These tutors take the O levels every year

When Mr Ivan Lim applied to work at tuition centre Keynote Learning Hub two years ago, he had an unusual job interview.

- Venessa Lee

"I was asked, 'Would you mind taking the O-level exam as a private candidate?'" recalls the 38-year-old English tutor, a former international school teacher. "It was a very strange interview question."

He is one of three tuition teachers at Keynote Learning who sit the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-level) examination every year, usually in the subjects they teach.

The practice is "strongly encouraged" at the tuition centre at Ang Mo Kio for its full-time tutors, says Mr Linus Lin, 44, co-founder and head of department for science.

Mr Lin himself has sat the O-level examinations 10 times since 2015, usually taking two to four subjects each time, while Ms Ho Meng Yeng, 45, another co-founder at Keynote Learning and its head of English, has been sitting the English language O-level paper since 2013, sometimes taking literature as well.

The trio are taking their O-level exams again in 2025. The centre's other four tutors are part-time staff and do not take these exams.

Keynote Learning offers group tuition, online and in-person, for primary and secondary school levels in English, science, mathematics and Chinese. Fees start at $240 for four weekly lessons for primary school pupils.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT KIND OF PEN

The idea to take the exams originated from Ms Ho even before Keynote Learning was launched in 2016. She and Mr Lin, whom she influenced in this regard, have been friends since the early 2000s.

Ms Ho, a former Ministry of Education secondary school teacher, took the English and literature O-level exams in 2013 because she wanted to be "really in touch" with the syllabus changes that year.

She was working as a private tutor by then, and was not briefed by education authorities on the changes, unlike school teachers.