Singapore Maths Tuition - University and JC

12 December 2017

The National University of Singapore has a special place in the heart of former president Tony Tan Keng Yam. “NUS is an institution that holds special significance to me, both personally and professionally,” he said at an appreciation lunch yesterday held by the university for him.

Dr Tony Tan was NUS chancellor from 2011 to earlier this year. The chancellor post, according to NUS Constitution, is filled by the president of Singapore.

Dr Tan was a physics student at the University of Malaya – the predecessor of NUS – at Bukit Timah campus. He began his teaching career in 1964 in the NUS physics department and subsequently the mathematics department. He left the university in 1969 to pursue a career in banking and later, politics.

NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan said Dr Tan had been a pillar of support as chancellor, as the university sought to develop further in education, research and enterprise.

11 December 2017

The British Council in Singapore has been busy raising awareness among expatriates of how Singlish is used in Singapore. Singlish is often regarded as an English creole, mixed with terms from Malay, Mandarin, Chinese dialects and Tamil.

The British Council conducts what it calls Coffee Morning sessions, held at its Napier Road premises. People from diverse nationalities attend these sessions, where they learn Singlish so as to improve their communication with Singaporeans.

Expatriates learn certain Singapore-specific terms, such as “slippers” (more commonly known as flip-flops to some) and “handphone” (mobile phone).

Other expressions that confuse expatriates include the invitation to “follow my car”, which means to get into the car rather than to physically follow behind a car, said British Council trainer Jacqueline Fisher.

Associate Professor Tan Ying Ying, a linguist at the Nanyang Technological University, said that when expatriates learn Singlish through their local friends, it builds camaraderie.

09 December 2017

Outward Bound Singapore provides a valuable opportunity for Singapore students to gain skills such as perseverance and teamwork — skills that are essential in today’s changing economic landscape.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently reminisced about the 17 days he and his peers had spent at Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) 50 years ago. PM Lee was among the first intake of participants.

Speaking at an event to mark the golden jubilee of OBS, Mr Lee shared that those experiences pushed them to the limits. “My coursemates and I found OBS a challenging experience, but we also enjoyed ourselves immensely,” he said.

More than 500,000 Singaporean students have participated in OBS activities since it began in 1967. Currently, about 14,000 young people take part in OBS programmes each year.

From 2020, all Singapore students will have the chance to go for a five-day OBS expedition-based camp which gathers young people from different schools and aims to impart skills such as leadership and teamwork.

08 December 2017

Everyone wants smaller classroom sizes, because it is a widely held belief that smaller class sizes in schools lead to more individualized attention and possibly better grades.

There have been numerous calls made in recent years to the Ministry of Education to review class sizes in Singapore’s schools. This is especially in light of the fact that student enrolment numbers have been falling as our birth rates plummet.

Recently in Parliament, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leon Perera called for MOE to conduct a trial here to find out if reducing class sizes could improve students’ results.

Teacher-student ratios have dropped 1:12 last year in secondary schools, a ratio comparable to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) averages. However, class sizes have not become smaller.

As our economy evolves, schools in Singapore will need to do even more beyond the textbooks. They will need to impart soft skills such as the ability to work in teams and solve problems creatively. The need to overhaul our traditional educational system to support the next generation may support the case for smaller classes.

06 December 2017

A Yale-NUS College graduate, Mr Nicholas Carverhill, was recently awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a master of philosophy degree in development studies.

Mr Carverhill will start his Oxford fellowship next year. He is one of 95 outstanding young women and men who are awarded the scholarship each year.

The 22-year-old studied urban studies and global affairs at Yale-NUS.

At Yale-NUS, Mr Carverhill, who is from Saskatoon, Canada, managed an online undergraduate publication on global affairs, and was the founding president of the college’s debate society.

Dr Trisha Craig, Yale-NUS’ dean of international and professional experience, said Mr Carverhill’s work crosses disciplinary boundaries and his commitment to marginalised populations spans borders.

05 December 2017

In the rapidly changing global economy, it is essential that students be equipped not just with book knowledge, but also with the ability to think out of the box, adapt to novel situations, and tackle problems and challenges creatively.

To this end, the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development will be revised to include components that test creative and problem solving ability, the ability to work in teams, as well as adopt an attitude of open-mindedness and regard for diverse cultures and opinions.

In the proposed mode of assessment, students will read about a case study, and respond to questions that evaluate their capacity to understand the complexity of the case. They will also be gauged on their openness toward people from other cultures as well as toward values such as global-mindedness and responsibility.

OECD has stated that this is a first step in assessing whether students are learning about the complexity of a globalising and multicultural world, and to what extent they are prepared to address global developments and collaborate productively.

Dr Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s director for education and skills, said it was important to measure students’ capacity to work with others, because in today’s increasingly interconnected world, people are often required to collaborate in order to achieve their goals.

04 December 2017

A team accolade was recently presented to three former National University of Singapore students at the university’s biennial alumni awards.

E-commerce platform Carousell’s co-founders Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan, received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the Alumni Awards ceremony. The award recognises the trio’s achievements and entrepreneurial spirit.

Six other alumni aged 40 and below also received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the ceremony, held at the NUS Ridge View Residential College.

This year, the highest honour for NUS alumni – the Eminent Alumni Award – went to Venture Corporation chief executive Wong Ngit Liong, who was the chairman of the NUS Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2016.

03 December 2017

Studies conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have found that Singapore students are resilient and are frequently able to overcome disadvantaged backgrounds to excel in school, in terms of being able to emerge in the top quarter of performers and outperform what is predicted by their backgrounds.

The survey defined disadvantaged students as being in the bottom quarter of the socio-economic index within their country.

In Singapore, socio-economic differences accounted for 17 per cent of the variation in students’ science performance in Pisa, compared with the OECD average of 13 per cent. Students coming from poorer families are more than four times more likely to be low performers, compared with more affluent peers.

The Ministry of Education has said there is a range of financial assistance programmes, and that schools can use extra funds for students who need more support. There are also learning support programmes for those who need more academic help, school-based student care centres that provide a more structured after-school learning environment and subsidised enrichment programmes and overseas trips.