Singapore Maths Tuition - University and JC

05 September 2019

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has said that most jobs that exist today will still be around in the future, but in a “refashioned” form.

Mr Ong said in an interview during the 45th WorldSkills Competition that students will need to learn new tools, and how to apply their skills differently.

Students must also learn to be technologically savvy and open-minded.

For example, the skills needed by a customer chatbot trainer, a relatively new role, are similar to those of a customer service officer trainer. However, future customer chatbot trainer will also need to know how to operate the machine and the software.

The importance of fundamental skills, even as jobs change, means “many of the things we are doing in the education system and training actually are relevant” in preparing the young and old for the future, Mr Ong said.

04 September 2019

A group of 28 secondary schools will pilot full subject-based banding next year, where students take subjects at a higher or lower level, based on their strengths.

The schools include Bedok Green Secondary, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary), Pei Hwa Secondary and St Patrick’s School.

Students at these schools will be able to choose to study humanities subjects at a more demanding level from Secondary 2, if they have the aptitude for them. The existing options are English language, mathematics, science and mother tongue language.

The 28 pilot schools will also try out new form class arrangements instead of the traditional sorting by Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams. Students from different streams will be placed in the same form class.

The Ministry of Education said that more secondary schools will introduce full subject-based banding from 2022 to 2024, and will learn from the pilot schools’ experiences.

02 September 2019

Fees for full time degrees at the Singapore Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Social Sciences have been reduced.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during this year’s National Day Rally Speech that the fees will drop from about S$8,000 to S$7,500 a year.

All university students can also look forward to higher government bursaries for all government-funded undergraduate courses. Bursaries for polytechnic diploma courses will be increased.

PM Lee said six in 10 students in polytechnics and universities are eligible for these grants.

Turning to the study of medicine, Mr Lee said that the Government is making it more affordable so as to encourage lower-income students to take it up.

For now, after government subsidies, medical studies come up to almost S$29,000 a year at NUS and S$35,000 at Nanyang Technological University.

In his speech, Mr Lee also called on the alumni and community to donate generously to school bursaries, saying that the Government will match contributions, up to three times for newer universities and up to 1.5 times for the rest.

31 August 2019

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has said that examination grades should be not be the sole means of defining a person, and that societal mindsets need to shift to reflect this.

Mr Ong raised these issues at a forum with parents and students that was filmed for Talking Point. The forum discussed sources of educational stress for students, and the impact of subject-based banding.

Subject-based banding allows students to take subjects at a higher or lower level, based on their strengths.

Mr Ong added that it was “reasonable to ask for qualifications”, but not “for every grade” unless the job requires particular subject knowledge.

That being said, reducing stress was not the aim behind the decision to do away with some exams.

“For every exam we remove, we have three weeks of freed up curriculum time, which is very useful for teachers to then teach better and for students learn better,” said Mr Ong.

30 August 2019

Singapore has won two gold medals at 2019 WorldSkills Competition held in Kazan, Russia.

The WorldSkills Competition is a global competition of vocational skills, dubbed the “Olympics of Skills”.

Singapore’s 32-strong contingent received a total of 22 awards, and finished ninth out of 63 countries.

Students from Singapore’s polytechnics, the Institute of Technical Education, as well as Nanyang Technological University took part in the competition.

Nanyang Polytechnic nursing graduate Ms Regina Chia was awarded a gold medal in her skill area of health and social care. The other gold medal was won by Ms Tan Ying Ying, also from Nanyang Polytechnic, who competed in 3D digital game art.

Singapore clinched a silver in freight forwarding, and two bronze medals in cyber security and water technology.

27 August 2019

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung was recently asked in Parliament why the endowment funds of Singapore’s universities are not being used to fund more bursaries for needy students.

Mr Ong said that the endowment funds are already being used to supplement the Government’s financial aid to needy students.

A significant proportion of the universities’ endowment funds come from private contributors.

Media reports recently touched on the sizeable amounts in these funds, and some have asked whether universities should still be competing with charities for the “donations pie”.

Mr Ong said universities such as NUS and NTU also use the income generated from their endowment funds in many other ways, including setting up joint labs with industry partners, incubators to support student entrepreneurs, partnerships with other universities, funding research and student exchanges.

The universities said their funds are invested prudently in order to preserve capital and obtain reasonable returns to allow them to achieve their various missions, including providing more opportunities for their students and advancing research.

24 August 2019

Most students from poor families studying at the universities and polytechnics can look forward to a substantial reduction of their tuition fees, as well as an increase in the bursary amounts.

Once the higher bursary is implemented, polytechnic students who come from the lowest 20 per cent of household income groups will pay no more than $150 of the $2,900 annual fees.

At the university level, the most needy students will pay only $2,000 a year.

Government bursaries for new and existing medical and dentistry undergraduates will also be increased, with the 20 per cent least well-off students having to pay only $5,000 a year.

Around 21,000 undergraduates, including those from medicine, are expected to benefit from the bursaries.

23 August 2019

Graduates from the Institute of Technical Education will be given more opportunities to upgrade themselves. By the year 2030, all Nitec graduates from ITE will have the chance to attain a higher qualification.

Currently, close to half of Nitec graduates upgrade through Higher Nitec courses at ITE, while the rest upgrade through diploma programmes at the polytechnics and ITE.

The increased opportunities will benefit the group of ITE graduates who currently do not progress beyond their Nitec qualification. To support them, the Ministry of Education will provide more places in a range of programmes, such as ITE’s SkillsFuture Work-Study Diplomas and full-time Higher Nitec courses.

Annually, Higher Nitec courses will be able to admit 860 more students, while the work-study diploma course will have the capacity for 580 more students. The polytechnics will also add 290 more places for working adults in their diploma courses.

The MOE said that ITE’s Nitec qualification prepares students to work in the relevant sectors, but as Singapore’s economy transforms, industries will demand deeper skills.