Should In-Person classes at Tuition & Enrichment Centres be shut down until most of the children are vaccinated?

[Windwaver]

No worries, although birthrate is all time low but we can always import foreign talents (that sing a different song) 

[Watwheels]

I dont think we have a say in this.

Even my kids music lesson have to stop. Since it is piano lessons so it cannot be done online. We have to put it on hold whether we like it or not. The music school was told to cease all lessons until further notice. 

Imo it is a question which we have no say on....whatever our opinions. It is no point asking.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Watwheels

[Didu]

Can Singapore follow China’s move against the massive private tuition industry?

China, in a shocking move, has moved to bar for-profit tutoring in core subjects, threatening to decimate its US$120 billion (S$162 billion) private tuition industry.

“All institutions offering tutoring on school curriculum will be registered as non-profit organisations,” CNA reported at the end of July, of the populous nation. There will also be bans on core subject tuition classes on weekends and holidays.

Over three in 10 students in China attend some version of post-school enrichment. The pressure for children to succeed in the populous nation is so widespread, there is even a word for it: “Jiwa” or “Chicken Baby”, a term that refers to children whose lives are crammed to the hilt with enrichment classes and activities. Heaven forbid that jiwas waste a single minute of their lives. Perhaps, unsurprisingly then, the for-profit education sector there has come under scrutiny as part of a push to ease pressure on students and reduce the financial cost to parents – factors blamed for a drop in birth rates.

A recent New York Times story examined how China had long avoided discussing mental health, until the pandemic. Social stigma and long-term challenges remain, surely, but at least there seems to be decisive strides in the right direction to ease academic stress. It is unclear if corresponding school loads and examination requirements would change given its recent announcements, but this move by the Chinese government to make tuition a non-profit sector might just be the shake-up the country needs to change its pressure-cooking-chicken-baby narrative.

CAN SINGAPORE DO THE SAME?

It is doubtful that Singapore will ever make such an audacious move. That would herald a new and vastly different world order, away from one where prestigious scholarships still look at academic scores and more broadly, when meritocracy remains a key principle for recognising individuals here. Our version of meritocracy - and by extension how we view success - comes down to how our we do in school. It begins when we start formal schooling; if not in the form of grades, then benchmarks and a societal obsession at keeping up with our peers. Most parents think: I have to get my child off the best starting block that my time, money and social capital can afford, so they have the best chance of success.

This means getting into top schools at the get go. The belief is that a good start will pave a smoother path, all the way to university, well-paying jobs and the proverbial Singaporean success story. If we buy into this paradigm, then tuition is just one lever in a very interconnected eco-system. To suggest that we can simply make it go away, the way China is attempting, in my view, simply unrealistic even if it makes for exciting speculation.

If we want to lessen the use of tutors, or indeed manage the general pressures our children face, other gears in the system need to shift first. And not just moves such as removing common topics for the year after schools have already prepped assessment papers. The question is whether our curriculum is overloaded in the first place. If the pace of what our kids need to study is less frenetic – when kids show that they can cope with what is taught in school, then the need to keep up with extra tutoring will naturally fade away.

RELOOKING THE ECOLOGY OF CARE IN OUR SYSTEM

Singapore has always been very good at hitting our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We test well – in PISA and Olympiad competitions. Even accounting for issues with delays, lapses and confusion in quarantine orders — by most pandemic related standards, we have scored well. Yet, especially after the River Valley High School incident, there is a palpable — if still intangible sense that things are not okay with the heart of who we are as a nation. It is akin to scoring well in one core subject—maybe even winning the book prize—but not faring quite as well in others. And unlike the past where one subject could help raise the average, the new scoring system means that all other subjects matter too. Clearly where mental wellness is concerned, we are firmly in the “need tuition” zone.

It took the pandemic for China to finally make strides—and pivotal changes, in dealing with mental wellness by addressing the punishing academic loop they found themselves in. This is really the tip of the iceberg. But we don’t fault China for trying.

Even then, asking for less tuition or appealing to adjust our idea of what success means can only go so far, much less wishing a sledgehammer of curbs on tuition can change the DNA of a society. In Singapore, we need to seriously consider if our quick fixes can address deeper rifts and whether it is finally time for mindsets to move away from fixating on academic achievement as that key metric of success.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-tuition-singapore-psle-2096706

[yishunite]

MOE will never do that coz the reason Sg score so high on all these international ranking is the insane amount parents privately spend on tuition... meanwhile the education system itself that the whole world now believes is tok kong actually nothing special... who in MOE wants the world to find out?

[Atonchia]

12 hours ago, Didu said:

Can Singapore follow China’s move against the massive private tuition industry?

China, in a shocking move, has moved to bar for-profit tutoring in core subjects, threatening to decimate its US$120 billion (S$162 billion) private tuition industry.

“All institutions offering tutoring on school curriculum will be registered as non-profit organisations,” CNA reported at the end of July, of the populous nation. There will also be bans on core subject tuition classes on weekends and holidays.

Over three in 10 students in China attend some version of post-school enrichment. The pressure for children to succeed in the populous nation is so widespread, there is even a word for it: “Jiwa” or “Chicken Baby”, a term that refers to children whose lives are crammed to the hilt with enrichment classes and activities. Heaven forbid that jiwas waste a single minute of their lives. Perhaps, unsurprisingly then, the for-profit education sector there has come under scrutiny as part of a push to ease pressure on students and reduce the financial cost to parents – factors blamed for a drop in birth rates.

A recent New York Times story examined how China had long avoided discussing mental health, until the pandemic. Social stigma and long-term challenges remain, surely, but at least there seems to be decisive strides in the right direction to ease academic stress. It is unclear if corresponding school loads and examination requirements would change given its recent announcements, but this move by the Chinese government to make tuition a non-profit sector might just be the shake-up the country needs to change its pressure-cooking-chicken-baby narrative.

CAN SINGAPORE DO THE SAME?

It is doubtful that Singapore will ever make such an audacious move. That would herald a new and vastly different world order, away from one where prestigious scholarships still look at academic scores and more broadly, when meritocracy remains a key principle for recognising individuals here. Our version of meritocracy - and by extension how we view success - comes down to how our we do in school. It begins when we start formal schooling; if not in the form of grades, then benchmarks and a societal obsession at keeping up with our peers. Most parents think: I have to get my child off the best starting block that my time, money and social capital can afford, so they have the best chance of success.

This means getting into top schools at the get go. The belief is that a good start will pave a smoother path, all the way to university, well-paying jobs and the proverbial Singaporean success story. If we buy into this paradigm, then tuition is just one lever in a very interconnected eco-system. To suggest that we can simply make it go away, the way China is attempting, in my view, simply unrealistic even if it makes for exciting speculation.

If we want to lessen the use of tutors, or indeed manage the general pressures our children face, other gears in the system need to shift first. And not just moves such as removing common topics for the year after schools have already prepped assessment papers. The question is whether our curriculum is overloaded in the first place. If the pace of what our kids need to study is less frenetic – when kids show that they can cope with what is taught in school, then the need to keep up with extra tutoring will naturally fade away.

RELOOKING THE ECOLOGY OF CARE IN OUR SYSTEM

Singapore has always been very good at hitting our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We test well – in PISA and Olympiad competitions. Even accounting for issues with delays, lapses and confusion in quarantine orders — by most pandemic related standards, we have scored well. Yet, especially after the River Valley High School incident, there is a palpable — if still intangible sense that things are not okay with the heart of who we are as a nation. It is akin to scoring well in one core subject—maybe even winning the book prize—but not faring quite as well in others. And unlike the past where one subject could help raise the average, the new scoring system means that all other subjects matter too. Clearly where mental wellness is concerned, we are firmly in the “need tuition” zone.

It took the pandemic for China to finally make strides—and pivotal changes, in dealing with mental wellness by addressing the punishing academic loop they found themselves in. This is really the tip of the iceberg. But we don’t fault China for trying.

Even then, asking for less tuition or appealing to adjust our idea of what success means can only go so far, much less wishing a sledgehammer of curbs on tuition can change the DNA of a society. In Singapore, we need to seriously consider if our quick fixes can address deeper rifts and whether it is finally time for mindsets to move away from fixating on academic achievement as that key metric of success.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-tuition-singapore-psle-2096706

China is rich enough to stop foreign direct investment...... 

And they might also want to control 100% of educating their youth....

They have a large enough talent pool to sieve out the elite or creme de la creme. 

[Didu]

New China law: Kids no longer need to take written exams.   

China bans written exams for six-year-olds as part of sweeping education reforms

 

Beijing said too frequent examinations ‘harms their mental and physical health’. 

China has announced a ban on written exams for children aged six and seven as a part of larger education reforms to ease the burden on students and parents. The Chinese ministry of education on Monday released a notice specifying that first and second grade students of elementary schools would not sit for written examinations while students of other grades will have only one final exam every semester.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/china-written-exam-ban-reforms-b1911117.html