Is your child's tutor qualified?

The following was a report in the Sunday Times dated 15 august 2010.
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Aug 15, 2010

Is your child's tutor qualified?

Many parents rely mostly on word-of-mouth referrals when hiring tutors
By Lin Wenjian, Relatively Speaking


When the English language tutor Mrs Lynn Woo hired told her daughter to 'ownself do' a question in an assessment paper, the concerned mother who overheard the Singlish phrase decided to sack the tutor.

Never mind that it was only the first lesson.

Mrs Woo, 35, an insurance specialist, says: 'I spoke to her only briefly on the phone before I agreed to hire her. It was when she was here in my home that I heard her talking to my daughter in broken English. So I terminated her services immediately after the first lesson.'

The incident happened last year. Mrs Woo paid the tutor the $30 fee for the one-hour lesson through her colleague who 'knows her and highly recommended her', but not before 'I chided my colleague for recommending someone like that'.

Mrs Woo's daughter, now in Primary Four, is currently taking English lessons from another tutor - also a recommendation, this time by a cousin.

She says: 'I was more careful this time. I asked my nephew, who had been taught by the tutor for about two years, about her teaching style and confirmed her qualifications and experience over the phone before I agreed to hire her.

'And during the first lesson, I observed the way she taught my girl.'

Tuition is a minefield for parents because it is a big-money industry that is largely unregulated.

According to the latest data from the Singapore Department of Statistics, there are 495 Ministry of Education-registered tuition centres here in 2008 - up from 387 in 2004 - with total operating receipts of $137.1 million.

These figures exclude fees paid to private individual tutors and tuition agencies which find freelance tutors for students. Private tutors and agencies need not register with the ministry, which means there are many unknowns when it comes to hiring them, the chief ones being the veracity of their qualifications, their ability to teach as well as their moral character.

Hence, parents have to take on the responsibility of checking the quality of extra academic help they get their children.

If parents are slack in checking the tutors they hire, not only might their children not improve in their studies, they might even be abused.

Madam Sally Lam found out that her son was pinched by the tutor hired to teach the eight-year-old and his twin sister.

'My son complained that he was pinched on the cheeks a few times because he was playful. But he is only eight years old, how do you expect him to behave all the time?' says the 40-year-old homemaker, who has another son, aged 12.

There was another reason she sacked the tutor just six months after he started work on the recommendation of the twins' previous tutor.

'My children's grades didn't improve after one semester and he struggled with the mathematics problems my elder son asked about, so I don't think he is very good even though he is a university graduate and even brought his certificates to show me on the first day,' she says.

Although some parents verify the credentials and qualifications of prospective tutors, most still rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know.

'A degree and tutoring experience are good, but I am more concerned about whether they can get along with my sons and if they have the ability to communicate effectively,' says Mrs Patricia Chua, whose two sons, Keith, 14, and Warren, 12, have had tuition since they were in Primary One.

She got more than she bargained for with one tutor - she got along too well with Warren and talked to the boy more than taught him.

'When Warren was in Primary Three, his English and science tutor spent most of the time chatting with him in the room during lessons, and we also did not see improvements in his results,' says Mrs Chua, who replaced the tutor with the boy's current one after one year.

Private tutors whom LifeStyle spoke to agree that with the industry still largely unregulated, there are bound to be some black sheep among them.

Mr Ronald Wee, 50, who runs his own distributing business, has been tutoring primary and secondary school students in mathematics and science on weekends for five years. He says he knows of 'some private tutors who will not accept students with poor grades for fear that it might affect their reputation if these students show no improvement or continue to fail after taking tuition from them'.

Some tutors lie about their experience.

Events manager Jerrine Lim, 28, who gives tuition part-time, says: 'I've seen some tutors claim to have full-time teaching experience when they have done only some relief teaching in schools.'

While private tutors acknowledge that the bulk of their business comes from referrals, they insist some forms of checks are necessary for parents to have peace of mind.

Full-time tutor Ryan D'Souza, 36, believes that 'qualifications definitely matter for the subjects I teach'.

A tutor for the past 10 years, he teaches mathematics, chemistry and physics to students from primary school to junior college.

'A bachelor's degree is an essential requirement to teach upper secondary and JC students,' adds Mr D'Souza, who has a degree in mathematics, physics and computer science awarded by an overseas university.

Beyond the checking of qualifications, another full-time tutor Angel Ngoh, 34, usually proposes 'a paid trial lesson' to parents of potential new students.

'I'll encourage them to sit in during the trial lesson and they are free to observe how I conduct lessons,' says Ms Ngoh, who specialises in teaching primary- and secondary-level mathematics and science subjects.

Tuition centres are another option for parents who want to be sure their children are getting the help they need. The organisations that LifeStyle contacted say they put prospective tutors through a few rounds of screening and interviews before hiring them.

Mr Dennis Ng, director of Kent Ridge Tutors, which has 11 centres islandwide, says the company 'imposes very strict criteria on the selection of our tutors'.

Among other things, new tutors must be graduates who have taught in a government school for at least three years.
They must also possess the X factor. Mr Ng says: 'Our tutors don't just teach. They must also be able to build rapport with our students and their parents.'

Over at Potter's Clay Education Centre in Marine Parade, chief executive and principal Darren Chua has implemented a 'demo-teaching' class for all prospective hires since the centre opened in July last year.

'The candidates are assessed on three key areas: knowledge, delivery and presentation, and rapport with students,' says Dr Chua, who adds that his centre may contact potential tutors' previous employers for character references.

Tuition centres keep up the checks even after the tutors are hired. Mrs Rosabel Teo, 39, centre director of Kip McGrath Tampines North Centre, will routinely check the lesson plans prepared by her team of five tutors. Once a month, she will also sit in and co-teach a class 'to ensure the consistency of the tutors'.

'The students, especially those in secondary schools, are also good judges of a tutor's ability and can give me feedback immediately,' she says.

These measures tuition centres have taken seem to be working. According to the Consumers Association of Singapore, there were just 15 cases of complaint against tuition centres and tutors last year, down from 27 in 2008.

While that is good news to parents looking for tutors, the best advice they could heed might be Ms Ngoh's.

She says: 'A suitable tutor is one who is able to accompany the students on their learning journey and to motivate them to learn independently.'

To find those tutors, there is no shortcut but for parents to talk to their children.