Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition

[verykiasu2010]

schweppes:

I wish MOE will just do away with the marketing hype and fancy slogans. \"Teach Less, Learn More\" sounds all jazzy but I wish MOE will just stick to \"Teach\". Think our children will learn more and better that way.

new slogan will be : \"teach more, learn more\"

[schweppes]

verykiasu2010:

schweppes:

I wish MOE will just do away with the marketing hype and fancy slogans. \"Teach Less, Learn More\" sounds all jazzy but I wish MOE will just stick to \"Teach\". Think our children will learn more and better that way.

new slogan will be : \"teach more, learn more\"

Or \"teach more, (parents) complain less\" :evil:

[pinky]

teach more, tuition lagi more :evil:

[janet88]

schweppes:

I wish MOE will just do away with the marketing hype and fancy slogans. \"Teach Less, Learn More\" sounds all jazzy but I wish MOE will just stick to \"Teach\". Think our children will learn more and better that way.

MOE top guns shouldn't think of any more crazy gimmick...allow teachers to teach.
'Teach less, Learn more' is most stupid thing I have heard.
Education ministers no need to think of marketing gimmick, no need enterprising minister. Go down to bottom and find out what the kids, teachers & parents think. Don't sit in some tower and think of this and that nonsense.

[janet88]

pinky:

teach more, tuition lagi more :evil:

If teachers teach adequate quality stuff and roughly appear in school exams, we parents will see lesser need for tuition. We just want quality teaching. Is that too much to ask for?

[hokkiengirl]

beanbear:

So I as a parent have to make a decision. I decide how my child's time used. Because I need this precious resource for tuition (either by me or external parties) to ensure that he's actually learning something. When my DS spent LESS time at school this year, his grades went UP. So my learning has been, ATTEND LESS SCHOOL, LEARN MORE.

Very valid point!!! Thanks for bringing this up. I think I will also need to prepare myself to take a stand if the hours spent in school are actually not helping my kids. I think takes great courage and knowledge of your own kid to take this step. Good for you!

[pinky]

janet_lee88:

pinky:

teach more, tuition lagi more :evil:

If teachers teach adequate quality stuff and roughly appear in school exams, we parents will see lesser need for tuition. We just want quality teaching. Is that too much to ask for?

school skim through the syllabus, tuition centres fill in the details

[cherryc]

Yah! Just Teach well, learn well. And kids can play well, sleep well and turn out well.

[verykiasu2010]

cherryc:

Yah! Just Teach well, learn well. And kids can play well, sleep well and turn out well.

even so, there will still be kids who play in class and not pay attention and never notice what has been taught, and the parents will still say testing beyond scope, testing what was not taught

[coast]

atutor2001:

coast:

In summary, her son scored 3 A* (Eng, Maths, Sci) and 1 A (Chi) ... T-score 244 ... lower T-score than those of his peers with 3A and 1B.

If PSLE awards grades based on above grading system, would you be able to guess how the following is possible (perhaps with some estimated mean and SD):-
......
Three A* for English, Mathematics and Science, an A for Chinese = aggregate score of 244. Most of his friends who managed 3As and a B have better aggregate scores than him.

I thought it is possible (3A* & 1A higher T-score than 3A & 1B) if A*, A, ... is based on a bell-curved and not on a fixed range like the PSLE Grading System quoted above?

Many many thanks if you can offer your views on this.

Hi Coast,

It is possible for T-score of 3A* 1A to be lower than 3A 1B.

Just a quick example,

For simplicity, lets assume the standard deviation for every subject to be 15 and the means of the subjects to be:
English - 65,
Science - 63,
Math - 77
Chinese - 77.

A student with the lowest possible A* (91 marks) for English, Science, Math and A (75 marks) for Chinese will get the following T-scores :
English - A* (91 marks) -> T-score of 67.3
Science - A* (91 marks) -> T-score of 68.7
Math - A* (91 marks) -> T-score of 59.3
Chinese - A (75 marks) -> T-score of 48.7
Aggregate T-score = 244

A student with highest possible A (90 marks) for English, Math, Chinese and B (74 marks) for Science will get the following T-scores :
English - A (90 marks) -> T-score of 66.7
Science - B (74 marks) -> T-score of 57.3
Math - A (90 marks) -> T-score of 58.7
Chinese - A (90 marks) -> T-score of 61.8
Aggregate T-score = 244.5

However, it is unlikely that \"most\" of the 3A 1B will get higher score than the one with 3A* 1A.

Above computation is based on a constant standard deviation of 15. If different SD is used for each subject, it would be easier to come up with a permutation where T-score of 3A 1B is higher than 3A* 1B.

Hope it is of help.

Hi atutor2001,

:thankyou:

My mind is clearer when you point out that it is unlikely that \"most\" of the 3As 1B will get higher T-scores than the one with 3A* 1A. So either the forum writer made a mistake (but SEAB did not find it necessary to correct her mistake in its reply?) or SEAB implied that it is possible (which will be very confusing unless PSLE subject grade is itself bell-curved).

Appreciate your efforts! Your explanation is certainly helpful

Just to point out though (or am I wrong?):-

1) High likelihood that Mean of Maths is < 77 since 40%++ scored A*/A each year
2) High likelihood that Mean of Chinese is > 77 since 80%++ scored A*/A each year

I think I will try to drop this T-score confusion from my mind. Just have to understand that it is all about relative performance to peers. I am glad I have found someone who can provide some advice if and when I need to clarify about T-scores again in future

IMHO, T-score system is also a contributing factor to the tuition/ enrichment phenomenon.

Maybe one day, someone will decide that it is really NOT necessary to rank our kids against each other in PSLE. I think someone suggested a band-based admission system in the newspaper some weeks ago, will we get to hear from MOE why it favours the current T-score system rather than a band-based admission system?