Dear Parents,
My Upper Primary students shared with me a very interesting thing about school. Seems that 80% of them are not allowed to copy down the corrections for their Maths sums in the class.

They must pay attention to whatever the teacher is saying, remember the strategy and working by heart, then go home, recall the corrections and do the question again.
If they cannot do the question at home, they must go to school the following day, ask the teacher how to do it, get scolded for not remembering the strategy and the working, and then bring to tuition class these questions for the tutor to do it with them.

As a tutor, I am fine with that. It allows me to see what schools are doing and have an insight into what is going on in the school context, from the child’s perspective.

My question is, are the teachers aware that not every child is able to remember the working by seeing? Are these kids trained to memorise information?

Some learn better by writing them down.

One must also realise that not all students have the chance to attend tuition class.
I also have a student who has Maths tuition in another centre, but because of the size of that class(15-25 students per class), no student is allowed to ask any questions. The tutor does a mass lecture style for his Maths class, in which he does challenging questions without demonstrating the basic concept first.

Last week alone, I have 4 parents sending me pictures of their children’s school homework, and they asked me if I could teach their children how to do the questions in the following lesson. I am more than happy to oblige.

I do hope that some of these teachers know that they need to take into account the different learning styles of the children. Not every child is able to memorise everything that the teacher is saying or showing in class. Let them copy the explanation or corrections down so they can revise at home.

Remember that not every child can run to a tutor for help.

99% of children go to mainstream schools.

Don’t take away that joy of learning from them.Thanks.

Ps. Since this is quite rampant, I will be opening Homework Clinics(MYEC HC) at all our branches. If you are keen to sign your child up for our MYEC HC, do contact me at 86137174. We will do our best to help you.

We know that not all mulberries ripen at the same time. Some are red, some green, some drop before they ripen. We all love black mulberries because they are sweet.

Yours sincerely,
Ms Yayah,
8.5.19.