NUSWhispers – Confession #80161

I'm a private tutor. I run a small tuition centre. After deducting rent, marketing & administrative costs - I take home around $2500 a month. I teach more than 10 classes weekly. It has been a very demoralising few weeks. 1. Amidst the suspension of centre-based tuition classes - parents have asked for discount on fees. I tried to help whenever I can by waiving off fees or giving discounts, knowing fully that it will be at my own expense. Yet, I've received a lot of comments from parents who do not have financial difficulties, going "e-learning should be cheaper". e-Learning IS not cheaper than classroom based learning. It has been 2 sleepless weeks with this mad scramble to move classes online. We've had to to spend sessions doing orientation for you and your children to help explain how to do classes online. We had to buy IT equipment, video recording equipment - all of it not cheap with my measly $2500 monthly salary. You think it's less effort - it's not. It's more effort and more work. And you want to pay us less. Please don't undermine our efforts by requesting to pay us less. If you have financial difficulties, we will discount for you. But don't say "e-Learning should be paid less". Thanks. Rental still goes on - landlords who don't take the initiative to help and pass on rental rebates, I'm looking at YOU! 2. We totally understand that why we have been closed down. Health comes first - sure. However, can don't call us non-essential? School is essential, tuition is non-essential. Minister said that. True facts of life. But, but. Can you also see this. In every sector, there are good people and there are bad people. In the tuition sector, there are some of us good ones and some of us bad ones. I dare say, I care about each and every-one of my students. I do my best to motivate. I do my best to talk to them when they have family troubles. I come up with extra worksheets when I know they are lagging behind. In schools, you also have teachers who are not motivated, who only come to school for the paycheck and do the minimum. If all school teachers are good - need tuition teachers for what? If everybody scoring A1, A2 and A* - then no need for tuition. Some parents find tuition because their kids have been failing. We don't need you to recognise us. But don't call us non-essential can? 3. Common comment from school teachers and from the public - "They should pay school teachers more" or "Tuition teachers make so much money". You know how many times I roll my eyes at this? Straits Times - I'm looking at you. Thanks for always reporting on "million dollar" tutors. Now everybody thinks that all tutors make millions. Reality check - If you are a school teacher and you think you will make a lot of money leaving the public sector, feel free to go try your luck. Is every school teacher a Principal? or a Cluster Superintendent? or a Director? No right? Same thing with the private sector ok? The top tutors make a lot of money. The normal tutors like us make close to the 'median' $4600 of the typical Singaporean. We don't have CPF. We don't have AWS. We don't have performance bonus. In November & December, we eat bread but still pay rent. Whatever we earn in 10 months, must ration across 12 months, because November & December parents go holiday and don't want tuition. No - regular tutors don't make millions. Stop dreaming. Most school teachers are not zai. If they leave the public sector, they will eat grass. I make $2500 a month - if you feel that is fantastic, you can be my guest. You have a choice. If you think you can make more as a private tutor, take the plunge into the world of the unknown. 4. Teachers got a lot of admin work, not like private tutor only need to teach We don't have admin work. We have "admin work" - marketing, accounting & trying to keep the business alive. We don't only teach. You have a 'clear thick' line between yourself and parents. We don't. We are obligated to answer, and talk to parents everyday. Do you know there are parents who call us and talk to us everyday about their kids and their anxieties? (a lot of parents from top schools are actually very anxious about their kids) I spend 1 to 2 hours daily talking to 2 to 3 parents everyday. 5. Thank you for classifying us together with KTVs, Bars & Entertainment I called the bank to lower my credit card interest because in anticipation of school closures, I invested heavily in video recording equipment and IT equipment that I actually cannot pay for with my measly salary. Guess what the bank said? You are not from an eligible 'adversely affected' sector. Adversely affected = tourism, aviation, F&B and entertainment. Entertainment qualifies but private education doesn't qualify. Again, i understand why we have been shut down. But can everyone remember us private tutors have families to feed too? Mortgages or rent to pay? Bills to pay? 6. We are human beings too We have feelings. We have empathy. We have tried to help whenever we can. My tuition centre offers free tuition all these years to whomever are on MOE Financial Assistance scheme. When parents face difficulties (retrenched, fell sick), we always cut our fees or give free. When students ask for extra help, we coach and we don't charge extra. We are trying our best too. Really. We are all in this together. I don't know since when being a 'private tutor' is a nasty thing. Maybe tuition centres like Learning Lab, Mavis Tutorial or any of those big tuition centres with big MRT and bus adverts and sprawling land space of more than 10000 square feet might make millions of dollars a year. Maybe they have strong investors with hundreds of millions. But hey that's not us. Don't assume that we have a mountain of profits to stomach this because we don't. Also, a lot of our kids and a lot of our parents always tell us that school teachers always say bad things about private tutors. "Tuition is a waste of money", "don't need go for tuition", "private tutors are not qualified and don't know what they are teaching". Some teachers seem to spend a lot of time bad-mouthing private tutors. Just focus on teaching your kids please. You still have a job. I may not have one when the dust settles. Also, remember that a lot of us private tutors were once school teachers. Some of us left because of school mergers. Some of us left because we were pregnant, had kids and could no longer cope. Some of us left because we don't want to deal with this crap called EPMS. Some of us left because we don't want to deal with all the politics, committees, organising overseas trips and want to just focus on the kids. Please support your tutors, thank you. A lot of us, really do care, genuinely for your child.