Category: tuition

I’m glad my post An open letter to all principals spurred some other bloggers to pen their views on our education system. Whether we agree with one another or not is another matter, but at least we are trying in our own small way to effect some change. The livelier the discussion on this subject, the better. An ex-teacher wrote a post on her blog, titled “What’s wrong with the world’s best education system?“. She feels it is not so much the principals but the system which is the problem.

She believes that the way the ministry runs its schools are very much corporate world-like. Yes, I totally agree with her. In fact, I heard that the EPMS could have possibly been adapted from the Ministry of Defence. How is that even remotely possible, many parents must be thinking. Well, I hope it was not. But I can see why teachers say they feel they are like just another machine, tasked to churn out more and more As. And yes, I do agree that the system needs a major overhaul. And I hope they can scrap the EPMS and replace it with something more humane. But in the meantime, we cannot just sit and wait for change to manifest as it would take years. #1 entered Primary 1 almost a decade ago. 9 years later, nothing significant on the ground has changed. That is why I hope principals and teachers could stand their ground, leave the KPIs aside and put the children first. Yes, even at the expense of a lower salary and probably zero chance of a promotion. I know, it is much, much easier said than done. That is why only a handful have done it or are doing it. And in my books, they deserve the highest accolades and the deepest gratitude from parents.

A fellow blogger, Petunia Lee, who is a seasoned education blogger, agrees with me that principals have a lot of leeway and power in running their schools. She explains the nuts and bolts of how schools are run in her post titled “Power & Influence in the MOE“. Her post begins with the observation that “Principals of schools run little fiefdoms within each school”. She also notices that principals are all rowing their boats in different directions, and the only way Mr Heng’s vision for ‘every school a good school’ can be achieved is if power is brought back to MOE HQ.

About 2 months ago, our PM announced that they would do away with the T-scores and use broad-based banding to allocate places in secondary schools. Since then, there are no follow-up concrete information on what other criteria they will use to differentiate the students when there are more applicants than places. I find it incredibly unbelievable, but I hear parents saying that they have to start changing their strategy. They can foresee that there will be a horde of students with similar grades, so how to differentiate their child? These ultra kiasu parents are now searching for enrichment classes in music, sports, and the arts to beef up their child’s portfolio. This brings to mind the university admission requirements in the U.S., where the competition for places in top schools is so keen that they not only require stellar results, but the students need to show a whole portfolio of extracurricular activities, including community and charity work, and outstanding personal qualities such as leadership, self-confidence and good character. Will our 12-year olds be put through that in the future? 

Another parent blogger, Pamela Tan, who’s husband is a Math teacher in a secondary school shares the plight of secondary students who come from dysfunctional families and her disbelief that it is actually in the interest of the schools to expel these students so that their performance or non-performance (as the case may be) will not hinder the school’s performance. Read her post in “The story of the stationery Bento“.

Amidst all these seemingly depressing and unsurmountable challenges facing our education system, I see a glimmer of hope after reading an article in the Straits times. Lawrence Lien, a NMP (Nominated Member of Parliament) and chief executive of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and chairman of the Lien Foundation mooted the idea of setting up a prototype full school that is child-centric after his education study trip to Finland. I quote: “The philosophy of the school should be child-centric, process-driven and geared towards holistic learning. Assessments should be focused on tracking progress against a child’s individual potential, not on how he or she compares with others. Since the school will include both primary and secondary levels, no PSLE will be necessary.”

I love it already! This is exactly the type of school I have been envisaging for my kids. I have always wished that our schools would adopt many aspects of the Finnish education system. Dare I dream that it could materialise in my children’s time? For Kate perhaps. She still has 5 years before she enters Primary 1. Mr Lien speaks of what he wants for his 3 children: “I want my children to be developed holistically as whole persons. I wish for them to witness and practise values every moment, so that values become part of their being. I hope they will become lifelong lovers of learning, motivated to acquire new knowledge to serve and transform society. I desire their school to be a genuine community that reflects a society that I want to live in – warm, collaborative, inclusive and oriented towards a common good.” AH… if only our schools were a fraction of what he has painted, I would be contented. Sad, how sad that we have been eating dirt for so long, even grass tastes good.

The ex-teacher I mentioned earlier explained that she left the system because of a fundamental crisis she faced in the values system and the dissonance between what’s professed and practised. I have heard that sentiment echoed by many teachers who have left the teaching service. Perhaps we can gather all these like-minded and passionate teachers who truly love teaching young people and who see it their mission to impart values along with knowledge, to staff this school. There are many opportunities for teachable moments which do not require any extra time or effort, only the willingness to do so. 

#1 was so fortunate to have had a form teacher in her P5 year who wove values and morales into her lessons. How do I know? #1 constantly shared with me what her teacher taught them and I watched how she interacted with them on the many excursions I accompanied them on. Teachers do play a big part in a student’s life. Many children have told me how they dislike a particular teacher and how they hate that subject. On the other hand, I have seen how good teachers are able to motivate their students to push beyond what they can comfortably achieve. The exceptional ones are able to go as far as to change the lives of their students. It’s time we provided an environment which will support these teachers.  

I am very excited at the prospect of a school where they are competing with no one other than themselves and where the joy of learning is eminent on all the children’s faces. I will be the first to put my kids in that school!

~ www.mummyweeblog.com – a blog on parenting 6 kids in Singapore ~

I wrote this article 3 years ago, which appeared in the Straits Times Forum page. This past week, the tuition issue is still raging on, especially after Senior Minister of State for Education Indranee Rajah said that tuition is unnecessary for most children in Singapore as the education system is more than sufficient to provide them with the tools and information that they require. I’m not sure about her family situation, but I can safely guess that she does not have a child currently in either a Primary or Secondary school. This is my experience with the education system:

Why parents are forced to spend on tuition

My three older children are in Primary 6, Primary 4 and Primary 2 in a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school. Having put them in such a well sought-after school, I thought they would be in good hands.

All three of them were getting average grades. However, to my utter shock and dismay, my eldest came home with red marks in all her subjects for her Primary 5 year end exams, and she was the last in class. Her concerned form teacher called me to find out what happened. She told me that my daughter was attentive in class and was, in fact, chosen as the role model student for that year.

After speaking to me, the teacher was surprised that she had no tuition and that I did not coach her myself. She was even more surprised that I had not bought any 10-year series or guidebooks for her. (As she was my eldest, I didn’t know that just sending her to school and buying all the requisite textbooks were not enough to get by). I, in turn, asked her what was happening. She was the one teaching my daughter 3 out of the 4 subjects in school, so I should be querying her about her poor grades, not the other way around! She then explained to me that due to time constraints, teachers could only cover the basics, so the child needed to do a lot more extra work at home or to get tuition.

That seems to be the reality, as I have found out from parents of children in other schools as well. She was put into a different class in her P6 year. Subsequently, I enrolled her for tuition for all four subjects and for her mid-year exam, she achieved the first position in her class. In the end, thanks to tuition, she managed to get 4As for her PSLE. (I shudder to think what her grades would be like if I had not sent her for tuition in her P6 year). I can now understand why the majority of parents are willing to spend so much money on tuition. The system is just not delivering.

Tuition centres, on the other hand, are able to produce many students with As. Why is that so? The class size is about 10. The tutors are motivated to get the students to do well as there are incentives to do so. More than that, they are not bogged down with many other responsibilities that distract them from teaching. Many good tutors I spoke to are former teachers.

If we could give our teachers a good environment, and not burden them with umpteen other responsibilities, they would have more time and energy left to prepare well for lessons.

The sad truth is that parents are focusing all their energies on academic achievement, thereby neglecting more important matters like character building and family bonding, which are so crucial in today’s fast-paced and changing world. It may be a good idea to set up a forum with parents, students, teachers, tutors and the Ministry of Education to analyse the situation. Singapore has a world-class education system. Perhaps, that is in part due to a world-class tuition system.

That was my article published 3 years ago. I have since spoken to more teachers and tutors and I have identified the biggest problem. If we can solve this 1 problem, I think we are half-way there. 

The problem is the incentive of the teachers. Currently, all schools have an annual review by the MOE. The principal’s performance is pegged to this review. To get a better review, the principal has to show more initiatives and programs they have achieved that year, besides teaching. So in turn, the principal will push the teachers to be involved in more initiatives, activities and competitions to pump up the annual review. The teachers are willing to do this because the more extra initiatives they take on, the better their EPMS, the better their bonuses. So in fact, the whole system encourages teachers to spend time on other areas besides teaching. As a result, where is the motivation to teach well? In fact, teaching is considered low level work. Honestly, I couldn’t believe my ears when I first discovered that fact. How can teaching be considered low level work when teaching is the primary role of a teacher? Once I made that discovery, it all made sense to me why teachers were behaving the way they were behaving. They actually benefit monetarily by doing all this extra CCAs, competitions, sports festivals, etc. 

I am really curious about what MOE thinks. Do they know that it is already a full time job for teachers just to be teaching? Do they think it is really possible for a person to be handling so many other responsibilities yet be able to teach passionately and effectively? Can we instead, incentivise teachers who teach well? Peg the bonuses to the delivery of good lessons. I remember reading one article in the Straits Times about a history teacher in a secondary school. He even went to the trouble to dress like a Japanese soldier when he was doing a lesson on the Japanese occupation. He brought the lesson alive to his students and I think he even used role-play to get them involved. Ideas like that should be complimented and taken into consideration in their performance review. I think herein lies the crux of our solution. Raise teaching to High Level work with the subsequent monetary benefits and we will probably see a reduction in the need for tuition.

On a brighter note, I am very excited to read in today’s papers about the bold plans to move away from the single focus of exams to develop a more rounded education for our students. This is exactly what I have been saying in my past post. Education minister Heng Swee Keat announced that there will be an applied learning programme and a learning-for-life programme in all secondary schools by 2017. These programs will help students use what they learn to solve real-life problems and they will also discover their strengths and interests. I have also proposed this in my previous blog “so who’s smarter?” I think these 2 programmes are right on the mark. 

I am really keen to find out more about the details of these 2 schemes in the dialogue session which I am attending next week at the MOE. I just hope that the delivery and execution of these schemes will always retain the right focus and purpose. Somehow, our system seems to warp all the best plans and initiatives formulated by the Ministry. I don’t know if it’s the principals, the teachers or the parents who drive everything into a competition. 

Now that the Ministry is being so supportive in nurturing our children to find their individual strengths and talents, I hope all parents can take on this liberating mindset, that each and every child is different and we are not competing against one another. We should instead focus our energy in teaching our children to challenge themselves to be the best that they can be.

I met with Minister of State Ms Sim Ann and took the opportunity to voice out my concerns about our education system. I shared with her that as a parent, I was disappointed in the new policy changes and that what we desperately need is real change. I was rather baffled as I have been following our Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat’s, comments on the newspapers over the past year and I feel that he has got the fundamentals right, but why are we not seeing that filtered down to the policies?

I highlighted to her the problems and some suggestions from a parent’s point of view. 

1. Students – They are getting so stressed that mental health issues like depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and self mutilation are all on the rise and it is very alarming.

Suggestion: Every time I speak to a child from an International School, be it a 6 year old or a 16 year old, they tell me that they love school. Why don’t our children feel the same way about our schools? I found out that the way lessons are conducted there are vastly different from ours. We should perhaps study their system more closely and adopt those that would work for our framework. I know that the Ministry has previously sent teachers into International Schools. However, when they come back to their own schools and try to implement what they have witnessed, they are constrained by resources, time and support. To make anything work, the entire system has to follow through. 

2. Teachers – They are tremendously overworked with additional duties so much so that they can hardly cope with completing the syllabus, much less deliver inspiring lessons. The Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) has also been manipulated. Teachers realise that to get a better performance grade and hence a better bonus, they need to take on more initiatives and be more visible. This leaves them less time for their main role – teaching. Many good teachers end up leaving the service due to burn out or lack of work life balance, which leaves our children with new and inexperienced teachers. Sadly, many teachers start off very passionate, but the burden of the system leaves them drained and disenchanted.

Suggestion: We do not expect great chefs to do the administrative work and organise the parties. We let them concentrate on what they do best – cook. Can we do the same for our teachers? Let them have enough time and resources to come up with creative ideas to bring the lessons alive to the students. Let other people organise the fun fairs and sports festivals. Let CCAs be 100% outsourced to professionals. Instead, experienced teachers should mentor the new teachers, especially in the areas of keeping the class in order and handling difficult students. If the teacher can’t even manage to get the students to sit attentively and listen, how can they teach effectively?

4. The ‘teach less learn more’ policy – it has not been implemented properly and now it seems to be a ‘schools teach less, tutors teach more’ reality.

Coincidentally, #3 had some homework on ‘Our MP’

5. Parents – Because of the hierarchical system, whereby they are streamed from top down: IP, Express, Normal (academic), Normal (technical), ITE, etc, parents being parents will try to push their children to do as well as possible to go to the ‘best’ schools or to ensure they don’t end up in the ‘neighbourhood’ schools, which leads to much of the stress faced by the children. I agree that there are now many pathways open to students. However, this top down system seems to suggest that “If you are not so smart, nevermind, you can go down this other path”. How many parents would feel proud if their child went to ‘Normal’ stream or ITE? It is very hard to rid this ‘labelling’ mindset, so perhaps we should revamp the whole secondary education scene, into a horizontal system, recognising the different intelligences and the different ways children learn, and catering to them. 

Solution: Let us use the Primary years to sort them out. We can then stream them into different Talent schools in their Secondary years. We need to re-brand them, such that none of it is a ‘second choice’ school, but each a more suitable fit for the individual child. Examples could be:

1. Academia School
2. Entrepreneur School
3. Engineering School
4. Artistic School
5. Education School
6. Trades School
7. Culinary School
8. Design School
9. Technology School
10. Journalistic School

The core subjects such as English, Mother Tongue, Math, Sciences and Humanities should all be taught, but using different modalities and with different focuses. For example in the Design school, they can first study a product, research into the history of such products and various competitor’s products, find out about the creators, learn about their countries of origin, and attempt to build a better design. We can easily incorporate all the elements of the different subjects into one project. When a child is motivated by his area of interest, learning is quicker and more dynamic. 

We have to challenge this basic assumption: Is academic intelligence the most superior of all intelligences? Will it get the child furthest in life? If we pursue this at all cost, will he have the happiest future? A career he loves? A family whom he cares about and who cares about him? Friends who will support him in times of need? One very worrying trend I am hearing from teachers is that students now have a ‘each man for himself’ mentality. They think that is the only way they can advance themselves and score higher marks than their peers. What has this system, and the parents’ response, inadvertently done to our children?

We do not need mere robots which our system has been so successful in producing thus far. We need to prepare our next generation for the demands of our ever changing economic landscape. We need entrepreneurs, visionaries, innovators, leaders. We also need to realise that not everyone is academically inclined, and that there are multiple intelligences. And we need these different intelligences to shine if we are to push Singapore forward dynamically in this new era.


As it turned out, she was the right person I was speaking to as her portfolio is in the Ministry of Comms and Info, and Education. She briefed me on the direction they were heading towards and explained to me what a mammoth task it was, not only to craft the right policies but to move the whole system to align with their new direction. She said that the Ministry valued the opinion of parents and is trying to reach out more effectively. She also mentioned that the Ministry is serious about equipping teachers and schools to bring out the best in different students. However, it is a long journey and parents’ feedback is most welcome.

After 9 years of being disappointed in our education system, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. (Although I can foresee it to be a very, very long tunnel) I will give Mr Heng and his team my full support and hopefully, all of us – ministers, principals, teachers, students, and especially parents do our part in forging the next chapter in our education landscape. I have been invited to a dialogue session on education with Minister of State Sim Ann. I am looking forward to it and I hope that we can all have open minds and do our part to craft a truly world class education system. If we can transform Singapore into a first world country in one generation, I don’t see why we can’t transform our education system in one decade. Let us all rally together to move this mountain.