ANGIE ANG: My daughter is in Primary 6 this year. She already has 4 tutors for English, Math, Science and Chinese. She has 2 lessons with them each week, which takes up a lot of her time, and a lot of our family time together.
Every weekday evening, she has to sit in for tuition classes after dinner, so by the time she finishes tuition, it’s already 9pm. She still has to do her homework for the next day, so by the time we get her to bed, it’s around 10 plus or 11 o’clock. And to think she has to be in school by 7.30am!
I’m writing in because I’m not happy that our education system has forced our children into this kind of tuition culture. It is causing them a lot of stress, and it is causing us parents a lot of money, and stress, and worry.
My daughter is still not considered “up to standard” in school, and her teachers are concerned over her results. What more can I, as a mother, do? Send her for more tuition? I would school her myself, but I don’t think I am capable enough.
The end of the year PSLE exams are coming quickly, and this is just adding to our worries, especially because it seems that in Singapore, if our children don’t get a good paper certificate, they are doomed for the rest of their life. I’m sure there are many other parents out there who want their 12-year-old children to enjoy their childhood, without having to slog it out as though they are already 30-year-old adults.
