I am a parent and my P6 child attends tuition at The Learning Lab (TLL). TLL started a scheme this end May/ June that forces parents to pay for extra “PSLE Preparation Workshops”- 16 extra hours per subject.

Parents have to pay for these workshops if they want their children to continue tuition with this tuition chain. The other choice is to withdraw completely from tuition. This creates extra financial burden on families and more stress for P6 children.

Private equity firm Advent International bought TLL, a chain of tuition centres in Singapore for $300 million+, according to Fortune. http://fortune.com/2014/10/08/term-sheet-wed-oct-8/

TLL had its new CEO Dave Ellison in August 2016. As part of restructuring, 2 centres were closed down. This year, in the current centres, classes with smaller student numbers were closed and the students were reassigned to other classes with larger numbers on other dates. This affected the schedules of families.

TLL CEO Dave Ellison, who previously spent his entire career in British Council (Linkedin), introduced this new scheme this year. In March, I received the information about the “preparation workshops”. There would be two 4 hour workshops per subject, in addition to the weekly regular TLL tuition classes and the extra classes conducted by the school. These extra 8 hours of workshops are bundled with the regular tuition classes in term 3 and parents have to pay extra. In term 4 in September, there will be another 8 extra hours per subject.

I called and asked the company. I was told that parents are not given the choice to decline these extra sessions. The only alternative is to withdraw entirely from tuition this month, 3 months before the high-stakes national Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

The PSLE for primary 6 students begin in August (Oral) and September (Written). The company and its management are exploiting the anxiety of parents and students in Singapore to make them pay extra for these “preparation workshops”.

I received the invoice at the end of April. The cost of the holiday workshops was sneakily packaged together with the regular lessons. Some parents may not even be aware of the cost of these extra hours.

Shouldn’t this preparation be already included in the regular weekly tuition, and not a few months before the PSLE? Each 2 hour session per subject per week already costs $95, excluding 7% tax.

http://info.thelearninglab.com.sg/p6-psle-preparation-workshop

In this scheme of “preparation workshops” for the next few months, there would be a total of 16 extra hours per subject for each student. 8 hours ($380) in June and another 8 hours ($380) later. It will cost families extra $760, in addition to the usual fees. A significant number of students who have tuition in 2 or 3 subjects would have to undergo 32 extra hours ($1520) or 48 extra hours ($2280). Parents are compelled to pay for these extra hours if they would like the child to continue with the regular weekly tuition. They cannot opt out of these extra hours, unless they withdraw completely.

In addition to the added financial strain, the children will be overloaded with these extra hours. I am worried about the negative impact of these added hours on the children who are already facing the stress of the examinations and increased workload. Some children who are over-stressed and they may underperform. I am even more worried about over-stressed children who may take drastic actions that affect their well-being and lives. There have been past cases of suicides linked to academic stress and parental pressure.

The PISA report already indicates that students in Singapore have the highest score in the world for school work anxiety. All these extra hours by TLL will only aggravate the stress.
http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/pisa-2015…

This new scheme by the CEO Dave Ellison may earn the private equity firm and company more than $1 million in revenue but it is unethical to exploit parents’ and students’ anxiety and force them to pay extra, without giving them a choice to decide if they want the extra hours. This scheme also creates stress and problems for families and children.

As a parent, I am worried and upset about the impact of this CEO’s scheme and excessive focus on profit, at the expense of children’s well-being. I hope your AllSingaporeStuff article can help create awareness of the educational issues and held put a stop to these detrimental practices. Thank you.

Mrs Koh

GUY that criticised the TP that was kill on duty was arrested yesterday.

The 39-year-old man Thomas Chua, was arrested for shop theft at a shop at Syed Alwi, the incident happened at 5am+ on Sunday. He was caught by the secuirty at the store and was handed over to the police.

Instant karma, what do you guys think?

Yet another insensitive guy. He posted such a comment. He and Thomas best friends ah?

Or he simply want famous?

What do you guys think?

There was a skinny elderly lady in green short dress in her 70s or so, spotted asking passengers for $ at Lavender MRT station today at 6.30pm.

Then saw she leaning against a pillar n peed there. Goodness…as her dress was up till the butt, not wearing any inner wear as she moved off after peeing. Gross…

Subtmitted Via FB Messages: Russ Fong

Singapore’s most hated man is now Thomas Poh Heng Chua after he gloated at the deceased traffic policeman SSG Nadzrie’s death while carrying out his patrol duties.

Like how he showed no compassion to SSG Nadzrie, Singaporean netizens showed no mercy and did a thorough expose of this monster. They dug up personal details and address of Singapore’s most hated man and asked fellow Singaporeans to shame and punish him for his indecent inhuman comments made in a time of personal tragedy.

His personal details were splashed all over the internet. Using the power of the masses, Thomas Poh Heng Chua, the man with the black heart. 

Location: Yishun Street 21 Blk 208 Level 7

Duration of disturbance: over 10 years

Action: Throw smelly water(urine?), picking up dirt from drain and throw at the family’s flat

Conclusion: ‘YISHUN I GIVE UP’

It seems that finally after 10 years the family that got disturbed by neighbours finally installed a CCTV to captured the ridiculous actions that the neighbours commit. One might even be said the actions are ‘siao’.

After gathering evidence from the CCTV we can only wait for our police to do something

I saw this inhumane bastard Thomas Poh who commented and cursed the Traffic Police officer who died in the line of duty. He alleged that the deceased traffic police officer had issued him a saman because of his lousy driving skills and intimidated him. He hinted that his death was karma for allegedly abusing his authority as a policeman.

He cursed that the policeman also must die and commented that just because he is a policeman does give him the right to show off action and break the law.

This *ssh*le is such an insensitive prick. Because of a traffic offence he can say this policeman deserve to die? Is he human or not? I hope he is mentally ill or not human being should be so cruel to another. Where is the basic respect for someone who has passed away? Respect for his grieving family?

F**ked up *ssh*le, please make him famous.

“Wow Police act so great intimidate also must die ……in the end all Police also will die like everyone in funeral palour so dont intimidate just because you a fking intimidating police.

Police the most rewarding think become police can show off good lah die also in the end like any other civilian. Last time this same TP gave me a ticket because he deem my driving skills no good enough look what happen to him.

So dont think just because you become Police you can break the law show off action somemore. In the end death all must die also regardless u r a police officer or just a layman.”