Tuition is counterproductive, 2005 S'pore economics study found

But more time spent at home leads to better grades.

Mothership| September 25, 03:52 AM

The usefulness of tuition was called into question in parliament last week by Senior Minister of State for Education Indranee Rajah.

However, her view that tuition is unnecessary for most children as the education system is sufficient is not new.

It is supported by a 2005 exploratory study on secondary students in Singapore, which found that tuition might be counterproductive.

The study was by two economists, Euston Quah and Roland Cheo, using 429 randomly selected Singaporean secondary 2 students from Tanjong Katong Girls' School, Anglo-Chinese School and Fairfield Methodist Secondary School.

It was published in the British journal Education Economics (Volume 13, 2005).

Some of the key findings of that study:

- A tutor can have potential positive influence over one or few subjects' grades. But the time taken away from studying other subjects may lead to a decline in overall academic performance.

- Excessive studying is counterproductive because it can lead to boredom and "diminishing returns".

- Quality control of supply of tutors is an issue as the market for private tutors is not regulated and the quality might not be consistent.

- A plentiful supply and demand of tutors will also cause students and teachers to feel there is something to fall back on. This results in students not giving their full attention in class and teachers feeling that students have recourse after school to make up for poor teaching.

- The cost to society of having widespread tuition comes from the opportunity cost in terms of forgone pursuits like music and sports.

- The study also found that a student who spends more time at home is expected to score better grades.

- Another finding unrelated to tuition is that while a mother's attitude to studies may not necessarily have any influence, a father's discouraging attitude is related to the academic performance of a child.

However, the study's authors note that as the sample selected was not meant to be representative of the entire population, the results produced need further research with a larger sample.

 

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