Why Tuition?
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The debate flared up again when Indranee claims there is no need for tuition.
That I agree too.
But ST came up with interviews and it was clear most people feel they need tuition.
The reasons for which boggled me no end.
I am a tuition teacher too. And I always make it clear to my students that I detest the tuition industry.
It is my opinion that most students simply fail to either use their resources at hand (one student claims asking MOE teachers could incite embarassment, like smlj?), or simply lack the drive.
You can keep blaming the education system for stifling, but it is up to the individual to find ways to make it advantageous.
For those who take JC tuition, can they expect to carry on having tuition into uni, and by extension, jobs?
For those who go to tuition "not knowing what they do not know", when will they wake up their idea?
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How absolutely hypocritical. You claim you hate the tuition industry and yet you're a tuition teacher. Oh wow.
All I can say is, you'd never understand somebody else's plight/needs/whatever unless you've tried taking a walk in his shoes. For some people, the teaching style in school might not suit them. Not all teachers are friendly and unapproachable too. There're many reasons why one might need tuition. So you didn't need it while you were in school. Good for you then (and your parents' pockets).
I respect your right to free speech but I would not hesitate to admit that your posts on sgforums irk me. What good does it do to fan the flames in the bus forum? Maybe it gives you a sense of accomplishment? After all, it makes you think you're doing good and educating the younger generation right? Well, get off your high horse. There're ways to put things across without coming across as sarcastic and obviously you've not mastered the art of that. How does that make you any better in comparison?
I have no intention to be drawn into an argument, and I will not post further on this matter. Thanks.
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LOL.
Bus? Argue? Here? I suppose it speaks volume of the general childishness that plagues the forum and has apparently descended into some less-than-entertaining mud-slinging fest.
HAHA. I don't quite get you but never mind about it.
Oh the irony indeed. To console myself I choose not to teach the dry stuff, focusing instead on applications and argumentative stylistics to strengthen their knowledge bank.
Gaining knowledge is not enough. Learning to crave for knowledge, learning to put them to good use is as important.
Me?
Feel the plight of students?
I feel more the plight of this country of we carry on this crazy tuition path.
As a tuition teacher, how would you feel if your student persists in "I dont know why I am in this system, but I think I shld be there anyway"?
Can we really blame the education system for leading to individuals lacking in imagination?
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I am a tuition teacher myself. Been teaching for eight years.
And I can say this much: with few exceptions, most of my students do not need tuition. What they need is a change in attitude. I have always told them that if they just paid attention in class and did their homework conscientiously (i.e. honestly and to the best of their efforts), they are already 80% on their way to academic success. The other 20% comes from their own efforts in revising their work for their exams.
I challenged them to just simply do that and make their parents fire me for being redundant. Hasn’t happened yet. Looking at the (lack of) quality of their school homework, I can see why. And looking at how they often failed to do the homework I assigned them, the issue is a lack of the proper attitude.
And before anyone says I’m being too harsh, let me just say that I just assign four or five simple questions from their own textbooks. If they understand my lessons (as was the impression I got), the assignments can be completed in twenty minutes. If they can’t remember the lessons, then they need to read up more. Simple as that.
And don’t anyone tell me about how some of them are less privileged or have family problems or whatever. Please lah, some of them live in condos and have parents who drive BMWs and take them for nice long holidays. My father is a taxi driver, my mum was a housewife, and we ran in financial problems when my father got into an accident just before my Sec 4 prelims and couldn’t drive. And I still got on pretty well without tuition.
Some may say that I am being hypocritical for teaching the kids while saying that they do not really need tuition. But the truth of the matter is that without my intervention, they will be worse off because of their attitude problems. Some of the kids tell me outright that my tuition sessions are the only time when they actually revise for their tests and exams. Without a tutor, they just couldn’t be bothered.
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Hv to go de la, if not u lose out wat
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When I took up the tuition class about 4 years ago, I thought I was doing something that could help students appreciate what they learn better.
But it is increasingly harder to justify to myself, teaching students who are there.......for the sake of being there, and being absolutely stubborn and blind to reason.
As I recall, after I asked why nobody was paying close attention to something I was teaching, the student said: Oh because I wasnt taught yet, and will be taught soon anyway, I suppose.
I am not that old, but I find it hard to believe that the tuition landscape could just explode in just a few years in that prolific manner.
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Originally posted by Bus Fan:
Hv to go de la, if not u lose out wat
But why would that be the case?
Maybe an MOE teacher could enlighten me about whether the education syllabus, or the way it is taught, is inadequete?
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Originally posted by SBS2601D:
But why would that be the case?
Maybe an MOE teacher could enlighten me about whether the education syllabus, or the way it is taught, is inadequete?
it depends whether the teacher is good, want to teach u more and you too. Most Gifted Education Programme(GEP) students goes for tuition coz hv kiasu parents. -
I still remember when I was in sec 3, I was forced to stay back after school to finish my homework which I had forgotten to do (I sompah I really forgot lol).
I sat next to this N(T) guy who was being punished as well.
After we finished our work, we chatted a bit to pass time.
He said: I am from N(T), I know people kua suay me (see me no up). But I know I wont make it in the express stream. And I want to pursue accounting. So I chose to do N(T), and head to ITE to pursue what I want.
Its been more than a decade already since that time. But the fact that I still can recall it fresh from my mind can tell you how much he impressed me, even till today.
I think learning about one's limits and desired pursuits are important too.
Which begs the question, why aren't people willing to look elsewhere to learn, when they clearly aren't enjoying it (or even trying to for the matter), in the education system?
Is it because of the "cert syndrome"?
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Originally posted by Bus Fan:
it depends whether the teacher is good, want to teach u more and you too. Most Gifted Education Programme(GEP) students goes for tuition coz hv kiasu parents.If the kid is already gifted, then he doesn't need tuition. All he needs is the space and time to be able to excel on his own talents.
About the only thing that I agree with your statement is the quality of school teachers. Some teachers can be pretty messed up and should have been weeded out at NIE before they entered the teaching system.
One of my kids was taught by his Science teacher that a pipe of diameter 4.10 metres could be accurately measured by vernier calipers. I wouldn't have believed that if the kid had not shown me the worksheet he got in class.
Freak lah. I'm a mechanical engineer. Do you know what bigass vernier calipers are needed to measure 4.10 metres?
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Luckily he never said: can use microcaliper...
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The amount of CCA commitments from schools are already crushing the students.
Perhaps that is one of the great ideas conceptualized to reduce the time students have for tuition, on top of the crushing volumes of homework I see
CCAs are a great way for students to interact outside of just studying, but what about trainings for Mon, Wed, Fri, as well as potentially weekends?
How about certain CCAs that have weekends training or weekends camp? What happened to the 5-day work week initiated by our dear PM in Aug 2004?
Sure, no more school lessons, but replaced with school CCAs. How igeniousI think school teachers have it hard, and I give my due respect to all school teachers in Singapore. The least a student can do is to show some mini appreciation on Teacher's Day, something that is apparently missing in a few schools based on stories I heard.
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I got tuition on english because I'm so weak in English back in the secondary school days, just because I'm from HongKong, a place where lessons are conducted in Cantonese and my living environment is totally chinese style. Thanks to tuition I manage to get a B3 for my Os and subsequently I made it into JC and finally to NTU. Now I'm a bachelor of Mechanical Engineering.
Different people have different needs, some people are really weak in certain areas and need additional help, not all of them are academically inclined.
I have teacher friends who shared with me that they are doing more administrative and CCA work than the actual teaching. Most of the time they need to conduct remedial classes is because they can't finish the cirriculum, what makes you think that they have the time to take care of every student's needs?
There is a price to pay when the government wants the kids to be an all-rounder.
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Tuition has its place and merit then.
That point I gamely concede.
But I still hold to the point that in many cases, it might very well be needless if some soul-searching and self-discipline is instilled.
Certainly from my perspective, I dont buy the argument that kids should have tuition simply because others have tuition.
Perhaps I am not a parent myself, so I fail to grasp the "kiasu-ism" that is so pandemic with regards to tuition.
On the other hand, like they say: dang ju ze mi, pang guan ze qing. (those involved might not see the situation as clear as outside observers).
As for CCA commitments, PW, KI, etc etc etc....
I agree very much that these are increasing the burden on students now.
So......which begs the question once again?
So whose ideas were these from?
Is it really really really only the ministers (ahem) who implement top-down policies?
Or are they in fact implementing what is in fact implicit and subtle signals from the ground?
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I used to question a number of teacher friends, who they know in recent years that have been promoted for exceptional teaching. Sadly and not suprisingly, none could answer.
Luckily for me, this is still one area I can make a significant difference to students in Singapore. Currently working really hard on a few areas to help spread my knowledge of physics to as many students in Singapore as I can.
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Hi,
When I was still in the service, I am aware that all teachers have KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to meet and they cover various areas (ability in teaching, contribution to value-added results, Civics Tutor responsibilities, Project Work Supervising Tutor responsibilities, CCA teacher/overall-in-charge responsibilities, Committees' responsibilities, etc...).
An able teacher (who is given a good grade) is one who is not just able to teach competently and deliver good results but one who is also able to contribute to the progress of the school significantly. If we have two teachers A (only teach competently) and B (able to teach competently, leads the school's team to championship and spearheads a school's strategic initative), teacher B will be ranked higher than teacher A. It is not that teacher A has been penalised, it's just that teacher B has been given more recognition by an appraisal system that looks, at large, contributions made by teachers.
As for the grades given to teachers by the appraisal system, I vaguely remember the following:
A - Officer performs above expectations in ALL areas of responsibility.
B - Officer performs above expectations in MOST areas of responsibility.
C - Officer performs above expectations in SOME areas of responsibility.
D (5%) - Officer performs AS EXPECTED.
Thanks!
P.S. I wonder if these have changed?
Cheers,
Wen Shih -
Hi,
I wonder if there will be an association like this for our country's tuition industry in future:
http://www.ata.edu.au
Thanks!
Cheers,
Wen Shih -
Originally posted by wee_ws:
Hi,
I wonder if there will be an association like this for our country's tuition industry in future:
http://www.ata.edu.au
Thanks!
Cheers,
Wen ShihIn the first place, the larger tutoring businesses will not trust each other, each looking to protect it's own bottomline against its rivals, and it's doubtful if such an organization can even materialize at all.
If it does somehow get set up, it will be susceptible to abuse, ie. profitable large tutoring businesses will gang up to squeeze out smaller operators and individual tutors.
And being a private organization, inclusion or registration will have to be optional, and not legislated as compulsory, so most tutors and tutoring businesses would decline to register themselves in such an organization (which will cost you membership fees, with no significant tangible benefit).
MOE will (quite rightly) deem it a waste of tax payers' money to legislate and regulate what MOE has already formally declared as "an unncessary industry".
Edited post to add :
Moreso than in other service industries, the tuition industry is successfully self-regulating, in that if the students/parents (increasingly demanding these days) do not quickly see satisfactory improvement in results, they will simply drop the tutor / tuition center, and move on to the next one, until they are satisfied with results.
As every student and tutor is unique, different students with different learning styles will respond differently to different tutors with different teaching styles. Student A might find tutor B much better, while student B might find tutor A much better.
I actually have had students who used to receive tuition from some other very famous and reputable tutors (in separate, unrelated cases, involving different famous and reputable tutors, not just for H2 Chemistry, but for other H2 subjects as well), but the students told me (initially to my surprise, before I better understood that different-students-need-different-tutors) that they found these tutors to be 'sucky' or 'cannot teach' or 'waste of money', etc.
Besides, the man behind the ATA already tried to implement this in Singapore, and he gave up in disgust :
Aug 19, 2010 - ST Forum
CONSUMERS UNPROTECTEDTuition industry lacks regulation
I WAS surprised and relieved to see the article on Sunday ('Is your child's tutor qualified?').
I am the chief executive officer of the Australian Tutoring Association (ATA) and last year, while in Singapore, I met two large tuition companies here to speak about issues that the tuition industry could address.
These issues included:
- Tutor qualifications;
- Child protection;
- Truth in advertising; and
- Consumer protection.
Both businesses expressed interest in forming an association similar to the ATA. However, neither has acted despite both recognising serious issues in the industry.In Australia, the ATA has given consumers a choice between those places offering accountable, honest and open tuition, and those that do not.
We do this by having members agree to abide by our code of conduct, which is available online to consumers and to which all members are accountable.
Why isn't there a tuition association in Singapore which benchmarks minimum standards for all tutors?
Why is the industry unregulated?
Who is most vulnerable?
A responsible industry has a representative body. It seems odd that in Singapore, where there is a real focus on education, the private sector is not called upon to demonstrate more initiative with regard to consumers.
The worst aspects of the sector in Australia are similar to those that occur here: Online tuition and the use of agents (in the case of tuition agencies that are not registered with the Ministry of Education).
I think serious questions should be asked about the tuition sector in Singapore, and all related businesses should be subject to greater consumer scrutiny until there is a representative body that is prepared to publicly call for minimum standards and work with the Government as well as consumer protection and educational bodies.
Mohan Dhall
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Tuition Centres registered with MOE have to submit all tutor details to MOE for them to decide whether the tutor is qualifed to teach.
Anyway, I foresee that the tuition industry will change greatly in a matter of 10 years. Minor changes will appear as fast as 2 years from now I believe... How.... I shall keep to myself for now
but it definitely will be for the better for students. -
Originally posted by eagle:
Anyway, I foresee that the tuition industry will change greatly in a matter of 10 years. Minor changes will appear as fast as 2 years from now I believe... How.... I shall keep to myself for now
but it definitely will be for the better for students.
What's good for the students, is to have more tutors and tuition centers to choose from, so that if the students judge the tutor / tuition center to be ineffective or not worth the money, they can quit and readily try out another.Having more tutors and tuition centers to choose from, is an already ongoing and accelerating change (according to statistics the government has access to), which will result in the 'bubble tea' bubble bursting, and (according to the 'survival of the fittest'), tutors / tuition centers in it just for the money and not for the genuine teaching, will find it hard to survive in the saturated competitive industry, and will quit the business.
Legislation wise, there will no changes to the industry, as for fundamental reasons, MOE must and will continue to declare private tuition "an unnecessary industry".
Eagle, do update us here in 2 years time, to see if your predictions came true.
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Originally posted by UltimaOnline:
Eagle, do update us here in 2 years time, to see if your predictions came true.
I could say yes, but I probably would hve forgotten about it :)
At least it came true in terms of online shops proliferation as well as my previous company moving operations to China and retrenching people here :)
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If the ministry puts all the best learning resources from the schools and JCs on the online portal, the demand for tuition will decrease significantly.
For example, if a H2 Maths student has access to the learning resources in the popular website ggmaths.net, he or she will be less likely to take tuition.
In the website, there are lecture notes and worked out full tutorial solutions for each topic, tests with full solutions, detailed worked out full solutions for all the JCs prelim papers from 2007 to 2012, revision notes, very useful summary notes and formulae.
A H2 maths student can study on his or her own with these learning resources and do relatively well. In addition, many JC H2 Maths lecturers arrange these prelim questions into topics and give them as exercises, assignments and tests to their students.
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Nah....I doubt it in my opinion.
Students these days are always looking for "model answers" in whatever they "learn".
As long as they do not take it on themselves to look for answers on their own, they will always look to others to go that "extra mile".