S’pore Parent Looks for Tutor to Teach 2YO Toddler Maths, Geography & Other Subjects

Ah, tuition. Every Singaporean kid’s nightmare, yet it’s a rite of passage that almost everyone has to go through in this country.

But while many of us may be familiar with dragging our tired selves to tuition classes after school as primary and secondary school students, how many of us can say that we’ve experienced that as a two year old?

Well, someone might in the future.

Parent Looking for Tutor to Teach Two Year Old

Recently, we received a tip-off from one of our readers that a parent had been looking for a tutor for their child.

Sounds harmless enough, until you take a closer look:

Image: Katherine Wong

Hold up. Four subjects’ worth of tuition for a toddler who’s less than two years of age?

I didn’t even have geography tuition back in the day when I was failing my exams.

The job listing also said that the parent is “Looking for a tutor/educator who is passionate in guiding a toddler in everything”.

Err, correct me if I’m wrong, but that kinda sounds like childcare teachers that you can find at SparkleTots at your HDB block’s void deck?

Also, while it’s definitely important to be able to tell the North Pole from the South, I’m not sure if a typical two-year-old toddler will be keen on identifying every single country on a world map.

(P.S. You can get free nature lessons by visiting the Singapore Botanical Gardens as well. Highly recommend.)

Tuition Culture in Singapore

With private tuition being an industry that has dominated in Singapore over the last decade or so, it is no surprise that most children these days have tuition.

Sometimes, parents send their children to tuition even if they don’t need it, as a form of “precaution” just in case they find themselves unable to catch up at some point in the year.

Although tuition is helpful for the majority of students and allows them to receive more personalised supervision and help to give them that extra boost, many also criticise the private tuition industry for the amount of stress it puts on young kids.

The reader who sent us also acknowledge the fact that parents “do want their kids to excel in life and aim for the best”.

However, it was also mentioned in the tip-off that “This is the age whereby they are supposed to have fun and play. Play is pivotal to a child’s development and through play, children can then develop cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally,” which emphasised the importance of shifting away from structured lessons all the time for children at this age.

Indeed, at the tender age of two, children might just enjoy playing with toys a little more than learning about how soil erosion occurs.

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Featured Image: Katherine Wong