<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>And "Education" ministers who nothing about education doesn't help. No wonder the Papayas send their own spawns to international schools and abroad using taxpayers' money.
Sep 1, 2008
SCHOOL SYSTEM
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Tuition ban won't help
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Madam Josephine Koh's letter last Tuesday, 'Do more for teachers', in which she suggests that the Ministry of Education bans tutors if it wants full credit for the success of the education system.
Before considering a ban, one must look closely into why students go for tuition and why some school teachers resign to become tutors.
Gifted or bright students often take tuition classes for enrichment lessons, while weak students do so for remedial ones. Banning tuition will put the not-
so-bright at a serious disadvantage as they would be deprived of concrete assistance with their studies which their parents or school teachers cannot provide.
The current school syllabus, textbooks and timeframe for teaching each subject have been pitched at the level of the bright, leaving some children at sea in their studies and needing to engage tutors. This is evident by the setting of difficult school examinations which few pass, and the fact that a period to teach a subject has been reduced from 40 to 30 minutes. Thus, a child has to learn more in much less time. For example, Reported Speech is covered in one unit of the Primary 5 English textbook. In the past, it was spread over six units.
A teacher must comply with queer schedule changes in the timetable of subjects taught in school, whereas a tutor need not. An example is the teaching of history in the first six months of the year, leaving the teaching of geography to the last six months of the same year for Secondary 1 students in certain schools.
Is it not ridiculous for a teacher to rush through each subject so frantically? A slow learner may have a tough six-month study of each subject he learns for the first time, and he may end up looking for a tutor.
A school teacher must use textbooks, workbooks and worksheets, as well as conduct compulsory remedial and supplementary lessons for all students in a class. However, a tutor has the option of better helping students individually because he can select his own materials and teaching techniques to suit each student's needs or weaknesses.
As there is a preponderance of endless intangible problems in schools here, banning private tuition is an ill-conceived suggestion with dubious benefits. Madam Koh should view Nicholas Meyer's film, Time After Time, and realise Utopia does not exist. A handpicked, efficient private tutor can help a weak student find meaning and enjoyment in his studies when the school teacher cannot.
Vivian Sng (Miss)
Sep 1, 2008
SCHOOL SYSTEM
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Tuition ban won't help
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Madam Josephine Koh's letter last Tuesday, 'Do more for teachers', in which she suggests that the Ministry of Education bans tutors if it wants full credit for the success of the education system.
Before considering a ban, one must look closely into why students go for tuition and why some school teachers resign to become tutors.
Gifted or bright students often take tuition classes for enrichment lessons, while weak students do so for remedial ones. Banning tuition will put the not-
so-bright at a serious disadvantage as they would be deprived of concrete assistance with their studies which their parents or school teachers cannot provide.
The current school syllabus, textbooks and timeframe for teaching each subject have been pitched at the level of the bright, leaving some children at sea in their studies and needing to engage tutors. This is evident by the setting of difficult school examinations which few pass, and the fact that a period to teach a subject has been reduced from 40 to 30 minutes. Thus, a child has to learn more in much less time. For example, Reported Speech is covered in one unit of the Primary 5 English textbook. In the past, it was spread over six units.
A teacher must comply with queer schedule changes in the timetable of subjects taught in school, whereas a tutor need not. An example is the teaching of history in the first six months of the year, leaving the teaching of geography to the last six months of the same year for Secondary 1 students in certain schools.
Is it not ridiculous for a teacher to rush through each subject so frantically? A slow learner may have a tough six-month study of each subject he learns for the first time, and he may end up looking for a tutor.
A school teacher must use textbooks, workbooks and worksheets, as well as conduct compulsory remedial and supplementary lessons for all students in a class. However, a tutor has the option of better helping students individually because he can select his own materials and teaching techniques to suit each student's needs or weaknesses.
As there is a preponderance of endless intangible problems in schools here, banning private tuition is an ill-conceived suggestion with dubious benefits. Madam Koh should view Nicholas Meyer's film, Time After Time, and realise Utopia does not exist. A handpicked, efficient private tutor can help a weak student find meaning and enjoyment in his studies when the school teacher cannot.
Vivian Sng (Miss)
