Even teachers think school alone is not enough

I used to share the sentiment that our education system is “run on the basis that tuition is not necessary”. After all, we send our children to school so that they can learn. (“MPs call for closer look at private tuition industry”; Sept 17)

However, with two children in primary school and having spoken to parents about different schools, I realised that only some primary schools truly have a philosophy of “no tuition, trust our teachers”. Many believe instead that the learning will be supplemented by tutors.

Many pupils in “branded” schools attend external enrichment classes after school, while neighbourhood schoolteachers often stay in school to help with remedial classes.

My son’s form teacher even told me which enrichment centre to send him to when I raised my concern about his composition writing. I would have thought she would have more confidence in her teaching to help him.

With external vendors having their own methods of teaching mathematics, for example, many parents are psychologically nudged to turn to them, to make up for what schoolteachers are not actively teaching.

A holiday class by some vendors could range from S$500 to S$800 for a primary school pupil. The diverse teaching methods can also confuse the pupils. Yet, it is a constant race to learn extra because the exam often has extra questions that were not taught but are tested.

A troubling implication of the booming tuition industry is that we are grooming a generation of pupils with a clutch mentality, always needing someone to help them rather than being taught how to learn or being motivated to learn on their own and working as a group to help one another.

Schools, too, must see that laying the foundation in learning is more important than striving incessantly for good exam grades. Must there be exams every year? Education should be viewed from a long-term perspective for the pupil.

How can classroom teaching be better customised with a finer comb to suit the different learning paces of pupils, so that external help is not needed? It must go beyond the distinction between the current high-ability and mixed-ability groups.