What do you expect from a walkover mp?
Sep 27, 2010
Tuition focus: Who's pushing for it?
Lui Tuck Yew on school rankings and parents' education choices
TUITION teachers, some of whom reportedly earn up to a million dollars a year, became the unlikely catalyst for a wide-ranging discussion yesterday about whether schools instil the right values in students.
At an hour-long dialogue with Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, several Sembawang residents expressed concern that tuition had become the be-all and end-all of students' lives - with one citing yesterday's Sunday Times story on the earnings of top tuition teachers.
The resident lamented that this was a by-product of schools putting too many resources into chasing rankings and awards rather than into teaching. This left students with little choice but to engage tutors.
Mr Lui acknowledged the concern but put the ball back in the parents' courts, asking if their attitudes had a part to play in the trend.
Using the example of two schools - one not driven by awards, and another striving for them - he said he believed parents would choose the latter school: 'To be quite frank, I think it is easy for us parents to say the schools are not doing a good enough job and are distracted by other priorities. But sometimes the way parents decide on schools and the push they make on the teachers also send certain messages.'
He was quick to add that 'in reaching for those awards, the school has to put in a lot of work to ensure that the quality of teaching and pedagogy supports it'.
[Wow..when did the parents is bigger than MOE? No-porn Liu now put all the blame to the parents instead]
Mr Lui, who was previously Minister of State (Education), said in his experience parents - not students - were often the ones pushing for tuition.
'It's one thing to say, 'Can you do better in the education system?' Certainly we'll strive to improve on it. But how hard you push your children, that's for parents themselves to look at, if it's necessary.'
This theme of self-reflection and taking the initiative was apparent in his responses to other questions, which ranged from the adequacy of civic education in schools to courtesy on public transport.
To a resident's suggestion that announcements be blared on trains and buses to remind people to give up their seats to those in need, he said he was 'not so pessimistic that people always need constant reminders and announcements'.
He suggested that fellow commuters could simply step in with a 'gentle pat on their shoulder to give up their seats'.
As for building moral character, he said: 'The school is only one place where children pick up values. They also pick up values from the community and family. Parents are partners with schools in instilling the right moral compass.'
The dialogue came at the end of the minister's visit to Sembawang GRC's Marsiling ward.
Marsiling Youth Executive Committee chairman Lu Qi Min, 27, related his own story of going from a bottom-ranked secondary school to polytechnic, and finally to university by dint of hard work: 'I am very fortunate that I was imparted with the right values about trying hard in school. My friends and I were not in the tuition era but still made it in life.'
[never see porn = righ values
]
Mr Lui agreed and said that what was more important was to make sure there were second chances, especially for late bloomers.
Ending the dialogue on a light note, host MP Hawazi Daipi picked up on the thread of self-reliance.
Responding to a Marsiling Secondary School student who asked for a students-only bus service 913 so they would not be late for school, he said this would not be financially feasible.
'We take time to travel,' he said.
If you need to wake up early, you just have to wake up early. Just don't play so many video games late into the night.
He also noted in response to a request for an additional mosque in the area that the go-ahead had been given for a second mosque to be built in Woodlands.
Sep 27, 2010
Tuition focus: Who's pushing for it?
Lui Tuck Yew on school rankings and parents' education choices
TUITION teachers, some of whom reportedly earn up to a million dollars a year, became the unlikely catalyst for a wide-ranging discussion yesterday about whether schools instil the right values in students.
At an hour-long dialogue with Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, several Sembawang residents expressed concern that tuition had become the be-all and end-all of students' lives - with one citing yesterday's Sunday Times story on the earnings of top tuition teachers.
The resident lamented that this was a by-product of schools putting too many resources into chasing rankings and awards rather than into teaching. This left students with little choice but to engage tutors.
Mr Lui acknowledged the concern but put the ball back in the parents' courts, asking if their attitudes had a part to play in the trend.
Using the example of two schools - one not driven by awards, and another striving for them - he said he believed parents would choose the latter school: 'To be quite frank, I think it is easy for us parents to say the schools are not doing a good enough job and are distracted by other priorities. But sometimes the way parents decide on schools and the push they make on the teachers also send certain messages.'
He was quick to add that 'in reaching for those awards, the school has to put in a lot of work to ensure that the quality of teaching and pedagogy supports it'.
[Wow..when did the parents is bigger than MOE? No-porn Liu now put all the blame to the parents instead]
Mr Lui, who was previously Minister of State (Education), said in his experience parents - not students - were often the ones pushing for tuition.
'It's one thing to say, 'Can you do better in the education system?' Certainly we'll strive to improve on it. But how hard you push your children, that's for parents themselves to look at, if it's necessary.'
This theme of self-reflection and taking the initiative was apparent in his responses to other questions, which ranged from the adequacy of civic education in schools to courtesy on public transport.
To a resident's suggestion that announcements be blared on trains and buses to remind people to give up their seats to those in need, he said he was 'not so pessimistic that people always need constant reminders and announcements'.
He suggested that fellow commuters could simply step in with a 'gentle pat on their shoulder to give up their seats'.
As for building moral character, he said: 'The school is only one place where children pick up values. They also pick up values from the community and family. Parents are partners with schools in instilling the right moral compass.'
The dialogue came at the end of the minister's visit to Sembawang GRC's Marsiling ward.
Marsiling Youth Executive Committee chairman Lu Qi Min, 27, related his own story of going from a bottom-ranked secondary school to polytechnic, and finally to university by dint of hard work: 'I am very fortunate that I was imparted with the right values about trying hard in school. My friends and I were not in the tuition era but still made it in life.'
[never see porn = righ values
]Mr Lui agreed and said that what was more important was to make sure there were second chances, especially for late bloomers.
Ending the dialogue on a light note, host MP Hawazi Daipi picked up on the thread of self-reliance.
Responding to a Marsiling Secondary School student who asked for a students-only bus service 913 so they would not be late for school, he said this would not be financially feasible.
'We take time to travel,' he said.
If you need to wake up early, you just have to wake up early. Just don't play so many video games late into the night.
He also noted in response to a request for an additional mosque in the area that the go-ahead had been given for a second mosque to be built in Woodlands.
