Human beings are intellectual creations of God, above the animals, due to their intelligence. Being intelligent, human beings constantly upgrade their knowledge skills. This, to many parents, is achieved through enrolling their children in private tuitions such that they can gain a competitive edge. Parents are very concerned about their children's academic results and are led to believe that it is necessary to enrol the latter in tuitions for them to fare well in examinations and attain good results. It is no wonder that Singapore has gained the name of Tuition Nation (Koh, 2012). Likewise, Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged this trend by stating that tutions have become a minor national obsession (Lee, 2012). Excessive private tuitions in Singapore is detrimental to the society and childrens development.
Firstly, private tuitions will exacerbate existing inequality in Singapore. Students from lower-income households would be at the losing end as tuitions might not be as accessible to them in comparison to the ones from higher-income households. According to the data collected, only 20% of the children in the lowest monthly household income bracket ($4k and below) (Blackbox Research Pte Ltd, 2012) received tuitions. .
Furthermore, the 2008 Household Expenditure Survey indicated the stark contrast of the monthly tuition expenditures between lower-income households and higher-income households. This buttress the point of correlationship between financial ability and tuitions (Household Expenditure Survey, 2007/08). Hence, the prevalence of tuitions will give rise to even better results by students enrolled in tuitions. In contrary, students having no tuitions will fall further behind. Given the rapid expansion of the tuition industry, it is expected that the inequality gap will widen.
Next, tuition affects the overall self development of children. In the National Day Rally speech on 2012, Lee Hsien Loong highlighted that children nowadays are burdened with excessive tuitions which impedes them from enjoying their childhood.