New strategies to improve a tuition programme for below-average Indian students are taking shape following a 2011 review of the initiative Project Teach.

The Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda) has, over the past year, been coming up with new mathematics curriculum for lower primary pupils, ramping up the training of tutors and rolling out the programme to secondary schools.

For instance, tutors used to set exam papers for their own classes previously, but now they are able to tap on standardised tests.

All these are part of plans laid out in a Sinda 2020 report announced two years ago.

The updates on its progress were provided on Saturday morning during a visit to a Project Teach centre in St. Anthony's Primary School, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

DPM Tharman is chairman of Sinda's board of trustees.

The tuition programme currently runs in 55 schools with over 1,100 students enrolled. Altogether, more than 9,000 students have been helped since the programme started in 2001.