Parents hope for more moves to relook major exams

Parents said they are hoping for more moves to relook major exams.

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arts, NUS' Prof Chua said.

For less-privileged families, for whom education is often the primary route for upward mobility, the stakes are even higher, he added.

“So when parents push hard, it’s not irrational — it’s strategic. They are responding logically to a competitive system.”

Families in Singapore spent $1.8 billion on private tuition for their children in 2023, according to the latest government survey on household expenditure. The figure has risen over the years, from $1.1 billion in 2013 to $1.4 billion in 2018.

IPS senior research fellow Gillian Koh said private tuition has come under public scrutiny as it is considered a “deadweight loss of resources for society arising from the arms race in education”.

It has resulted in “lots of resources expended for uncertain outcomes”, she said, but also is what parents feel they must do if they wish the best for their children. “It provides them with a very important sense of agency.”

To parents like self-employed transportation manager Kelvin Koh, 49, having fewer resources means having to be more strategic.

He advised his daughter, who just took the O levels, to choose combined rather than pure academic subjects — even though she qualified for them - in order to maximise her chances of scoring well.

Combined subjects merge two subjects and are seen as less intensive than pure subjects at the O levels.

Mr Koh also opted for group tuition for his daughter, as this was more affordable than hiring personal tutors or enrolling in one of the “premium” enrichment chains.

This gave them some assurance that she does not lag behind her peers or fall short of academic goals, he said.

“Even though schools give the necessary assistance and guidance to students, some of us feel that it is not enough - comparing big classes in schools versus smaller groups in tuition – and we need more help.