During the Parliamentary debate into the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Committee of Supply, several MPs raised questions about tuition and whether Singapore was becoming overreliant on it.
Most MPs were concerned about the prevalence of tuition with some, such as Lim Biow Chuan concerned that it was becoming a crutch stopping students from being able to conduct self-directed learning.
MP Png Eng Huat raised the concern that parents are spending a huge amount of money on tuition. He also noted that there is a common belief on the ground that students are learning more from tuition than they are from schools.
Similarly, MP Denise Phua, noted that even Poly students are taking tuition classes and there is a widespread mindset that in order to get a good life, Singapoeans need to get good results in school.
She questioned whether this was good and noted that it was partially caused by the education system where students are sorted based on exam scores and academic results.
MP Phua suggested scrapping the PSLE all together and to get rid of things like the Gifted or Special Assistance streams and schools so that all students of different abilities can be education together so they can benefit from each other.
Both MP Phua and Workers' Party's NCMP Yee Jenn Jong suggested that there be a 10 year-through-train school system here where instead of schooling being broken up into primary and secondary school, it is all one system to eliminate early streaming.
It appears that despite Singapore having a "world-class" education system there are still many cultural issues and ingrained problems with the system.