Home Tuition – A Necessity in Singapore

The education system in Singapore could be termed as one of the worlds leading and notably it was chosen by the British Education Minister Michael Gove, to be praised as one amongst the top educational systems in the world. There also exists a political ideology in Singapore called Meritocracy, which advocates the principle of grooming and nurturing potential young students for leadership positions. The present education system in Singapore calls for extra effort from the students to come up with meritorious results, doesn’t matter how prestigious or highly acclaimed the school is. This happens because the student to teacher ratio is weaker in the schools, and it becomes very difficult for the teachers in these schools to provide individual attention to the students. According to statistics in the Singapore Education Statistics Digest 2008, numbers of students enrolled in various levels of schools are more than 500,000 and the number of teachers employed in these schools is less than 28,000, which makes the weak teacher to student ratio evident. So, students, to remain competitive and score good grades, resort to home tuition. Many studies and surveys have revealed that over 90 % of students in Singapore rely on tuition, be it through a tuition center or by a home tutor.

What are the advantages of home tuition?

The primary advantage of home tuition is ‘individual attention’, which is not available in schools and which also becomes the most important reason for having a home tutor. Another important aspect is the convenience with timing, as the home tutor could visit the student’s home at the most convenient hours, and the student doesn’t have a need to travel anywhere for tuition as what happens with tuition centers. One to one interaction, typical only to home tuition, helps the tutor to understand which all areas the student is weak in and concentrate on improving the same by focusing more on them. As the student develops good rapport with the tutor, he or she becomes more confident and tends to clear all apprehensions and doubts regarding any of the academic chapters, which the respective student would have hesitated to ask the teacher in a classroom. A good home tutor would also include relevant examples and scenarios to describe a particular part in any subject, so that the student understands the same much better than when it was taught in the school. A good home tutor might also help the student with some easy to remember techniques for difficult chapters along with additional tips to perform well in the exams, and help the student score excellent grades in the exams.

Why home tuition is preferred over tuition centers?

Even though many tuition centers claim that they provide one-to-one attention for their students, it is very difficult to understand how this will work when the scenario is much similar to that in a school where the teacher to student ratio is very weak. Even if such a tuition center really provides what it claims, the student will end spending more time traveling than the actual tuition session itself

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