The tutor’s trap and how to escape from it

Tuition is a lucrative and sometimes deceptive business. Do not misunderstand. I do not mean that there are enrollment centers that want to cheat you. It’s just an inherent flaw in the system that makes quality control an uphill task. And this inevitably forms the root of the problem.

More often than not, we hear from parents about incidents where they were ‘cheated’ by enrollment agencies into assigning ‘lousy’ tutors to their children, complaints about the rising costs of education and the increasing levels of stress they face their children. Recently, the press had also published a full page report on the ‘pervasiveness’ of tuition among school children. Obviously, school is no longer Monday through Friday. It is every day.

Among the many subjects offered in primary schools, students seem to find it most difficult to excel in math and science; some barely pass. Why? You may wonder. These are subjects that require conceptual knowledge, logical thinking, and creativity to solve the problem at hand – skills that are relatively difficult to master (unless you have the natural gift for it), and definitely not something one can fathom given the little weather. period in the classroom. In other words, to fully understand the topic, one needs to try questions, make mistakes, and learn from them. Such painstaking work cannot be done just the night before the exam! And that’s when license plate comes into the picture.

The role of a tutor is to constantly teach, clarify doubts and, ultimately, guide their student on the path of success in exams. Unfortunately, this rosy picture doesn’t always pan out, and by the time parents realize this, it’s already too late.

Finding a Math/Science tutor is a tedious process. It is not only necessary to look at the tutor’s qualifications, but also to know what the tutor is doing during class time and, more importantly, your child’s development. The first criterion tends to be scrutinized by enrollment centers and agencies, but the second requirement is often overlooked. Due to the nature of the skills required by Math/Science, a student’s progress can be extremely slow. But remember, exams never wait! Your improvement slows even more or even stops when the tutor doesn’t do a proper job. Some of these signs are listed below:

– Watching your child do their homework, which essentially takes up the entire duration of the tuition, while the tutor does something unrelated.
– Create such a good relationship with your child that they talk about anything except the topic to be taught.
– Do not mark/monitor your child’s work
– Do not explain your child’s mistakes.
– Always canceling/postponing the lesson.
– Giving your child a shorter class duration than what was paid for.

Since busy parents tend to overlook these minor details, the damage done to their child’s grades becomes irreparable as the test approaches. Instead of frantically searching for another school, or waiting in vain for the agency to assign another tutor with a matching time and location, some parents in Singapore have turned to a slightly less conventional alternative.

Online tutoring has been an emerging trend in recent years. This is especially so in countries like the US, where registration becomes an email or a mouse click. This service is often used by students who require additional assistance in their studies and whose teachers are too concerned to respond to their many queries in a timely manner. It is often preferred for its lower costs, convenience, and daily support. The tutor also benefits from this online working relationship with more flexibility to think outside of ‘teaching time’ compared to a face-to-face session. Therefore, students are assured of higher quality answers to their questions. However, an occasional meeting is possible through prior arrangement should the need arise.

With national exams like the PSLE ​​just around the corner, we still see parents looking for tutors to help their children improve or maintain their grades after the preliminaries. This is good because it attests to the level of importance that parents place on their children’s education. However, a step back may be needed to reassess the stringency of the checkpoints placed in the general tutoring community as well.