http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090520-142656.html
Thu, May 21, 2009
The New Paper
Tutors' before-&-after boast irks schools, parents
By Veena Bharwani
SOME schools are upset with a tuition agency for putting up the results of students on its website and claiming credit for their successes.
The schools feel that by naming the students' schools, Smartlab Tuition Centre is implying that the schools are not as successful in helping them.
Pioneer Junior College principal Kek Lee Yong told The New Paper: 'They are claiming credit for the success of the students and this might not be completely true.
'There might be other factors that helped the students succeed. It might be their own personal motivations, or even the hard work of the teachers in school that helped to boost their performance.'
A vice-principal from a secondary school in the north, who declined to be named, agreed that it was not fair to school teachers.
'You cannot attribute the students' results just to the tuition centre,' he said.
Some parents, not all of whom have children attending Smartlab, were concerned with the issue of privacy.
They were not comfortable that the children's full names, schools and detailed examination results were displayed for all to see.
Smartlab, which has nine branches islandwide, teaches English, Mathematics and Science to students from primary to junior college level.
On its website are hundreds of students' names, schools and their before-and-after examination results since 2002.
A quick scan of the results show that most students improved significantly after attending lessons at Smartlab. It is stated on the website that 'no other tuition centre that we are aware of is able to boast of such a large number of students making significant grade improvements in their results'.
Disturbed
Miss Pok Ts'ai Feng, 27, a bank officer who chanced upon the website, said: 'I would not want my child's name on the website. It is a breach of their privacy.'
Although Miss Pok is not a parent, she was so disturbed by the issue that she alerted The New Paper.
Smartlab managing director Hazel Poa said in an email interview that there are usually several factors involved when a student does well.
But she added that Smartlab believes that its methods play an important part in the improvement of its students.
The website states that all its teachers have a minimum of a bachelor's degree.
Ms Poa, 38, who also teaches at the centre, has a first class honours degree from Cambridge University.
She said: 'We are unashamedly taking partial credit for our students' improvement and patting ourselves on the back each time we can do that.'
She said her tutors can give more attention to students than school teachers because 'our class sizes are eight or less for most of the levels'.
Ms Poa added that parents are told of its practice of publishing results when they register their child at the centre.
In its nine-year history, only one parent had objected to this practice and asked for her son's results to be removed from the website, she said.
Mr Francis Leong, 46, whose son Wellace, 13, has been with Smartlab for two years, said: 'My son's results have improved tremendously so I don't mind them being published. But if his results had become worse, I would not like it.'
His son, who had a B and C in maths and science in Primary Five, scored an A* in maths and a B in science in his PSLE.
Shuqun Secondary School principal Adolphus Tan said: 'These enrichment centres usually focus on only one dimension of student development. But schools develop the child in the following five areas - intellectual, moral, physical, social and aesthetic domains.'
A vice-principal from a secondary school in Bishan felt Smartlab's practice was more a promotional gimmick than an attempt to put down any school.
A teacher who declined to be named agreed: 'It's good that they can complement our work as teachers and help the students. If they want to publish the students' results and have the consent of parents, then it's fine.'
Additional reporting by Joanna Hor, newsroom intern
This article was first published in The New Paper.
Thu, May 21, 2009
The New Paper
Tutors' before-&-after boast irks schools, parents
By Veena Bharwani
SOME schools are upset with a tuition agency for putting up the results of students on its website and claiming credit for their successes.
The schools feel that by naming the students' schools, Smartlab Tuition Centre is implying that the schools are not as successful in helping them.
Pioneer Junior College principal Kek Lee Yong told The New Paper: 'They are claiming credit for the success of the students and this might not be completely true.
'There might be other factors that helped the students succeed. It might be their own personal motivations, or even the hard work of the teachers in school that helped to boost their performance.'
A vice-principal from a secondary school in the north, who declined to be named, agreed that it was not fair to school teachers.
'You cannot attribute the students' results just to the tuition centre,' he said.
Some parents, not all of whom have children attending Smartlab, were concerned with the issue of privacy.
They were not comfortable that the children's full names, schools and detailed examination results were displayed for all to see.
Smartlab, which has nine branches islandwide, teaches English, Mathematics and Science to students from primary to junior college level.
On its website are hundreds of students' names, schools and their before-and-after examination results since 2002.
A quick scan of the results show that most students improved significantly after attending lessons at Smartlab. It is stated on the website that 'no other tuition centre that we are aware of is able to boast of such a large number of students making significant grade improvements in their results'.
Disturbed
Miss Pok Ts'ai Feng, 27, a bank officer who chanced upon the website, said: 'I would not want my child's name on the website. It is a breach of their privacy.'
Although Miss Pok is not a parent, she was so disturbed by the issue that she alerted The New Paper.
Smartlab managing director Hazel Poa said in an email interview that there are usually several factors involved when a student does well.
But she added that Smartlab believes that its methods play an important part in the improvement of its students.
The website states that all its teachers have a minimum of a bachelor's degree.
Ms Poa, 38, who also teaches at the centre, has a first class honours degree from Cambridge University.
She said: 'We are unashamedly taking partial credit for our students' improvement and patting ourselves on the back each time we can do that.'
She said her tutors can give more attention to students than school teachers because 'our class sizes are eight or less for most of the levels'.
Ms Poa added that parents are told of its practice of publishing results when they register their child at the centre.
In its nine-year history, only one parent had objected to this practice and asked for her son's results to be removed from the website, she said.
Mr Francis Leong, 46, whose son Wellace, 13, has been with Smartlab for two years, said: 'My son's results have improved tremendously so I don't mind them being published. But if his results had become worse, I would not like it.'
His son, who had a B and C in maths and science in Primary Five, scored an A* in maths and a B in science in his PSLE.
Shuqun Secondary School principal Adolphus Tan said: 'These enrichment centres usually focus on only one dimension of student development. But schools develop the child in the following five areas - intellectual, moral, physical, social and aesthetic domains.'
A vice-principal from a secondary school in Bishan felt Smartlab's practice was more a promotional gimmick than an attempt to put down any school.
A teacher who declined to be named agreed: 'It's good that they can complement our work as teachers and help the students. If they want to publish the students' results and have the consent of parents, then it's fine.'
Additional reporting by Joanna Hor, newsroom intern
This article was first published in The New Paper.
