Private tuition in Singapore is rolling in some serious dough.

A total of 1.35 million households in Singapore spent an estimated S$1.4 billion on tuition last year.

Survey conducted every 5 years

The statistics come from a household expenditure government survey conducted by the Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS), with the latest statistics for 2017 and 2018 published on July 31.

The survey is conducted every five years and has information detailing the household expenditure of Singaporeans, and its distribution amongst major areas of spending, such as food, transport, communication and education.

Their income and savings were also documented in the survey.

Average spending of S$88.40 a month on tuition

A family's average monthly expenditure on educational services increased from S$310 previously to S$340 in 2018.

Besides tuition, educational services include general, vocational and higher education (i.e. what you would spend in Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and University education), and that of textbooks, assessment books and study guides.

It was found that the average monthly household expenditure on tuition, including home-based and centre-based tuition has grown steadily, as it has risen to S$88.40 a month, which adds up to S$1.4 billion spent on tuition in 2018.

Six years ago, this was S$79.90 a month and a total of S$1.1 billion.

These statistics are a reminder about how tuition has become a mainstay in Singapore's education system.

It brings to mind issues pertaining to the necessity of tuition, and recent efforts by the Ministry of Education to reform and shift the focus on the system to reduce stigmatisation and stratification across different levels in society.

This includes the major subject-based banding change, which means that secondary school students posted in the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams could take some subjects at a higher academic level from Secondary 1 onwards.

Preliminary findings from the pilot programme in 12 schools have yielded positive results.

Top image via Taken on Pixabay.