Singapore tuition - monkey see, monkey do
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Singaporeans parents are getting dumber and sucked into following herd mentality. They are scared their kids will lose out, so they send their kids to tuition. Some kids themselves volunteer and ask for tuition because it is themselves who scared to lose out. The following are at fault.
Government and education ministry
Parents
Society culture in general.
Tuition center - Tuition center are profit making company. Their interests is to make money. So naturally they will feed your anixety and try to get more assignment and classes as possible. SO there is nothing to talk about them.
Who will suffer the stupidity of sending their kids to tuition for so long. ALl the above.
Additional tuition learning is pointless . Yes, it makes the singaporean very good in maths, science, language in the international level because they are drilling these subjects into them all the time.
The cost of this tuition phenonemon and the kiasuism of getting straight As for O level, PSLE and A level is that Singaporeans are getting dumber and dumber because they do not intrinsically love knowledge as a whole. They do not have moral education and reflection which is good and solid. SIngaporean moral education is like rojak. Parents teach abit, and teach wrong things anyway. Government agencies and media teach abit. Friends chit chat and teach abit. Schools are busy with trivial things all the time.
No teens on earth is going to be able learn truly through these cut and paste method filled with contradicting advices.
In the end, everyone will suffer from the effect of these senseless pursuit of narrow minded education. I beseeched everyone to wake up from the Socratic caves.
Here is what i will do if i have my own children. I will tell him that its ok to be the last student. Its ok to fail. Failure is not the end. I bring him to park to learn about trees and birds. I ask him to love learning as a whole. WHy does 99 percent of singaporean parents cannot do this? because they have cold feet, and they do think rationally enough.
To be fair, its not solely parents fault. The students, government, community, school, agencies and other sectors are play a hand in this problem.
I rather let my kid take one more year to get his PSLE result pass, or O level pass then to rush him through all these mindless chase. Singapore will sink faster in intelligence than the whole island itself if they do not wake up from this ignorance.
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I pity your kid. His peers would have been busy making money, while he is still sitting for his O levels.
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I agree to TS's point of view, and I have the same thinking too. This is also the reason why most SG student lacks of creativity and flexibility in think. In country like US, their children (around secondary school level) are expose to less education-related competitive stress than SG.
Our kids here are strong in their academics as compared to the counterparts in US, but we lack of some creativity juices. I am not saying that our kids are at disadvantage or what, but this is our SG education system.
Our education system prepares them well for the society. It is a very holistic learning environment one can get. Degree students are more mature and can think for themselves.
TS is referring to PSLE and GCE O Levels.... and yar.. I think all kids require some sort of exposure to different environment. It will be all right for me if my kids doesn't do as well as his peers as I want my kids to take his time to enjoy his learning too.
"The pursuit of academic excellence is a route to success" mindset is the current trend.... It will continue for as long as SG remains a 1st world country.
Nowadays... schools are trying to teach "creativity" by injecting knowledge to our students in many different ways. I am
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singaporeans getting straight As ?? i don't think so
those who usually top their classes or got into dean list are usually smarter PRC or indians or other foreigners who don't need tuition
my impression of singapore students/workers is they study/work long hours but still not bright enough..but at least they work extra hard to make up for their shortfall in intellect
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Can we know what wrong with tuition service in Singapore ? In fact imagine in normal secondary school where a teacher have to concentrate to about 30 pupils and he/she would not know each and every student weakness.And I have even heard of stories where a private "O" level candidate just depend on non-profit organization 's tuition like CDAC (Chinese Development Assistance Council) or Mendaki 's tuition alone and they passed their result.Without these organization I hardly imagine what would happen to our student who cannot catch up will be ?
As for "creative" issue, if you like to compare us with US or western society, the only common "creative" 's DNA our Singaporean can share with them is unless you are "open-minded" and can accept idea like graffiti artist (remember Oliver Fricker?), "handsome" guy student who wear earrings, or students who dye hair with colour to "brighten" our day, having "cool and artistic" tattoo on your body and even male student keep long hair in order look like some classic "musician" or whoever rock band which can be seem from "a few" research staff in US or western university.If you can acknowledge all these points mention above which is just an common "creative" sight in western society, then Singapore is truly on it way to CREATIVITY.The only question is "are you bold enough to take up the "creative" challenge ??? "
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I always believe in studying smartly. You don't have to study all the topics for exam. All these can be easily deduce if time is spend more on analysing past exam papers, and listening to what teachers have said in class. If we can't even get our basics right, like what we have been taught in Science and Maths, are we going to waste our time to experiment till we get it right so that we can indulge in creativity?
Creativity is not just about coming up with something weird or extraordinary, it must be useful to mankind too. I would just say its not the education that has done us wrong, its the culture. Parents always love to go through a tried and "showed results already" system rather than allowing the child to pursue their interest.
Take for example, a child who is gifted in dancing. And parents have already sent her for ballet classes where teachers have already identified her talent. A fact is that ballet dancers don't earn much. Thus parents would by all means ensure the child graduate with another type of cert, rather than allow their child to carry on with a dancing career. Who knows this child might turn out to be the Ballerina of Asia?
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I have a kid taking psle this year.
I never demand my kid to be A's student but pass will do.
Recently my kid prelim is below par.
And being a parents, very worry and fear the worst (retake psle or to normal tech).
Worst is those 'san ku liu pou' really stress me, see them I siam. for they will ask me how my kid do for the prelim.
My kid suffer alot and with less than 5 weeks, it is psle exam.
I told my kid, not to worry, if you can get 50 marks for all subjects, I will be very very happy. It is ok to go into 5 yrs normal acd.
Being a parent, you are automatically be anxious and want your kid to do well. But in reality, it is not easy.
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As a tutor, I can say this much: a student's academic progress depends on himself to a very large extent. No matter how good the tutor may be, if the student is a lazybum with a poor work ethic, then tuition counts for nuts.
I can agree that some students may need to be prodded towards the right direction, and a good tutor can make a big difference. However, if the student just couldn't be bothered, then even Stephen Hawking can't do anything to help.
I've personally quit tuition assignments where the student just couldn't be bothered to pay attention to me or take his work seriously. Simply put, with the fella's attitude all my efforts were going to waste and it would not make a difference whether I was teaching or not.
In cases such as those I'd far rather just quit than to cheat parents of their hard-earned money.
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Originally posted by january:
Singaporeans parents are getting dumber and sucked into following herd mentality. They are scared their kids will lose out, so they send their kids to tuition. Some kids themselves volunteer and ask for tuition because it is themselves who scared to lose out. The following are at fault.
Government and education ministry
Parents
Society culture in general.
Tuition center - Tuition center are profit making company. Their interests is to make money. So naturally they will feed your anixety and try to get more assignment and classes as possible. SO there is nothing to talk about them.
Who will suffer the stupidity of sending their kids to tuition for so long. ALl the above.
Additional tuition learning is pointless . Yes, it makes the singaporean very good in maths, science, language in the international level because they are drilling these subjects into them all the time.
The cost of this tuition phenonemon and the kiasuism of getting straight As for O level, PSLE and A level is that Singaporeans are getting dumber and dumber because they do not intrinsically love knowledge as a whole. They do not have moral education and reflection which is good and solid. SIngaporean moral education is like rojak. Parents teach abit, and teach wrong things anyway. Government agencies and media teach abit. Friends chit chat and teach abit. Schools are busy with trivial things all the time.
No teens on earth is going to be able learn truly through these cut and paste method filled with contradicting advices.
In the end, everyone will suffer from the effect of these senseless pursuit of narrow minded education. I beseeched everyone to wake up from the Socratic caves.
Here is what i will do if i have my own children. I will tell him that its ok to be the last student. Its ok to fail. Failure is not the end. I bring him to park to learn about trees and birds. I ask him to love learning as a whole. WHy does 99 percent of singaporean parents cannot do this? because they have cold feet, and they do think rationally enough.
To be fair, its not solely parents fault. The students, government, community, school, agencies and other sectors are play a hand in this problem.
I rather let my kid take one more year to get his PSLE result pass, or O level pass then to rush him through all these mindless chase. Singapore will sink faster in intelligence than the whole island itself if they do not wake up from this ignorance.
Obviously trying to find excuses for not being able to keep up with the education system here -
Anyway, some parents didn't force their kids. I'm the one who requested for tuition. I know that I could do it, just that in class, the teacher is not able to provide me 1 to 1 help. After school, the teacher usually MIA. Thus tuitions are mostly there to help people like me who don't do well in group learning, but more in 1 to 1, where if I got any questions, I can straight away ask. I can't help it that I also love to ask a lot of questions.
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Originally posted by No_10_Tomas:
singaporeans getting straight As ?? i don't think so
those who usually top their classes or got into dean list are usually smarter PRC or indians or other foreigners who don't need tuition
my impression of singapore students/workers is they study/work long hours but still not bright enough..but at least they work extra hard to make up for their shortfall in intellect
Hmmm... But I'm not PRC or indian or foreigner, and still got dean's list.
In fact, I know many Singaporeans in my cohort (grad only 2 yrs ago) who were in dean's list and first class honours as well. It was always these same few pple I was fighting with.
Anyway, my grades suffered a little because I went to ke kiang take many more modular credits than is necessary for my course, 181 MCs instead of the 161 required by electrical engineering at NUS.
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Actually our governemt from Ministry of Education already taken some steps to ensure that the "O" level does not dominating our education system and have some plan for students to allow to bypass "O" level and go for further studies was announced last week around early september 2010.
However as far as in 2004, plan like that are already taken place, the introduction of Integrated Programme (IP and an nickname "through train") has allowed student to bypass "O" level and go straight to "A" level.Even 7 famous school like Catholic High, Victoria School, St Joseph 's Institution etc are the ones who carrying out the IP scheme and proved that you don't need an excellent "O" level to excel in their school.
For Normal (Academic) however, similar plan would only be available around 2013 where only the best "10%" will able to SKIP "O" level and go straight to a Foundation Year in the Polytechnics before going on to study for a diploma.
Still this policy will only "give face" to the gifted, therefore there is another suitable route which would be allows Normal (Academic) to bypass "O" level : If this future student who is going to take "O" level route are from "N" level group, they can goes straight to do Higher Nitec Programme in ITE without have to take "O" level and after which they proceed to the Polytechnic.So I presumed january has no complain about Singapore education system for now.
Still I am no sure if this move would be an cosy one for students.Just like open book examination which will definately be more challenging than "closed book", the IP programme itself would demand that the student to have more holistic and aptitude education.I guess without "O" level this would be a true test of an student ability in "real world" which I don't know if it is good or bad and who know ? We might don't even need 10 years series anymore if "O" level would be bypassed. Still MOE stated that the above scheme is going in "testing" phase for now.
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When I was young, I am very poor in maths, unable to solve the problems, everything seem so difficult, then my cousin willing to help me, and suddenly my mind just open up and everything seem so easy. What I mean is something call : Kai tong (finally able to open up and solve the problems)
What student need is this. Kai tong.
Then from then onwards, everything a student learn will be able to absord fast.
Just like my younger sister, she cried and cried cos she doesnt know how to do maths, science, etc...then my friend came and taught her, just 1 to 2 lesson and suddenly she kai tong liao...from there onwards, it was all the way to university.
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Same for me for maths. I had tuition from sec 2 to sec 4.
After that everything just seemed natural. Physics waited till J2 then ownself kai tong.
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Me also. Maths. Tuition help me to kai tong. My POA was terrible. Tuition teacher make me got A1 within 4 lessons. From then on, I'm top pupil, all the way till poly. Of course, she only help me till O level la. hahaha.
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When I was in pr 6, maths marks is around 30/100, 20/100, everything the teacher taught, I cant make a sense at all. My cousin offer to help me out, takes only few lesson and I finally kai tong liao. Remember he taught my triangle forumla...and most of the psle got triangle forumla...in the end I score A for psle.
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All the As and Bs are not really that important for people in working life and their adult life.
They are just that... academic results.. life and working life do not correlate with all these academic results..
It
I dare say that with the current system and the wrong direction of education here, Singapore is not going to make it well. Singapore will have a so so progress and prosperity and happiness in the present and near future.So so only.
Singapore needs a paradigm shift. If society mentality is still so closed minded, we will only hurt our future, individually and collective.
My solution- change the education system. reduce syllabus. teach more on value system. Teach students reasoning skills teach current affairs. allow more class debating. more class research.
It takes a idiot to kow that is the way to teach properly a class. But why does the education system is so blinded. i am aghast by the progress of the education system in singapore despite decades has passed. The education system is trying to achieve a 10 year goal and forsaking 20 year goal... they are too focussed on satisying the short term economy instead of the long term.
That being said. I do not see any credible alternative education schools that offer a comprehensive learning place for students. I think only very few schools in the world is now providing sound SOLID education to human beings.
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Hi january,
it's not the As and Bs that matter in life, true. But reality is, these As and Bs are the stepping stones in life.
What are the values we are inculcating? Are you saying that just because As and Bs are irrelevant to working life, there's no point to try your best in achieving it? That isn't what I aim for.
While it is true that good academic results has usually little relevancy to what you work, it shows something to your prospective employer: you can set your priorities and set out to achieve what you want to. And going through the stressful JC route also shows that you have the ability to handle stress and possess good time management skills.
On top of that, true education entails the training of your analytical and creative mind. While regurgitation and pure memorisation might bring a student some success, it will never be able to bring them to the top echelons.
While I do not like the current education system too, I have to disagree with your solution as well. Reducing too much of the syllabus isn't the way to go. This is evident when I compared JC students who did O levels in Singapore and in Malaysia. In Malaysia, their syllabus for Os remained the same, while in Sg, it was reduced. This brought additional problems to local students at As, further increasing their stress levels. It will be worse when they enter university.
Btw, the current system has already implemented your suggested solution with their teach less learn more concept.
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Originally posted by january:
All the As and Bs are not really that important for people in working life and their adult life.
They are just that... academic results.. life and working life do not correlate with all these academic results..
It
I dare say that with the current system and the wrong direction of education here, Singapore is not going to make it well. Singapore will have a so so progress and prosperity and happiness in the present and near future.So so only.
Singapore needs a paradigm shift. If society mentality is still so closed minded, we will only hurt our future, individually and collective.
My solution- change the education system. reduce syllabus. teach more on value system. Teach students reasoning skills teach current affairs. allow more class debating. more class research.
It takes a idiot to kow that is the way to teach properly a class. But why does the education system is so blinded. i am aghast by the progress of the education system in singapore despite decades has passed. The education system is trying to achieve a 10 year goal and forsaking 20 year goal... they are too focussed on satisying the short term economy instead of the long term.
That being said. I do not see any credible alternative education schools that offer a comprehensive learning place for students. I think only very few schools in the world is now providing sound SOLID education to human beings.
In my opinion, I find that academic results is still as important because they are still your certificate to getting a job in future. I like the current system whereby Childhood is being used as a period of preparation into becoming an adult.
One thing I feel about MOE is that it should diversify more and take away the perception that Maths and Science are the more important subject, and let students develop in their own unique ways. Give equal emphasis that everything is good, and you can make the best out of it.
I'm currently one of them. I'm more towards the Arts side. And I find that the education system is not doing any justice to students like me, as well as my peers who were very inclined towards this area. Even now, towards a higher level of learning, it is still very difficult to find a course to further my knowledge. A lot of things are overseas, which not many of us can afford. Because of this, I feel that Arts and other side skills are being ignored and at a disadvantage.
Btw, if you all out there who are thinking we have got Esplanade, Scape Park, Art houses and our dear YST for the art scenes, these basic infrastructures are really nothing.
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tuition can be a double edge sword.
some kids really needs it (like me, i was lucky i had lots of maths tuition otherwise i cant even pass), some doesnt (my brother didnt even need a tuition class since young, and he can score As for his academics).
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I really hope my kid can get thru the psle exam this coming oct.
The maths are so difficult!
Just get thru I will be a happy parent even though my kid go to Normal (A).
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Hi likeyou,
Good luck to you and your child. Have faith and stay hopeful.
Cheers,
Wen Shih -
Firstly, you have to understand that it is not only in the Singapore that looks at academic results, to get a job in overseas you also need qualifications.
I understand that having extra lessons for each subject is too much. Basically, it is only nessesary to have extra lessons which the student is weak in. I am quite against the idea of having music, art, swimming, ballet, abacus and those PSLE subjects together and fills the child's timetable.
Well, everyone wants to do well, nobody wants to fail and do badly.
There is no one to blame seriously.
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The Aldric, on the contrary, I'm very supportive of the music, art and swimming lessons that my parents have provided me. If there were kids like me, and they did not have a chance to learn music, I think I would have never found my passion and talent in the arts.
Sorry to use talent, but hahaha, i had to!
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i wish u r my parent hahaha. rather than forcing me to study what i hate, i wish i was allowed to choose what i like to do and develop that form of interest when i was younger. i just fking hate Studying what i Hate. and fk it, why must they encourage me to do smethg i cant imagine myself doing in the future? !!!!!