Forum: Rethink the role of tuition to support students
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
I read Professor Jason Tan’s op-ed “ Private tutors, including for low-income students, may be supplanting the role of teachers”
As someone working with families and children at the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), I wondered what role community groups like ours should play in this changing educational landscape, especially for students from low-income families?
Tuition support has long been seen as a way to help students to keep pace with peers. But this approach can turn learning into an arms race, measuring progress only by exam scores.
I’ve seen children become weary, their creativity sidelined. We have scaled back our tuition curriculum, allowing tutors to spend more time understanding each child. For younger learners, we now focus on play and hands-on activities, fostering confidence and friendship. A report card shows academic performance, but little about what shapes learning beyond the classroom. Home life profoundly influences learning, yet these factors are often overlooked.
Our 2025 CDAC Student Needs Survey revealed that over 30 per cent of students lack sleep, nearly a third of primary school pupils feel lonely at home, and more than a quarter struggle with low self-esteem. Academic struggles often have deeper roots – tiredness, loneliness, emotional distress. Tuition alone can’t fix these.
Some of our most meaningful moments come from supporting students struggling emotionally or behaviourally. Instead of disciplining, we listen and try to understand. We need to broaden tuition’s role to motivate and nurture the whole child, creating space for feelings and connecting them to interest-based programmes.
The “arms race” in education won’t end overnight but community groups can help shift the narrative from grades to strengths and well-being.
Tan Yap Kin
Executive Director
Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC)
