How to end the tuition fixation

How to end the tuition fixation

From Muthhukumar Palaniyapan 04:45 AM Sep 26, 2012

The Education Minister's pledge, that schools will not set examinations on the basis that pupils had attended tuition, would go some way to assure parents that tuition is not necessary to give their children the edge.

But this alone cannot reduce our nation's tuition obsession, which largely arises from a justified desire for greater personalised attention.

Hence, rather than consider this tuition fixation as largely a product of our "kiasu" culture, it may be more effective if the school system offers more attention to pupils' individual needs. To this end, I offer three suggestions.

First, allocate regular consultation hours within the timetable. In many universities, professors often have designated office hours for students to meet them regarding course matters.

It would be good to formalise such a system in our schools. Presently, while teachers do informally step forward to help pupils when requested, entrenching a system would assure parents that school can adequately cater to their child's educational needs.

Second, teach less, practise more. The lion's share of classroom time is now often allocated to teaching of concepts. To consolidate understanding, homework is given.

But it is often as pupils do their homework that they realise their conceptual gaps. Most require assistance during this stage. In the absence of parental support, many see the need for external help.

To address this, teachers could assign pupils to master basics of the content on their own, thus freeing up classroom time, which can then be more productively used to address pupils' misunderstandings in school rather than at a tuition agency.

Third, empower parents. They may not be able to adequately help throughout their children's education, but parents often complain of being unable to support their children even in primary school because of the changes in teaching modes.

It is positive that some schools have recognised this.

The report "A call to relearn how we teach our children" (June 5) highlighted that Changkat Primary School, for instance, conducts workshops to empower parents to help their children with homework.

Other schools should implement similar solutions. When parents are better qualified to coach their children, they would be less likely to employ tuition at the first signs of academic struggle.


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Parents also to blame for homework burden

From Tan Hong Boon Updated 09:15 PM Sep 25, 2012

I agree with the writer of the letter "Practice makes perfect ... not" (Sept 24) on this point: Schools have made life difficult for their pupils by overloading them with homework.

Nevertheless, having taught in a tuition centre, I have also concluded that parents are partly responsible for their children's predicament. My tutees said, for instance, that their parents had enrolled them into an additional centre for "extra tuition"
.

Sometimes, the parents even enrol their children for extra tuition in the same subject. One pupil said that to prepare her for the Primary School Leaving Examination, her parents had enrolled her for 10 classes a week, on top of her packed school schedule.

Another said that his mother had quit her job six months before his PSLE in order to coach him. He was also banned from watching television and other leisure activities.

One boy, who was in Primary 4 then, said that he had to sometimes sleep as late as 2am because of tuition (not school) homework. For all this "kiasuism", the ones paying the price are the children.

Practice makes perfect ... not

From Vijayan Nambiar 04:45 AM Sep 24, 2012

I applaud the Education Minister for his bold review of the education system. The issue of excessive homework and testing is a great concern to most parents.

Ahead of the Primary School Leaving Examination, schools have been overloading pupils with test papers. As a parent and tutor, I know of schools that have given pupils at least 20 preliminary examination papers from other schools to complete within two weeks.

While the intention may be to give pupils lots of practice for better performance, the end result may be quite the opposite. The well-off would engage tutors to help the child finish his homework, to help him avoid being punished in school.

The average child would plough through the exercises without any real understanding, analysis or reflection and would perform worse in the PSLE than he should.

If a child does 20 exam papers on one subject, it would take him at least 40 hours. How would he find 40 waking hours when he returns home usually after 4pm? No wonder our pupils are so stressed.

Who would mark and grade the papers? In reality, the answers would be flashed on the screen, and everyone copies blindly. In many cases, there is no time to go through all the papers.

The pupil would have spent 40 hours in futility because he would not know if he had used the correct method or if his answers were correct.

Focused homework on key topics is a better way to revise. These questions could then be fully covered in class so that pupils understand, analyse and apply the skills taught.

Pupils who do fewer questions but have greater depth of knowledge would perform better.

Some enlightened schools have chosen to be pragmatic; they will reap good results. They are also the minority. Most schools are kiasu; they pile on homework and extend school hours till 5pm or 6pm. Pupils are mentally and physically tired before they get home.

The Education Ministry should do an audit on how much homework has been dished out in the last two months and how many schools have extended their hours. The findings may be shocking.

Ref:itoday

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