of this discussion!!

There are some people who think that setting up a tuition centre is an easy job with a potential for high income. It may be true only for the very successful enrichment centre who found their niche in this market. It is a fallacy that tuition Centre was anything but easy. I had a friend who was passionate about teaching and went gung-ho into it with another 2 partners at a shopping centre. After a year, she had to shut down the tuition centre and their relationship had soured as a result. She told me they had irreconcilable differences where it comes to collection of school fees and operating the centre. They are also always comparing as to who did more to deserve the profits, if there were any at all.

When my friend was retrenched from her managerial job, she ended up working in temp/ contract positions to provide for her family. Then suddenly one day, she told me that she is going to set up a tuition centre with 2 partners whom she barely know and it was the passion to be her own boss and help nurture the next generation that made her determined to enter this joint venture. Her family gladly invested 5 figure sums into her new partnership.

She shared with me some of her unpleasant experiences. There were students who misbehaved during lessons and was always disrupting the classes and vandalizing her premises. She subsequently realised they were rejects from other tuition centres. There were also children with ADHD and their parents would usually blame her for not improving their results. She gathered from some parents that they had many tutors before but to no avail.

There are some kids who had tuition at other tuition centers besides her tuition centre, and their results were always bad. They usually stop when their results didn’t improve much after a few months and she had to find new students again or live on a lower income. Some parents refused to pay her the school fees even after their children had utilized their security deposits. She also had to deal with parents who forced her to conduct remedial lessons at her own cost when their children could not attend the lessons because of CCA or other personal activities. There is one parent who demanded her school fees back after 4 lessons because her child failed the prelim paper. It was unfair to my friend to be judged for her child’s performance based on just 4 lessons. I don’t think anyone can understand how she felt unless they had been through it all. Because she isn’t the confrontational sort, she refunded the school fees, short of breaking into tears in front of the parents who treated her abusively.
Usually she had to chase students for their school fees after every month. Most of them would forget to tell their parents and most parents didn’t bother to keep track of the lessons given. Only a few of them were prompt in giving her the school fees every month. She was even got scolded by some parents when she reminded them of the school fees. Her cash flow is so tight that she needs to use her own salary to pay upfront the rent, utilities, her teachers, stationary and the materials. What’s more, she has other 2 partners who don’t seems to put enough energy in running & marketing the centre and they had depended on her and demanded their profit sharing every month.

To conclude, I find the tuition market to be very unstable and volatile one. Nobody would want to be in this trade if there is a better alternative. It is the same scenario for taxi drivers and insurance agents.
With stiff competition from tuition centers, I cannot tell whether they are good or bad for anyone to venture into if they do not understand the tuition market well. But then, if running a business is so easy, then anyone would be rich, simply by quitting their jobs to run their own tuition centers.

Anyone still interested in running a enrichment centre can check this website for the takeover of the schools;


http://www.michaeltan.com.sg/LearningCentre_mikeProperty.htm

I concur with edithcloset. I couldn’t recommend Miss Mok more for Math tuition from The Learning Museum. She is very "kiasu" in going through all the challenging Math Problem sums. Not sure about other teachers at this centre.

An interesting article in the newpaper


Should the tuition industry be regulated?
The New Paper | Sat Aug 4 2012

THE private tutor was once asked by a tuition agency to lie that he was a university undergraduate, even though he was from a polytechnic.

Another time, a child burst into tears after seeing him because the tuition agency had told the child to expect a female teacher.

Owner of tuition agency Law Han Wei has seen his share of bad eggs in the industry when he was a private tutor more than 10 years ago.

On Sunday, it was reported in The Sunday Times that Mr Kelvin Ong, who owns AristoCare centre, was neither a student nor teacher of the Gifted Education Programme, as he had claimed.

Checks by the Ministry of Education had revealed that his credentials were false. He was told to remove the claims from his website.
Complaints against the industry are not uncommon. The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said that in 2010, there were 29 cases of complaints regarding tuition centres and agencies.

Last year, there were 31 cases; and as of June 30 this year, there were eight cases.
Common complaints include consumers seeking redress and the failure to honour the contract.

For example, one parent felt that it was unfair that the tuition centre required one month’s notification for termination. Another parent was upset when the tutor did not turn up as promised by the tuition agency.

Tuition centres have to be registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE) because they are run as schools.
Tuition agencies, which match students to tutors, have to be registered as a business with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.
And then there are individual tutors, who are freelancers and thus, unregulated.
The question now is, should the lucrative tuition industry be regulated? Presently, there is no regulatory body which oversees the industry.

People in the industry are split over this option. Mr Tony Tan, who is the founder of SmartLab, a chain of tuition centres, since 1999, is against the idea.
He said: "Regulation would mean higher cost for the centres and the higher cost will eventually be passed on to the parents and students."
Mrs Marietta Koh, who is in her 40s, has a daughter in Primary 4 and spends about $1,000 every month on tuition and enrichment.

As a former teacher in the mainstream schools and current tuition teacher at Mind Stretcher Tuition centre, she does not think that regulation is necessary.

She said: "I believe most parents are savvy enough to make cross-comparisons and will know which are the tuition agencies that do not pass muster."

Mr Law, 32, founded Star Zest Tuition Agency in 1999. He said that his agency has a database of 40,000 tutors and receives between 500 and 1,000 inquires every month. Of this, about 30 per cent are successful matches of tutors to students

Mr Law thinks that the MOE should be responsible for regulating the tuition industry and suggests an accreditation programme for tuition teachers.

"For instance, all tuition teachers could undergo a simple test conducted by MOE,"Mr Law said.

MP Baey Yam Keng, who is also a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for education, thinks that it will be a challenge to regulate the tuition industry because it is made up of both commercial players and freelancers.

He said: "A regulatory body may help to establish a minimum standard and handle complaints, but a lot of resources would have to be spent to catch a few dishonest players.

"It is still the onus of the parents to check the qualifications of their children’s tutors."

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar, also a member of the GPC for education, said: "It is important that the tuition industry should not play into the fears of parents, who want the best for their children."

She added: "It should be the responsibility of the tuition centres to verify the credentials of their teachers, since they are registered under MOE. "But it is very difficult to go after every individual tutor, because there are so many of them."

And there is no question that this industry is lucrative. A Straits Times article in 2010 reported that Singapore parents spent $820 million on private tuition in 2008,up from $470 million a decade earlier.

In 2010, Mr Law’s tuition agency had an annual turnover of between $200,000 and $300,000.

Last year, his turnover was almost $400,000 after he changed the system of running his agency.

Mr Law said: "I focused on quality control of the tutors and kept in close contact with the parents.

He added: "We were no longer just an agent, and when the parents feel satisfied with us, they will keep coming back."

Mrs Koh agreed that eventually, the quality of the tuition centre or agency will determine if they survive in the industry.

She said: "Some tuition agencies do not even advertise as they have long wait lists simply through word of mouth. As such, weaker players that do not measure up to parental expectations will get weeded out in due course. "

Executive director of Case, Mr Seah Seng Choon, said: "The numbers of complaints, although small, seem to be creeping up.We are watching this trend.

"With the demand for tuition growing, there will be tutors entering the market with dubious qualifications like in this case involving AristoCare centre.

"Consumers must bear in mind that this industry is not regulated and, as such, very much depends on parents to verify the claims made by such tutors."

"We like to urge consumers to do their due diligence and check the credentials of the tutors they engage for their children. They should verify the tutor’s credentials with the MOE or the institutions which issue the credentials."

Mr Baey, who used to be a tuition teacher during his national service days, thinks that regulation will affect the many young people in universities and polytechnics, who give tuition to earn extra money.

He said: "The role of a tutor is not just to help a child with his school work, but he can also help to motivate the child.

"Regulation may allow verification of the tutor’s qualifications, but it does not give an indication of the tutor’s quality."

This article was first published in The New Paper.

I am all for regulating the tuition, but I disagreed with a few parent friends of mine who are adamant that PSLE & tuition should be banned. If education goes too easy, something is wrong. And how do we measure the performances of each children and sieve them to different learing abilities & apitudes. What I am for is to introduce more variety of subjects in schools that children can excel in and let them choose which core subjects they wish to pursue for their final year leaving examination. Like my daughter, she is very good in Languages and Science. It’s Math that she is having difficulty in grasping and she absolutely hates math, especially Conquer Math & Algebra. Hence it took me great pains to source her a tutor who is able to incite her interest to do math and explain to her the concepts clearly. I also realised that her Math teacher’s explanations are very “chim”, hence I need to get extra help for her by getting somebody who is able to break down the concepts for her at a much slower pace. (Because I do not want her PSLE aggregrates to be dragged down by Math, though my wife, I and her form teacher are pretty sure that she will score A for all her subjects, except Math). And the most angry thing I am about my friends are that they do not put their actions where their heart & mouth is. They said that Tuition is unfair, yet they are so “kiasu” when it comes to who their school subjects teachers are. Now I understand in the Parents’ committee that they developed this ranking system for teachers in school, and some parents actually pester the principal to get the teachers for their children’s classes for the next school term. They also “die die” must put their children in a branded school, despite the long travel journey. I am also totally flabbergasted when a parent friend requested me to help her draft a complaint letter to the principal, simply because her son’s English teacher is not a graduate.