Recently, there had been a lot of discussions on the virtues of tuition, the "shadow education" that is slowly overshadowing Singapore's mainstream education system.
I would like to give my two cents worth on what I gathered from the discussions on this phenomenon.
Is tuition really necessary? The answer would be yes and no.
The YES argument
- To bridge the gaps left by mass education
Although Singapore prided itself in providing world-class education, the lack of resources has resulted in the inevitable outcome of large classes. Class sizes are so big that schools now require two teachers to act as the form teachers of one class.
But that is only one of the problems of big classes.
When the class size is big, it is difficult to cater to the learning needs of all the students. With a sizable syllabus to complete within the school year, teachers often have no choice but to leave the slower students behind. Even with remedial lessons and supplementary classes, the gap between the fastest and the slowest students is not easy to bridge within the hectic schedule.
- Lack of quality teachers
Unlike countries like Finland, where teachers need to undergo five years of stringent training before they are allowed to teach, a graduate in Singapore can easily become a teacher by completing a one-year postgraduate course at NIE.
Such low entry requirements attract many graduates who may not be passionate about the job, but are more interested in the attractive remuneration to join the teaching profession. Even if the teachers have the flair for teaching, most lack the skills to do so effectively due to the incomplete training given. Many had to learn 'on-the-job', which means they actually use real students as their training ground to practise teaching, which can greatly affect the quality of the lessons.
This problem is aggravated by the heavy workload of teachers in Singapore. Not only do they have to handle teaching-related work, they also have many non-teaching responsibilities to juggle with, which left the teachers exhausted and disgruntled and cause many aspiring educators to leave the teaching force prematurely.
With the lack of quality teachers, it is even more difficult for the students to receive adequate coaching and attention.
As a result, many parents have to turn to private tutors for help to bridge the gap.
Some teachers even recommend parents to send their children to tuition so that they can catch up in class, because they could not afford the time to separately coach them.
Thus, I believe that for students who are unable to follow in class, tuition is necessary for them to keep up in the academic race.
The NO argument
That being said, I also agree that tuition may not be necessary in some cases.
- Unnecessary stress and unwanted complacency
While having tuition may give a student an edge over one who does not have tuition, sending a student who is already coping well to tuition may result in unnecessary stress. Many families in Singapore are dual-income families where both parents are working and there's nobody at home to discipline their kids and make sure that complete their school work.
Tuition became the solution to this.
However, not every tutor is able to provide what is required by the parents. Most tuition centers are the reproductions of the mainstream mass education system, and instead of having an avenue to clarify their doubts, students ended up having more homework and even lesser time to catch up with school work.
Sometimes, parents send their already-doing-well kids to enrichment classes or private tuition because they want their children to 'get a head start' on the syllabus so as to ensure better understanding and better grades.
What they do not realize is this - when the children learn what they are supposed to learn in school upfront in the enrichment classes, they lose interest in what is going on in class and the false sense of security that they are ahead of their counterparts can cause them to become complacent, which may negatively affect their grades, and thus the vicious cycle begins.
- Varying aptitude of tutors
Similar to the problems with the quality of school teachers, many tutors are moonlighting current teachers or former school teachers who left the teaching force due to the heavy workload. These tutors many not be better off compared to the existing school teachers in terms of structure and teaching methods. To make the problem worse, the pool of tutors also include undergraduates working part-time and tutors with little or no experience in teaching.
Though it may still be possible to get good tutors in the private education arena, it is still difficult to identify the good ones from the less apt, given the disparity in standard.
In conclusion, parents should always assess to see if their children really need private tuition before getting them one. If they decide to get one, they should monitor to see if the tutor's teaching methods fit the bill.
Above all, parents should recognize that they are the ones responsible for the learning attitudes of their children, and should not leave the job to the teachers and tutors and expect them to work wonders.
About the Writer
Ms Vivien Wu is the founder of The Pedagogy Domain, a provider of small-group home-based language workshop for young learners. As an experienced teacher, trainer and facilitator, she is dedicated to improve learners' command of language through interactive, practical and fun workshops. Read more about her here.