Singaporean parents shelling out over $1b on tuition in a year

"Tuition nation" phenomenon taking over.

Singaporean parents are certainly willing to splurge on tuition services for their children. Singapore's tuition industry is now worth more than a billion dollars. The Household Expenditure Survey found that families spent $1.1 billion on tuition a year.

The tuition industry is growing exponentially in size, as evidenced from the rapidly expanding chains of tuition centres in Singapore. There are now more than 800 tuition centres and enrichment centres registered with the Ministry of Education in Singapore and an estimated of hundreds of full and part-time tutors.

This “tuition nation” phenomenon is not only unique to Singapore. Countries such as Hong Kong and South Korea are also famed for their thriving tuition industry. So is tuition a necessity in Singapore?

Accountant, Anna Khoo, 50, spends $2,500 per month on tuition for her two children, aged 12 and 17. Her younger child has tuition in English, Mathematics and Science, while her elder child has tuition in Physics, General Paper and Economics. She said: “My children told me they found it difficult to understand what was taught in school and they needed extra coaching to catch up with their peers. It is a lot of money but it’s well spent if the results are produced. Many parents are out of touch with the latest school syllabus and are not able to help their child academically.”

Mr Anthony Fok, a full-time Economics tutor at JCEconomics.com has noticed an increased expenditure on tuition over the past few years. The 31-year-old masters degree holder in education said: “With the shift in focus of having higher-level thinking skills, students these days are finding it harder to cope with the increasingly complexity of examination questions. Many of them struggle to obtain a passing grade. This also leads to parents seeking remedies outside school in the form of tuition.”

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently said: "I think that collectively we put too much emphasis on tuition. We think that if we hothouse our children, it will make all the difference. I am not so sure. I can understand the concerns of the parents who want to give their children the best, but we also want to give the children the time and the space to grow up."