Parents take tuition to tutor kids with homework

[Daddy D]

Parents take tuition to tutor kids with homework

"IT'S not just the students who need extra coaching when it comes to their schoolwork...."

Sounds stressful....

 

[stonston]

It's not surprising. Remember when you did complex algebra questions? in Lower Sec right? Now they are doing it in P6.

Remember when was the first time you used a calculator for maths? in Sec Sch right? now they are using it at P5.

It's very different now and if parents' don't catch up, they'll be unable to coach their own children. My cousins are not well-educated (highest is o level onli), so they are unable to coach their own children. send them to me for tuition instead. all they are able to do is check tt all homework is complete (based on the homework written down in the diary).

and to be honest, many tutors who are not taught this new syllabus are also stumped by the difficulty level (i have many tutor frens who will call me for help when they cant solve a problem).

and science coverage is getting larger. questions getting more tricky and require more application rather than knowledge. some children weak in english totally will not understand the experiment given in the question and will not do well even if they hv the content knowledge.

and not only must u know the content, u must be able to apply. and you must be able to ANSWER THE QUESTION WITH THE RIGHT TERMINOLOGY. marks are not given if the correct terminologies are not used!

I hv students whose parents are teachers and they themselves find it difficult to coach their own children. so for other parents, i won't be surprised if they are asking for help to coach their children.

i also hv students whose parents sit in during tuition so tt they can reinforce and coach their child when i'm not there (well, i'm only there for tuition once or twice a week, they still need to coach their child when i'm not there )

bottomline is education is getting tougher now. train ur kids with study skills from young so they can cope with the demand. when they r curious, make use of the opportunity to teach them more, expose them to more knowledge and keep feeding their curiousity so tt it will grow. when a child has a curious mind, the learning limits are endless

 

[Daddy D]

It's not surprising. Remember when you did complex algebra questions? in Lower Sec right? Now they are doing it in P6.

Remember when was the first time you used a calculator for maths? in Sec Sch right? now they are using it at P5.

It's very different now and if parents' dont't catch up, they'll be unable to coach their own children. My cousins are not well-educated (highest is o level onli), so they are unable to coach their own children. send them to me for tuition instead. all they are able to do is check that all homework is complete (based on the homework written down in the diary).

and to be honest, many tutors who are not taught this new syllabus are also stumped by the difficulty level (i have many tutor friends who will call me for help when they cant solve a problem).

and science coverage is getting larger. questions getting more tricky and require more application rather than knowledge. some children weak in english totally will not understand the experiment given in the question and will not do well even if they have the content knowledge.

and not only must you know the content, you must be able to apply. and you must be able to ANSWER THE QUESTION WITH THE RIGHT TERMINOLOGY. marks are not given if the correct terminologies are not used!

I have students whose parents are teachers and they themselves find it difficult to coach their own children. so for other parents, i won't be surprised if they are asking for help to coach their children.

i also have students whose parents sit in during tuition so that they can reinforce and coach their child when i'm not there (well, i'm only there for tuition once or twice a week, they still need to coach their child when i'm not there )

bottomline is education is getting tougher now. train your kids with study skills from young so they can cope with the demand. when they are curious, make use of the opportunity to teach them more, expose them to more knowledge and keep feeding their curiousity so that it will grow. when a child has a curious mind, the learning limits are endless

Good points!
But, perhaps that's also y the new generation scores low in civic manners, cos' they're too pre-occupied with scoring As in their studies.
Didn't MOE implement this Teach Less thingy... and 5 days sch week? But seems like the study loads get more and weekdays get stretched longer. Defeat the purpose right?
I feel our mainstream education system still stops short in cultivating curious minds, with all the textbook teachings.
Teacher in PCF nursery wrote in my DD's report card... says she's quiet in class... I ask DD y... DD replied "Cos' Teacher says we must keep quiet and listen." DUH... win liaoo lorr...
But we're all stuck in this vicious SG cycle... just have to work around it and instill our own values to our children.

 

[stonston]

Teach Less Learn More is to encourage students to learn INDEPENDANTLY instead of always waiting for teachers to feed them with info. It is because of this tt they syllabus suddenly seem to cover so much more and students are overwhelmed with the info they need to know! But it's good for the kids to develop curious minds. problem is, most kids are not motivated or do not hv resources to explore further.

MOE will tell you: values are to be instilled by parents, not teachers. As a teacher, I have to somewhat agree. How often do I see my students? And I have 13 classes to teach, 40 students each, how much individual time do I have with my students to enforce values? if i see them doing something wrong, i will correct them, but how often would i actually catch them in the act?
As a school, there are systems and programs in place to teach values, but if parents do not instil values and set good examples, what the school does is really useless already

 

[Daddy D]

Back then... we can still see PSC/President scholars who come from low/middle income families... nowadays they are all from the higher income/elite schs.
But with more emphasis on early childhood development... families who can't afford the $$ lose out... and their children fall behind on grades by the time they go to mainstream schools.
Assuming all kids are hardworking... the more priviledged kids get more tools/skills to prepare themselves for INDEPENDANT learning.

 

[stonston]

Back then... we can still see PSC/President scholars who come from low/middle income families... nowadays they are all from the higher income/elite schs.
But with more emphasis on early childhood development... families who can't afford the $$ lose out... and their children fall behind on grades by the time they go to mainstream schools.
Assuming all kids are hardworking... the more priviledged kids get more tools/skills to prepare themselves for INDEPENDANT learning.

BINGO!!!!!!!

 

[Daddy D]

No wonder so many tuition centres popping out nowadays... cos' most kids cannot learn INDEPENDANTLY... lack the discipline/knowledge... so most eager parents will scramble for external tuitions for help.
Meanwhile, the mainstream schools are Teaching U Less... asking U to Learn More on your OWN...
Either the ex-EDU Minister took the wrong approach... or the whole team of Principals/HODs/Teachers executed it wrongly.
Sad that I foresee myself heading this direction with my dd's education...

 

[stonston]

I personally find tt it's a mixture of home environment vs readiness of parents for this new method of teaching.

In school teachers can make lessons very fun and interesting to spur learning. but from young parents give children the impression that learning is limited to the textbooks and you must learn everything inside the textbook to do well.

Many parents don't understand how they can better help their children to gain independant learning skills. And they take the easiest solution which shows the most results: TUITION.

Problem is, will tuition really solve this independent learning issue? I try my best to teach some skills to my tutees, but i'm able to do so bcos i am a school teacher and i noe the approach MOE is taking. how abt tutors who are not school teachers? do they jus pile info on the kid to memorise or do they teach the kid skills for them to fend for themselves when tuition stops?

alot of tutors dun wanna teach the skills cos it makes students/parents reliant on them = more business! for me i always hv problems keeping my students for long cos after a while, they find tt they are confident enuf to self-study and obtain good results so parents either stop tuition totally or they lessen the frequency. but to me, it's helping the student excel tt's more impt. i always emphasis on time management and for older kids i'll teach them how to source for info online, which websites can be trusted and how to sieve out info without wasting time reading the whole article (imagine if google gives u a thousand websites for ur keyword, how r u gonna read thru all the websites?)

but then again, i've seen parents who are ready for this new teaching method and put in alot of effort. but sad to say, most of these parents hv the financial ability to hv one spouse stop work to coach their children or they hv flexible work schedules to spend time with their children.

so, will parents with lower financial ability cause their children to lose out? the answer is NO, if the parents r willing to put in the effort. it may be very tiring after work and go home still need to read up, still need to spend time coaching ur child. but it's worth it when u see ur child keen to learn and excelling in studies it's a short term sacrifice for a long term benefit

 

[Ting]

now u're scaring me.....
need to faster go further my studies alr.

 

[stonston]

Ting, even if u further ur studies, u may not be able to help ur child unless u are gonna to study at NIE to be a teacher. cos ur further studies will be specialised, unlike primary school education which is essentially a mixture of EVERYTHING!

 

[Funz]

Not surprising.

I for one have no idea how to apply the models method in math.

My P5 niece came back with her math paper and in some of the problems they specifically tell you to use the Heuristics approach. :err:

I looked at my niece and asked her is tat even an English word. She very seriously told me no, it is a mathematical term.