- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 33,627
- Points
- 0
[h=2]A tutor who is an ex-teacher speaks[/h]
September 21st, 2013 |
Author: Contributions
This is what is happening in secondary schools:
Majority of students in the Express Stream have tuition.
Minority of the students in the Normal Academic have tuition. Those who have
tuition usually have better results than those who don’t.
Vast majority of students in the Normal Tech stream have no tuition. Most of
them don’t possess basic skills in literacy and Math. They do well or do badly,
it doesn’t matter to the schools since their results don’t influence the
school’s annual ranking. All your elite schools also don’t have Normal Technical
streams. They see themselves too good for such students. So, what message are
you sending to the students? You decide.
Simple conclusion: Most students need tuition in order to do well in school
work.
Most school teachers don’t spend quality time to prepare lessons. Why should
they? They have NO incentives to do so. Schools want their teachers to spend the
bulk of their time on their CCA and committee work and community project work. I
have ex-colleagues who swim against the tide and focus on teaching well. They
are usually given poor annual work reviews, because MOE expects teachers to do
more than teach. So, the natural thing is to cut quality on teaching and focus
on non-teaching aspects of the job.
Most teachers have little time for remedial or consultation. They have a lot
more time when it comes to doing CCA or committee work or admin work or
rehearsals, because these add value to their portfolio and annual work review.
Giving extra remedials adds little or close to no value for their annual
performance review.
Tutors, on the other hand, have lots of incentives to teach well. So
naturally, the quality of teaching goes down in schools while it goes up for
tuition.
Most good schools aren’t really good. They focus on recruiting good students
with high T-scores, who will most likely do well in national exams years later.
The basic teaching is done in school, and the real teaching is left to the
tutors, who have far greater incentives than your average, tired out school
teacher to teach well.
Your tutors focus on teaching well, while your school teacher focus on lots
other things, especially on CCA and non-teaching areas, since the performance
review pays them well to behave in such a way.
Naturally, majority of students will need tuition in order to do well.
Ex-teacher, current tutor
* Comment first appeared in: Tuition woe or tuition blur
Majority of students in the Express Stream have tuition.
Minority of the students in the Normal Academic have tuition. Those who have
tuition usually have better results than those who don’t.
Vast majority of students in the Normal Tech stream have no tuition. Most of
them don’t possess basic skills in literacy and Math. They do well or do badly,
it doesn’t matter to the schools since their results don’t influence the
school’s annual ranking. All your elite schools also don’t have Normal Technical
streams. They see themselves too good for such students. So, what message are
you sending to the students? You decide.
Simple conclusion: Most students need tuition in order to do well in school
work.
Most school teachers don’t spend quality time to prepare lessons. Why should
they? They have NO incentives to do so. Schools want their teachers to spend the
bulk of their time on their CCA and committee work and community project work. I
have ex-colleagues who swim against the tide and focus on teaching well. They
are usually given poor annual work reviews, because MOE expects teachers to do
more than teach. So, the natural thing is to cut quality on teaching and focus
on non-teaching aspects of the job.
Most teachers have little time for remedial or consultation. They have a lot
more time when it comes to doing CCA or committee work or admin work or
rehearsals, because these add value to their portfolio and annual work review.
Giving extra remedials adds little or close to no value for their annual
performance review.
Tutors, on the other hand, have lots of incentives to teach well. So
naturally, the quality of teaching goes down in schools while it goes up for
tuition.
Most good schools aren’t really good. They focus on recruiting good students
with high T-scores, who will most likely do well in national exams years later.
The basic teaching is done in school, and the real teaching is left to the
tutors, who have far greater incentives than your average, tired out school
teacher to teach well.
Your tutors focus on teaching well, while your school teacher focus on lots
other things, especially on CCA and non-teaching areas, since the performance
review pays them well to behave in such a way.
Naturally, majority of students will need tuition in order to do well.
Ex-teacher, current tutor
* Comment first appeared in: Tuition woe or tuition blur
