Is tuition agencies truthful about their teachers

[hamannbmw]

well, i was a little bit kiasu in the sense that my daughter is pr1 this year, i sought for the best edu n school for her n at the same time the best possible tuition teacher. i spoke to a few tuition agency and assume that I found a suitable teacher for her... the problem is... i asked for the teacher's education eg. NIE n so on. I was told that these tuition teacher is a guaduate n had a few years of teaching experience.... and tats is when i opt 4 this teacher..., however///////////

when she was here, one her first tuition lesson, i asked her ... Errrr Ms """"", my daughter was weak on chinese, and could u tell me the "tia hao" (1234) where should i place it ... ( it might seems confusing.. read on), she told me.. "Errrrr above "a" den "e" den blar blar blar........., den i ask : so which is first ????? She said : sorry sir, i'll find out tomorrow........

so my conclusion is , agencies r crab, they jus wan to push business, and say their teacher is the best among all.... dont trust them, unless a cert is proven.I had found my answer, it should be " a, o, e, i, u, u with 2 dots above u.So all readers, please go for the best (eg. NIE, show cert) or forget it.....

carp.... crap.. i thnk i can teach better

[diabolus]

simon, too early to have tuition lah.

my gal primary 1 no tuition, dun want to stress her too much. now no streaming a bit better liaoz.

btw, ur gal go to which primary school?

[shoelevy]

relax bro

alot of tuition teachers nowadays are jc students or uni students trying to make extra money

our society isn't exactly cheap to live in

i don't think this teacher is that bad because she's been teaching for years right?

maybe its a long time since someone asked her something about tia hao...perhaps you can give her some more time to prove herself

[DeepBlue]

Hammanbmw...you are a good daddy....

You have no idea how many parents knew nothing about what their children are doing day-in day-out in school. You have taken the effort to ensure she is capable of coping with her studies.

Not to forget the greater part of education hor.....a wholistic learning experience,

space to explore, to enjoy and appreciate is what they need at this tender age now.... (once passion of learning is gone..... it would be a mammoth task to rekindle it)

MOE has moved away gradually from academic excellence to focus on the development of the total child. While coping with work is good, the room to explore and enjoying learning mustnt be lost

Parenthood is tough.....I'm sure we all want the best for our kids

[LoReNsIa]

bro hamm.. u r juz like my dad.. so caring to the kids.. hahax.. btw don stress too much on ur girl.. i understand how she feel one.. hahax.. they need childhood memories which are good too.. hahax.. i olso noe tt u wan ur child to be able to cope wad ever home work in sch.. after all.. "U are a good Dad.."

Cheers..

[diabolus]

i still think that Primary 1 is meant as a transition where ur kids learn to cope with the long hours of "all work and no play", stricter teachers,stricter rules and regulations and tests,exams. During this period of time, i find it important to attend parents-teachers meeting sessions. I have spoken to my daughter's form teacher countless times on her performances/reactions/attention span(which is darn short ) in class and i find it rather acceptable when she has to sit through long periods.

She is currently weak in her english,average in her CL and does very well in her maths. Thou i would very much like to see her improve in her english, I dun see the need to imposed extra homework from tuition on her when she has on average 3 homeworks a day(not including eng/chi spellings). not in Pri 1, maybe this year if her command of english does not improve.

one thing to keep in mind - its important to keep her interested in a subject if you want her to improve on it. by that, it does not means that you need her to do countless assessment books.this is most likely to backfire when she gets so fed up with the subject(i've seen this happen ion my fren's daughter) i try to do that by giving her interesting lessons as and when in her everyday experience.

just my 2 cents worth from my 8 years of parenthood.

[hamannbmw]

i still think that Primary 1 is meant as a transition where ur kids learn to cope with the long hours of "all work and no play", stricter teachers,stricter rules and regulations and tests,exams. During this period of time, i find it important to attend parents-teachers meeting sessions. I have spoken to my daughter's form teacher countless times on her performances/reactions/attention span(which is darn short ) in class and i find it rather acceptable when she has to sit through long periods.

She is currently weak in her english,average in her CL and does very well in her maths. Thou i would very much like to see her improve in her english, I dun see the need to imposed extra homework from tuition on her when she has on average 3 homeworks a day(not including eng/chi spellings). not in Pri 1, maybe this year if her command of english does not improve.

one thing to keep in mind - its important to keep her interested in a subject if you want her to improve on it. by that, it does not means that you need her to do countless assessment books.this is most likely to backfire when she gets so fed up with the subject(i've seen this happen ion my fren's daughter) i try to do that by giving her interesting lessons as and when in her everyday experience.

just my 2 cents worth from my 8 years of parenthood.

My friend daughther which is in pr4 now, his dad use to monitor her progress and engage a tuition teacher for her during pr1-2, and she had excellent results.

However during pr3, mr friend had stop engaging the tuition teacher cos, her daughter grades is good. Now comes pr4, without tuitionteacher and seldom going thru the homework, her grades had fell to a "jus pass" grade. He starts to engage a tuition teacher again, but was told that CA1 results will not be excellent, as she had fallen back , she could only be able to have good grades again only end of the year.

Which means, constant teaching, monitoring, guiding had proven good results. If she had fell back if would be a difficult task to bring back her grades again.

[riot]

hamamnbmw,

good for you to be on the ball for your kids ed. But I agree with Deepblue- focus on fun first. SOme kids are late blommers. I only became intelligent at Sec 3. (well, maybe not that intelligent) But some kids have strong points and weak points. Let them find out what these are by themselves, and make sure you dont kill the learning too early for them.

Remember- you want your child to succeed in life, not just school. She gotta pick up social skills, EQ, and stuff she cant learn if she is buried in books. I have had people who were top students 6A1s, Honours students, who failed NIE training because they cannot exert neccessary control and communication. Then you find jokers who scrape through university because they play like mad in the halls zip up to HOD and VP cause they have charisma, "can do'" attitude.

Actually, at that level, I would only expect tuition centres to be "parent surrogates" to watch and make sure kids follow up on homework. MAjority of lessons must be taught in school, otherwise take the child out from the primary and enroll him int he tuition centre.

[ah_d3x]

omp if there really is a extreme need.. then tuition should only start around pri 4..

[Dazza]

Being a father of 3 kids all in primary school, I wud like to add that its impt to ensure that the tuition sessions shd not become like an extension of school. Whats the pt if thats the case.

Choosing a teacher boils down to the passion of the teacher. Being in th educational biz as well, I have employed many so called NIE-trained teachers with Master etc etc but they can't engage the child & in the end, its just wasting time n money. If the tecaher can become more like a frd or elder bro or sis to the child n get him interested & motivated in the subjects, then half the battle is won.

[shiraz]

hmm i had tuition for malay, maths in pri 1 all the way till pri 3... then stopped... pri 5 and 6 continued maths and malay tuition... then in sec sch had maths tuition all the way until sec5 where i graduated...

from my own experience, tuition may have an adverse effect on the person.. y i say that? it's because u have tuition for subjects u are not good in... so for my case, i came home, watched tv, played computer... 8pm tuition until 10pm... no need to take out the book and study and figure things out by myself.. it's like i was spoonfed all the way...

so now im in poly... doing civil engineeing..(btw my maths sucks!) and i have 9 modules, everything is calculation.. very very little theory.. so i kinda struggled... and i've to adopt a new way of learning... i have to figure things out myself la have to ask frens la have to study wif frens la... last time, it was "ok don't understand in class, nvm, sleep, at home got tutor later" now it's different... u have to rely on your frens and if u have friends that are then it'll be hard for you..

i think if u were to start tuition from a very young age, u'll have to carry on throughout sec sch until poly or jc where the mind develops? until the person can realise and think abt his future? i dunno something like that...

but it may also result in your child becoming unattentive in class because the tutor would go thru everything again...

and ya abt agencies bluffing their way all arnd... my sisters takes malay tuition.. they're in p5 n p3 now and the agency promised to send a uni grad, 23 years old, studying in NIE... ok good..my mom was happy... but then... skali the tch come, she happens to be in the same course as me in poly! she's 23 because she went thru jc, didn't make it to the U and joined poly a year later... and she's only in year 1....

[wolfie]

i'm a part-time tuition teacher and here's wat i think.

i dunno what does my agency tells my clients about my qualifications. but i gauge myself accordingly. personally, i'd make my agency tell me all abt the client (express or normal etc.) and i'd only take on the job if i'm confident of teaching the kid. no point i earn a few hundred more a month but not only waste the kid's time, i cld even ruin his/her future. even when i recommend my frens for certain jobs, i assess my frens (personal frens, thus i noe what is their edu bkgrd like) and make sure they're confident of takin' up the kid.

yes it's true that many agencies make up a false portfolio for their teachers just to earn that quick buck but do not lose faith in 'em. i've been givin' tuition for many years and sometimes, when i realise that the kid needs more than a teacher, i'd approach the parent or even email the sch teacher to consult 'em. there are, (unfortunately not many though) young tuition teachers who follow a personal code of ethics.

let me take this opportunity to tell fellow reefer parents out there that it's always possible to test and fire the teacher if he or she does not meet up to your standard or you realise that the teacher is fundamentally making tuition an extra source of income with no intention of helpin' your kid. most imptly, do not let the agency fool you. sometimes as tuition teachers, we can fooled by the agency too.

with that, i hope you can find a ideal and responsible tuition teacher.

p/s: tiao(4) hao(4) is but on a,e,i,o,u. with special expections in o & u cases.

[ervine]

I'm anti tuition.... hated it when I was young, still hate it now that i've outgrown it...

if you ask me, school should be good enough, tuition is just a way to force the child into putting more time into his books... but then who knows, maybe next time when I have a kid i'll still send him/her to tuition..

[seamonkee]

I will never forget my first and only tuition teacher....

After her, my grades dropped actually... that was in Pri 5.... because she was one hell of a hot chick.... chio bu....

Really.... maybe I hit puberty a little tad too early....

[35Cents]

She is currently weak in her english,average in her CL and does very well in her maths. Thou i would very much like to see her improve in her english, I dun see the need to imposed extra homework from tuition on her when she has on average 3 homeworks a day(not including eng/chi spellings). not in Pri 1, maybe this year if her command of english does not improve.

Dude... its the exposure to languages that determines how strong the child's command of it. I was forced to read the straits times when I was 8 years old...still remembered the pic on the collaspe of new world hotel. In addition, I watched lots of western tv programs when young like A-team and knight rider... haha I dun have an american accent as many JC students will blame upon. Though my command of english is no queen's english but I dont have any problems in english during my education... but I still find it hard to pronounce those latin scientific names...

Make it fun for your child to learn cos it's easy to learn with passion rather than with pressure.

Oops Sorry....

IME, I always know when a tutor is young, he/she is not very experience or good... the real good ones make a career out of it (pays well) which most of them are ex-school teachers.