My kids get to decide if they want to have tuition

When a child takes charge, he will be more motivated to do well

- Jane Ng

I have never been a fan of tuition or academic enrichment lessons for my children.

Over the years, I have written about how I would not send my kids - now 19, 16 and nine - for tuition unless they needed and wanted it.

When I wrote about my eldest child struggling with Chinese when he was in Primary 3, a reader who was a private tutor wrote to me and said that unless I took drastic action, my son was headed for tuition in the near future.

We did not get him help immediately as he had just started his football co-curricular activity and had training thrice a week until 6.30pm. He was not keen to spend another day on tuition and I would rather we spend time together as a family on weekends.

But, as it turned out, the reader was right. My son asked for tuition towards the end of Primary 5 when he struggled with composition writing and needed more help.

We found him a tutor who supported him through the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

When it was my elder daughter's turn to sit the PSLE, I expected that she would need help and gave her the option. But she was resistant to the idea and relented only in March of her Primary 6 year.

It was late, but we found her a tutor who coached her over Zoom as we were then in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both kids did reasonably well in Chinese language by our standards, and I did not regret letting them make the call on tuition.