The Tuition Dilemma

The issue of tuition has raised a furore among the public again, after news reports emerged that even straight-A and university students are taking private classes. Jasmine Tay looks at whether students have come to rely too much on tuition, and whether ultimately they are doing more harm than good.

By Jasmine Tay

Graphic: Trivia Goh

When Senior Minister of State for Education, Ms Indranee Rajah, said that tuition was “not necessary”, and that it was doing more bad than good, it sent shockwaves throughout Singapore. The reactions came fast and furious — some applauded Ms Indranee’s stance, while others argued that tuition was vital for students to gain that competitive edge over their peers.

As a student, I empathise with the reactions. Just as it is for most Singaporean children, tuition was a huge part of my life. I needed tuition because of my below-average grades. The easy way out for me when not performing well in school was having extra lessons and practices. I could consider myself a “tuition connoisseur” with the different types of tuition I had gone through. Throughout my primary school days, I had tuition classes for almost all of my subjects. I remember the many nights spent shivering in Kumon and Tian Xia doing assessment books and past-year exam papers.

Looking back, I could see why I had gone through tons of tuition lessons. My aforementioned grades had left my parents worried that I would never go to an elite secondary school. They decided to bank their hopes on private tuition. Furthermore, my lack of confidence over my abilities and a creeping fear of being last in class harboured an unhealthy dependency on tuition.

It was a cheerless realisation, but tuition remained my safety blanket.

I conducted a small survey among 30 undergraduates to find out why they needed tuition. Most revealed that tuition provides an environment not found in public schools. Instead of competing with 40 over students for attention, tuition allows them to have one-on-one time with tutors on subjects they are struggling with in class. Other students sheepishly admitted that they do not listen in class and have no motivation to study — tuition thus forces them to do so.

Surely, having tuition has some benefits for students and their parents. Students get the extra attention and practice to excel. Parents get to soothe their nerves believing that they have provided the best for their children. Tuition has grown to become a staple in the education diet.

Shin Min Daily News reported last year that tuition centres have increased almost fivefold – from about 100 in 1998 to more than 540 tuition centres last year.

Nominated MP Janice Koh, who had questioned the need for children to have tuition, said that more than 97 per cent of Singaporean students had tuition and enrichment classes in 2008 — almost double the number of students who had tuition in 1992.

Households also spent a whopping $820 million on tuition, twice the amount spent in 1998, she added.

“Parents send their children for tuition classes because they fear their children getting left behind,” wrote Mr Daniel Wong, an education excellence coach, in a recent Yahoo! article. He adds that parents would also tend to see their children’s grades as a yardstick of their parenting skills — bad grades would mean they have failed as a parents.

There really is nothing wrong with going to tuition — the problem lies in how we perceive it. Ultimately, the competition between students for good grades stems more from a fear of losing than a curiosity to learn. If having tuition only serves the superficial purpose of pushing up grades, then Singaporeans truly have desecrated the meaning of education and learning.

The current way we look at tuition is what I would call the “bottled-water syndrome”. Many people prefer bottled water to tap water, influenced by advertisements claiming that bottled is better, even though public tap water is safer to drink and much cheaper too. Tuition is very much like bottled water. We feel that we need it because of all the marketing and gossip about it. But are extra lessons provided by tutors really better than public education that has already been provided in schools?

Perhaps we need to rethink our outlook towards tuition. Instead of jumping to tuition right after receiving bad grades, parents should allow their children time to explore subjects and encourage them to develop the self-discipline to study by themselves.

Surely, it would be no easy feat holding a child down and forcing him or her to study. Parents can help make learning more enjoyable. Instead of making studying seem like a task, they can try to incorporate different lessons taught in everyday life. For example, parents can encourage children to count, add and divide the bill when out shopping. As simple as it sounds, such a practice can help a child see the different practical uses to what they learn and slowly gain an understanding.

Tuition should not be seen as an easy way out of bad grades, but rather a way to explore and learn further. Enrichment centres like the School of Thought not only aim to help students with English and General Paper, but also to improve their analytic skills and general knowledge.

As much as it is a relief to know that tuition can act as a helpline, we have to remember that there’s only so much that tuition can contribute to learning. The true test lies within a student’s potential to learn, not a student’s ability to get the best grades.