Families Here Spent $1.8b On Private Tuition For Kids In 2023

Educational expenses up, with more spent on tuition and pre-school education

- Elisha Tushara

Families in Singapore spent $1.8 billion on private tuition for their children in 2023, as expenditure on education services continues to grow.

According to the latest government survey on household expenditure, the uptick in educational expenses in 2023 was due to higher spending on private tuition and pre-school education.

The amount spent on tuition, which includes lessons conducted at home or at centres, has risen over the years, from $1.1 billion in 2013, to $1.4 billion in 2018.

The Singapore Department of Statistics released the latest figures in December 2024. About 13,100 households were polled between December 2022 and December 2023.

The survey, which collects information on expenditure, savings and incomes of Singapore households, is conducted every five years. The previous edition was done from 2017 to 2018.

Housing, food and transport topped the list of household expenses in 2023. They collectively accounted for 63.2 per cent of monthly household expenditure in 2023. Other categories of spending included health and education.

On average, in the latest survey, households spent $104.80 each month on tuition, up from $88.40 in the previous survey. In 2013, the amount was $79.90.

The figure forked out by families differed greatly depending on how deep their pockets were.

The top 20 per cent of households by income spent on average $162.60 a month on tuition - more than four times the $36.30 spent by the bottom 20 per cent.