School is enough to prepare your child for PSLE: Education expert

Parents of pupils sitting the exam in 2025 get tips at Straits Times forum

- Elisha Tushara

Is the curriculum covered in primary school enough to prepare pupils for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), or is tuition necessary?

This was among questions that parents of pupils sitting the PSLE in 2025 had at The Straits Times Smart Parenting PSLE Prep Forum held on April 12.

Responding to the queries, Mr Ong Kong Hong, the Ministry of Education's divisional director of curriculum planning and development division 1, said tuition centres often use strategic advertising to make parents feel their children need external help.

However, teachers in school are able to address pupils' weaknesses and close gaps in their learning.

"Teachers in schools are more prepared to help a child than you realise," he said.

Mr Ong shared a personal anecdote about his daughter, whose teacher once told him that her getting everything right on her worksheets because she received help from home was not necessarily a good thing.

"Teachers do want to know what students don't know... It's only through the mistakes and the gaps (that) you know how to help them and give them feedback," said Mr Ong, adding that it is also important for children to learn how to problem-solve on their own, so that they are not overly reliant on being spoon-fed answers.

More than 160 people attended the forum, which was held at the SPH Media Auditorium.