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Brett Youd's avatar

If shadow education / tutoring is indicative of something wrong with NSW schools, then surely East Asian nations such as Singapore who have far higher percentage of students attending tutorials or cram schools than in Australia must also be indicative of failures in their system and makes the claim Singapore as the No 1 education system over blown?

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Sofia Fenichell's avatar

Shadow education isn’t a function of parenting styles. These are an end result of the system. If you see a child can achieve 2-sigma with a couple hours a week of tutoring, and you could afford it, why wouldn’t you do it? Why aren’t these same kids achieving this at school is the question we should be asking. There are very good reasons for why. But we need to unpick them.

There are other issues with shadow education as you mentioned: life chances, supply and demand, a system of entrance exams designed to “trip up” young learners.

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