Singapore is a country where special attention and prominence are given to the education system. Students are always overwhelmed by the rat race of academic success because their society lives by the rule of higher meritocracy. Not everyone fits the mould, and this education system itself puts an immense amount of pressure on the students. Even their Education Minister had admitted to the system being very stressful. It will be deceptive and mistaken to assume that every student will excel according to the standards of Singapore’s education system.

Why is there a need for private tuition?:

Keeping this in mind, there always will be a portion of students who will be lacking academically and will not be capable enough to perform well as compared to their smarter and more intellectually capable peers. This is the point where such students may choose private tuition as a safe and effective option to ace their exams.

Provides academic aid to the students:

The basic and most important aspect of private tuition, for example, Economics Tuition in Singapore is to help and aid students overcome the hurdles and problems they are regularly facing while studying the subject. This is a major boon of private tuition because, for a fact, students will pick up the subject or understand the topics more rapidly, in which they are already weak or left behind others. It is in fact critical to their self worth and mental and emotional well-being that they are able to keep up with their peers. From this viewpoint, tuition provides help beyond their academic grades.

Elevated ratio of private tuitions in Singapore:

If we look at the general picture, we will hardly find any student who has not signed up for private tuitions in Singapore, because according to a survey, parents enrol their students in private tuitions as soon as they enter kindergarten or primary classes. If we take into account of the teacher-student ratio, it is also hardly surprising why many find tuition more effective than the lessons in schools. Especially in kindergarten and primary schools, teachers are often just bogged down with classroom management and discipline, that teaching becomes secondary and often-times disrupted. Managing an entire class of 40 students is a massive challenge that makes it very difficult to really teach and help every single
student. Contrast this to the 1:6 ratios that are typical of a private group tuition setting.

Adjustable teaching methods and style:

In the case of private tuition, the tutor can adjust and manage his or her teaching methods and style according to the student’s learning speed, capability, and power. In this way, the tutor will be able to contemplate the weakness of students and the areas in which the student needs help, and there will be lesser chances that the student will be left behind due to the excessively fast teaching speed of the school’s teacher.

One-to-one tutoring:

Private tuition can also be in the form of one-to-one tutoring. This way of teaching is highly advantageous because the student can freely ask their questions and derive solutions to their problems. This will help in stimulating the urge in students to remove all their doubts regarding the particular subject, and students can learn better when understanding what they learn and become highly motivated.

What could be the bane of private tuition?

Unfortunately, tuition does add to the stress of academic learning. It is akin to a nuclear arms race. As students do better, the bar of excellence also gets raised as it is the relative performance that decides which school or course one qualifies for next. This increases the overall stress of the system and robs students of the joy of learning.

Loopholes and problems:

There are some loopholes in the system as well. The problem starts when academic moderation is not considered. This phenomenon works on the principle that when a weaker student start excelling in academics and a lot of other students are enrolled for private tuitions, the burden is multiplied three or times.

Financial investment in private tuitions:

Singapore is an academically competitive state, and the desire to top the academic charts is ingrained in everyone who resides there. Hence, no one wants to feel lesser than their peers and parents invests as much money as required in private tuitions. This worsens the problem of income inequality and increases the gap between the haves and have-nots. This can also further increase the sense of elitism in the society as some can afford to attend more prestigious tuition programmes while others are hardly able to afford tuition. Parents may also spend too much time working to earn money to pay for tuition instead of paying more attention to their child and having quality time with them. This can cause
the chunked to feel neglected and overall development may be adversely affected. According to research conducted by Blackbox, it was revealed that almost 60% of students are enrolled in private tuitions, and their annual tuition expenses are about 600 dollars monthly within a year. This causes a lot of extra financial strain on a low-income family, due to which they have to compromise their living standards as well.