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Dr Lee Wei Ling on tuition...

theblackhole

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A topic that has been debated heatedly recently is whether tuition is good or even necessary for school children. I will relate my own experience with tuition before discussing its pros and cons.

My two brothers and I began our school life at Nanyang Kindergarten before moving on to Nanyang Primary. We all had Chinese tuition from very early in life, even before we entered primary school.

Our parents believed languages were best learnt young, when the brain is most plastic. We had plenty of time to play in childhood, but we were given a strong grounding in languages.

I vaguely recall my brother Hsien Loong - who is now Prime Minister - had an old man we called "teacher Shung" even after he started primary school. His task was to give Hsien Loong's Mandarin an extra polish.

All three of us had Malay tuition three times a week, an hour each session, in primary school. This was because our school did not teach Malay and our parents wanted us to be conversant and literate in Malay. Hsien Loong's Malay remains excellent.

I took Malay and English as my second languages in my Chinese Secondary 4 school leaving examination. I received distinctions in both.

But by Sec 4, I was getting nervous as to how I would cope in the Chinese language examination. So my parents found me a Chinese teacher. She did not go over the syllabus with me. Instead, we read Dream Of The Red Chamber in its classical form. I didn't enjoy the story.

She also encouraged me to write articles and submit them for publication in the Chinese newspapers. She would correct my draft before I submitted them. Quite a few were published, and I was paid $10 for each article.

All this work paid off for I obtained distinctions in Chinese as a first language in the Chinese school leaving examination as well as for Chinese as a second language in the Cambridge School Certificate Examination.

I went to an English-medium school, Raffles Institution (RI), for pre-university as I wanted to be a doctor. If I had stayed on at Nanyang, I would have been taught science subjects in Mandarin, though the textbooks were in English. That made no sense, so I switched to RI.

But to this day I am grateful I spent the first decade of my school life in a Chinese-medium school. I am sure my brothers feel the same way.

Throughout our school years, when someone from the BBC was available, my parents would arrange an informal tutorial for us. The tutor I remember best is a Mrs Dinnes, a motherly Scottish woman who spoke English with a slight and pleasant Scottish burr. We would talk about or read aloud from novels like The Hobbit.

When she left Singapore, my father arranged for the daughter of the then British High Commissioner to tutor me. He did not want his children speaking Singlish.

With the High Commissioner's daughter, I either had a free-flowing conversation or we would read something by Shakespeare. I never enjoyed Shakespeare, and still don't. But, I suppose, the effort of reading him helped.

From my own experience, I think tuition is sometimes helpful but is not really necessary. Self-reliance is the best approach and it is self-reliance that will get us through adult life.

My brothers and I had tuition in areas that were not covered in school - especially languages. It was not to repeat or revise what had been taught at school.

I don't remember any of my teachers saying: "Why don't your parents get you a tutor?" Things have changed since then, for it is common now for teachers to urge their pupils to get tuition.

I'm sure tuition can be helpful for academically weaker children. But the purpose of tuition should be to help them understand what they could not understand in class, not to go over the 10-year series of examination papers or to repeat all that was taught in school. Why go to school again after school?

Despite my tuition in languages, I had plenty of time to play as a child. Indeed, I played rounders almost every evening. I would climb trees and crawl through drains. In secondary school, I took up running seriously. I represented my school in swimming, earned a black belt in karate and was active in the army cadet corps.

School was always both interesting and challenging. How much you get out of school depends on how much effort you put into it. I had a great time in school.

In the 1960s, tuition was optional and most of us coped without tuition. Now it seems, almost all school children get some form of tuition or other.

Are parents today more kiasu than parents of my generation? Is the curriculum today too heavy for average students to cope with?

It seems to me something is clearly not right when most children have to get tuition, and the tutor covers what is in the school syllabus.

I hope the Ministry of Education can put its finger on the problem and fix it soon. Childhood should not be drowned in a sea of tuition.

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.
 
I was too poor to have any form of tuition. I am sure many brothers here also had no tuition at all. Is this the reason why their English is so bad and so atrocious? But are profanities and vulgarities part of the whole scheme of not having a good tutor ? You can really count the number of forumers here who used profanities as a last resort to defend themselves or to attack others.

Don't you think it's rather sad?
 
Profanities is an upbringing thing, mostly from family n ppl you mix with, nothing much to do with tutors.

Anyway, weiling wrote a fair article. But how to revamp the system given the need for competition? Even top school students have tuition nowadays, very difficult to avoid la.
 
Even undergrads have tuition!!! Never heard of such things in our good old days. In fact, as an undergrad, most of us gave tuition to earn some extra cash and pay for our tuition fees!
 
Profanities is an upbringing thing, mostly from family n ppl you mix with, nothing much to do with tutors...

Kinana, you have created a Hall Of Fame. So those members in the HALL must be lacking in upbringing ? Am I right? So they are also "kurang ajar" right? Are you sure?

I think some of the Members of the Hall Of Fame are really nice people. But again, why "nice" people must resort to profanities to make a statement? That really baffles me. Any more answers? Thank you.
 
Profanities is an upbringing thing, mostly from family n ppl you mix with, nothing much to do with tutors.

Anyway, weiling wrote a fair article. But how to revamp the system given the need for competition? Even top school students have tuition nowadays, very difficult to avoid la.
u r a low stok daft sinkie, u remain a low stok daft sinkie! ... any tution qwun change dat ... u nid 2 b displaced by ft's ...
 
vaguely recall my brother Hsien Loong - who is now Prime Minister - had an old man we called "teacher Shung" even after he started primary school. His task was to give Hsien Loong's Mandarin an extra polish.

All three of us had Malay tuition three times a week, an hour each session, in primary school. This was because our school did not teach Malay and our parents wanted us to be conversant and literate in Malay. Hsien Loong's Malay remains excellent.

I took Malay and English as my second languages in my Chinese Secondary 4 school leaving examination. I received distinctions in both.


We all know the PM speaks good Malay but its a surprise to know that Lee Wei Ling did exceptionally well on her Malay papers as a student..

Thanks to my old Malay buddies and colleagues, I can utter few bits of Malay words like Pukimak, Sial, Butoh, Konek.. I'm still learning and hopefully I will pick up more Malay words by the end of the year..
 
Despite my tuition in languages, I had plenty of time to play as a child. Indeed, I played rounders almost every evening. I would climb trees and crawl through drains. In secondary school, I took up running seriously. I represented my school in swimming, earned a black belt in karate and was active in the army cadet corps.

#respect :eek::cool:
 
Kinana, you have created a Hall Of Fame. So those members in the HALL must be lacking in upbringing ? Am I right? So they are also "kurang ajar" right? Are you sure?

I think some of the Members of the Hall Of Fame are really nice people. But again, why "nice" people must resort to profanities to make a statement? That really baffles me. Any more answers? Thank you.

even terrorists like Hitler n Osama n Stalin can be nice to theirs frens or acquaintances.
But the Kurang ajar in them is still there. They need to be transformed thru the renewing of their minds.
 
even terrorists like Hitler n Osama n Stalin can be nice to theirs frens or acquaintances.
But the Kurang ajar in them is still there. They need to be transformed thru the renewing of their minds.

How do you propose to new the minds of our brothers here? Send them to the Cold Room ? I read many people broke down and confessed to whatever that was in front of them after that freezing session. I think many forumers here are die hards who will not succumb to any form of mental cleansing. They are veterans in the special art of profanity and infractions.

I wonder how they will feel when they are sent to the Cold Room without food, without warm clothes, without drink and totally cut off from the world. I think maybe that will cleanse their minds of profanities. Nothing but jewels and gems will flow from their mouths.
 
even terrorists like Hitler n Osama n Stalin can be nice to theirs frens or acquaintances.
But the Kurang ajar in them is still there. They need to be transformed thru the renewing of their minds.

You're really silly.. Hitler, Osama and Stalin can be nice and polite but they sure knows how to kill innocent people in cold blood..

What do you suggest to teach rude bros in this Forum some proper manners? Send them to a Gulag with no sex for a year? LOL..LOL..
 
Real transformation does not come from torture or strict rules. That's why muslims are so scary even with all their rules.
Real renewing of the mind can only come when these people walk with Jesus.
 
Real transformation does not come from torture or strict rules. That's why muslims are so scary even with all their rules.
Real renewing of the mind can only come when these people walk with Jesus.

Aiyah Kinana, you talk like this, you surely die lah. Religion is a very sensitive stuff and you talk like this.What a grave disappointment lah. Now I understand why forumers here are Upping You all the time. You are your own making lah.Better don't play with religion here.Damned touchy and dangerous. I've stayed away from religion ...stay far far away.

If you continue with this stand of yours, you will be zapped forever. Better change your stance lah. Good luck. You wear armour or not?
 
Aiyah Kinana, you talk like this, you surely die lah. Religion is a very sensitive stuff and you talk like this.What a grave disappointment lah. Now I understand why forumers here are Upping You all the time. You are your own making lah.Better don't play with religion here.Damned touchy and dangerous. I've stayed away from religion ...stay far far away.

If you continue with this stand of yours, you will be zapped forever. Better change your stance lah. Good luck. You wear armour or not?

Don't worry. Down here no need to be politically correct. It's funner that way.
You want the truth, I only tell you the truth.
 
Don't worry. Down here no need to be politically correct. It's funner that way.
You want the truth, I only tell you the truth.

waupian you also no scared like conqueror
they really kill people here
leaving warnings and shit in your private homes
uncle very scared now...< shivering...shivering...>
these rabid dogs really mean business
serious business...cannot fight them...join them lah!!!
kinana and conqueror better be very careful..sekali they bomb you to bits....
 
Mind you, I scored distinctions in Malay vocab like these! Who needs tuition in those days? There were so many street tutors!



Malay words like Pukimak, Sial, Butoh, Konek..
 
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My English is not better than most but it is betterer than a few and it is definitely betterest among the Hokkien Peng platoon.
 
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