19 August 2017
Teachers serving with the Chinese Development Assistance Council’s (CDAC) tuition programme recently received long-service awards from the self-help group at a ceremony held at the HDB Hub. Awards were also given to 220 CDAC students who showed academic improvement.
The CDAC Tuition Programme was launched in 1993. It aims to help academically weak students from less-well-to-do families prepare for school examinations by providing them access to volunteer teachers willing to spare the time and effort to coach them personally.
The CDAC Tuition Programme is offered at 40 locations all over Singapore, and the tutors are NIE-trained teachers who conduct small-sized classes of about 8 to 12, allowing students to have more individualized attention.
To qualify, students must be attending a Government or Government-Aided School on a full-time basis, and come from a household whose Gross Monthly Household Income does not exceeding $3,300, or whose Gross Per Capita Income (PCI) does not exceeding $900. Whilst tuition centres indicated as ‘CTP’ will accept students of all races, other centers may require the student or one his/her parents to be a Chinese Singapore Citizen or Chinese Singapore Permanent Resident.
Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Trade and Industry, who is also chairman of CDAC’s student and parent education committee, said it would be developing talks and workshops targeting parents of children going through major transitions. These will touch on social emotional learning, so that parents can support and reinforce what schools are doing to nurture their child holistically with positive mindsets and values.