PARENT SAYS S’PORE CHILDREN VERY POOR THING, NEED GO TUITION AFTER SCHOOL, STRESS

I really feel for singaporean kids nowadays

As a parent of three boys, 14, 12 and 8, i really feel for singaporean kids nowadays. Not because of the Singapore education system, but because of the beliefs and behavior of many parents towards sending their kids for tuition/enrichment classes.

I mean, after a long day of school, imagine you still have to attend a two hour tuition (i think if the child is weak in the subject, or they themselves request – its a different matter). I personally send my kids for their weakest subject (chinese) once a week. But i hear tuition multiple times per week, i sometimes, i can’t help feeling that their children are living under stress and sad conditions, whom will later grow up to be resentful youths/young adults.

For those who say blame the education system, I agree to a certain extend, but I also feel things can be up to the parent to control. eg. you are the once who can decide what kind of an environment your child grows up in. Other people can be kiasu, you don’t have to follow.

You just read SGExams, so many stressed and resentful teens. I would plea for parents to prioritze your child’s happy memories of childhood. Anyway, just my ranting and seeking if there are any who agree with me. Let’s not bring in the hustle and rat race earlier than it already is.

Netizens’ comments

1. Ya I have been wondering about this too. Kids wake up 6 am and go to school at 7-1.30pm… after school also tired already…. But many of the kids don’t go home, they go to student care and are picked up at 5 pm, then go for tuition 6-7pm then play for a while then sleep, rinse and repeat Monday to Friday…. Everyday get scolded by parents to study hard…. What kind of life is this….
2. Classic prisoner’s dilemma which will exist for as long as this country retains its obsession with grades. The ideal case is no one sending their kids to tuition, or tuition only for the weakest subjects. But the brilliant kid gets even more brilliant and a leg-up on his peers if he goes to tuition. So, parents respond accordingly, exams get ever harder to distinguish between the geniuses and the merely brilliant, and it becomes an arms race. No one is individually at fault, but everyone loses and burns out (except maybe the tuition teachers) – the kids, the parents, the school teachers, and (in the long run) society.