Phenomenon of Tuition

Recent highlights on tuition and enrichment for children in Singapore have created quite a bit of a stir. Experts and observers are concerned about the phenomenon of tuition for Singaporean kids. It is not unusual for a child to have more than 2 tutors for a single subject. I overheard a child asking his classmates how many tuition classes they have and shared his own experience of having 6 tuition classes for his 4 primary school subjects. Needless to say, these kids are from the better-off families to be able to afford so many tuition classes. When we imagine the amount of time put in by these children to attend tuition and perhaps the amount of time spent by their parents to ferry them around, the amount of commitment to the pursuit of good results is great. Recently, Ministry of Education even moved to remove the banding of secondary schools that has been based on academic excellence. While such a move may prevent parents from seeking out schools that produce good results among their children, it is hard to stop parents from pushing their children towards academic excellence and to find renowned, name-established schools to send their children to. As a mother myself, I understand the desire of parents to send their children to a good environment where there is competition to do well, and the child is motivated to do well. I have similar aspirations and hopes for my children to go to a good school, do well and move on to pursue further education. This is the formula of success most parents today grow up with. It has worked for most of us, and we foresee that it will work for our children. But could parents today have carried it out too far. Are so many tuition classes necessary in order for one to do well? I was a tutor back in the 1990s, and have met tutored students who needed help in certain subjects. I have never met children who have more than 2 tutors, even though I only taught Maths and Science. Many of these children whom I have taught were not from wealthy families, but their parents were willing to put aside money for tuition. Families these days have higher income, and have no problem providing their children tuition, perhaps more than what they needed. When I was a student in a junior college decades ago, some of my classmates sought tuition for Physics. It was one of the subjects that I struggled with, but I was unable to afford the tuition fees of $50 a lesson, for a group session. My mother was the sole breadwinner and this was a hefty amount to pay. I chose not to take up the tuition and through sheer hard work, scored an A for the subject in the 'A' levels exam. I believe that affluence is the biggest factor in boosting the tuition industry in Singapore. Tuition is meant to help weaker students to cope with school curriculum, but it has become a necessity for even the good ones. While tuition can help students to understand a subject better, it can create a false sense of security for some. Too much reliance on tuition can create complacency towards learning because there will always be someone to help if they don't know. The desire to figure it out on their own may be diminished.