Tuition Singapore | How to Choose Tuition In Singapore – Part 1 – Home Tuition Or Group Tuition

Tuition in Singapore – Singaporeans are big on tuition in Singapore. It is inevitably quite hard to find a student in Singapore without some form of tuition. The options that are available are aplenty and this could be both a boon and a bane. To parents, on one hand, this means that they have more choices to choose from but on the other hand, how does one choose a tuition centre from the hordes of tuition centres available in Singapore. In an article released late 2014 on Asiaone*, it is said that families spend $1.1 billion on tuition alone. This was according to the latest household expenditure survey. So with that in mind, we hope to be able to enlighten you on what and how one might want to consider going about choosing tuition for their children in Singapore. We intend to cover the issues in several parts and this is the first.

Before one begins, it is important to note that this article  is just a suggestion so as to inform the parent into making the best decision for his or her child. Another thing to note when it comes to tuition in Singapore is that there are many factors that go into helping you choose tuition for your children in Singapore. So without any further delay, let us dive into the first one.

1-1 Home Tuition Or Group Tuition At A Tuition Centre 

The biggest question or rather, the starting point for most parents is deciding first and foremost, whether home tuition or tuition at tuition centres suit the child. There are pros and cons to both and sometimes group tuition in tuition centres suit a child perfectly whereas at other times, it is advisable for the child to engage a personal tutor for home tuition.

The biggest inherent benefit of home tuition is that there is undivided attention for the child. If each tuition lesson is an hour and a half long, then the full session will be spent between the child and the tutor. A lot of things can indeed be done in the course of an hour and a half but in reality, this is often but just an ideal.

Furthermore, this may be counter-effective especially if the child feels pressurised into completing his work. It may be draining having a personal tutor looking over your child’s shoulder as he attempts to do his work for a solid one and a half hours. The child may even feel demotivated after a while if the tutor and the child do not hit it off and there is a lack of chemistry. Occasionally, the child will try to skip tuition lessons and feign sickness. The added pressure may further add to any pre-existing stress he is already having.

One big mistake parents make is putting all their eggs into one basket or in this case, engaging a single tutor to handle all the child’s subjects. While such a strategy may help especially in terms of communication between the parent and the tutor, it may also backfire. The child may feel as if he has no choice but to face the same tutor three times a week or so. This may inevitably result in a disinterested and unmotivated child. The process of finding a good and reliable replacement personal home tutor then takes up a good 3 months or so as the child will take time to acclimatise to the new home tutor.

On the other hand, when it comes to group tuition, there is no such disadvantage that the child will face when in group tuition at a tuition centre. There are his fellow peers that he will seek to emulate depending on the culture of the tuition centre. If the tuition centre is one that has a good study culture, then the students will feel motivated to be a part of the group. One downside to group tuition of course, is the shared attention, or rather in certain larger group tuition centres, an entire absence in personalisation of tutoring. In fact, in larger tuition groups, there have been horror stories whereby the needs of the child, and the very reasons for having the child sign up for tuition classes are totally and wholly ignored. Large group tuition centres are not able to cater to the individual needs of each respective student and this inevitably leaves the child and parent at a very frustrating square one.

What more, in large group tuition centres where there are more than five students in a class, the atmosphere is almost akin to that in a school classroom. The tuition teacher will have no choice but to maximise his time by catering to the needs of the whole group. As a result, the child is denied individualised attention during the tuition lesson. At the end of the day, the child goes home not having his problems fixed.

Precisely for that reason, the system that is in place at Hanlin tuition centres in Singapore and all other Hanlin tuition centres around the world is such that there is no more than five students in each group. On top of that, each student has his own individualised and customised lesson plan. Thus, parents can be assured that the tutors will provide the much needed assistance the child needs.

In fact, before a child begins his transformative journey at any Hanlin tuition centre, he is required to sit for a free assessment so that the tutor may be able to determine his individual strengths and weaknesses. This is also a good time, during the consultation before registration for the parents to highlight any issues that the child is currently facing.

With the preliminary diagnosis from the free assessment results, the Hanlin tutor then goes on to customise a lesson plan that is wholly catered to the needs of the child.

This model has proven to bring out the best in students at Hanlin tuition centres in Singapore. Students get the company of their peers yet they understand that each and every one of them has to do their part to address their own issues at hand. There is what would be called group synergy. Attention to each student is not overbearing and the student is left to do his work before the tutor comes back to check on his progress. There are clear objectives for each and every lesson and the child does a variety of different exercises throughout each tuition lesson.

Hanlin has been around in the island since 2005 and to date, we have seen tens of thousands of students, go through our tried and tested methods to achieve the results and improvements they desire.

We hope this helps you sieve through the hundreds of tuition centres in Singapore to be able to find one that suits your child.

Stay tuned for part two of this series on tuition and tuition centres in Singapore where we discuss the different factors that a parent might have when shopping for tuition.