News and Announcements | Singapore Maths Tuition

Quacquarelli Symonds ranks National University of Singapore 11th globally

June 16, 2021 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

16 June 2021

The National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University have been named Asia’s best universities in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) annual higher education ranking.

Globally, NUS has come in 11th, while NTU was placed 12th in a league table comparing 1,300 universities.

NUS has also held the No. 1 position among Asian universities for the past four years.

QS evaluated the institutions on six indicators: academic reputation, reputation among employers, citations per faculty member, faculty to student ratio, ratio of international faculty members and ratio of international students.

In a separate list released by Times Higher Education last week, NTU ranked fifth in Asia, up from sixth last year, while NUS maintained its third place.

Recruitment of foreign teachers has been calibrated to account for demand and staffing needs

March 21, 2021 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

21 March 2021

International or foreign-born teachers have made up less than 1 per cent of the overall teaching force in MOE schools over the past five years. There are only 320 to 330 international teachers here today.

Recruitment of foreign teachers has been calibrated to account for demand and staffing needs, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Education. There has also been a sufficient supply of suitable local educators, the spokesman said.

During the debate on ministries’ budgets, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah stressed that it was key for Singapore to “remain open to global talent who can complement our local workforce”.

MOE said that it recruits international teachers mostly to supplement the local workforce across primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and Millennia Institute.

Singapore needs to have an education system for life

February 9, 2021 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

09 February 2021

According to Education Minister Lawrence Wong, Singapore needs to have an education system for life, rather than one that front-loads learning when a person is young.

The SkillsFuture movement, for example, allows people multiple entry points to reskill and upgrade.

Schools with a larger proportion of children from lower-income families or disadvantaged backgrounds are getting more resources so that these children can get more support, Mr Wong also said.

Societies today place too much of a premium on cognitive abilities, and do not sufficiently value those engaging in other forms of work. To counter this, Singapore is rolling out the progressive wage model across various sectors, and reviewing polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education pathways.

Singapore Institute of Technology to make some of its courses more interdisciplinary

January 5, 2021 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

05 January 2021

The Singapore Institute of Technology is making major changes to its curriculum to ensure its students are better prepared for the workforce of the future.

SIT is infusing about 15 to 20 per cent of its degree programmes with content that cuts across disciplines, starting with fields like accountancy, mechanical engineering and occupational therapy.

However, SIT will implement this interdisciplinary push in a more targeted way. Courses and projects will be customised for each degree programme so they stay relevant to the main profession students are training for.

Additionally, SIT is introducing more micro-modules outside students’ core studies in areas such as general knowledge and workplace skills. These include topics like intellectual property, understanding financial statements, career management and interpersonal skills.

All secondary schools and junior colleges to have one day of Home Based Learning every two weeks

January 5, 2021 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

05 January 2021

All secondary schools and junior colleges, including Millennia Institute, will start having one day of HBL every two weeks for some levels from Term 3 of next year.

These new Ministry of Education guidelines were recently announced by Minister for Education Lawrence Wong. They have been implemented with the aim of making blended learning a key feature of the schooling experience, to encourage students to be “self-directed, passionate and lifelong learners”.

All levels will implement blended learning by the end of Term 4 of 2022, and seeks to “provide students with more opportunities to learn at their own pace and to be empowered to take charge of their learning”, according to an MOE.

MOE also added that schools will determine the subjects and topics to be delivered on HBL days, which will be less structured than a typical school day. The emphasis will be on student-initiated learning, where dedicated time and space will be provided to allow students to pursue their own interests and learn outside of the curriculum.

Changes to secondary school selection and tie breaking procedure

December 2, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

02 December 2020

From next year, students taking the Primary School Leaving Examination will no longer see a T-score figure on their slips, but instead, they will be scored using eight bands known as Achievement Levels.

The indicative AL cut-offs for individual secondary schools will be released in the first half of next year, based on the results and school choices of this year’s PSLE cohort.

There will be some changes to the posting system and how ties will be broken if pupils have the same score.

Singapore citizens will continue get priority, followed by permanent residents and then international students, as per the usual practice.

The choice order of schools will also play a more significant role. A pupil who indicates a school as his or her first choice will now get a place ahead of someone else with the same score but indicates it as a second or third choice.

Singapore students to receive results of national examinations online

November 5, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

05 November 2020

Students will be getting the results of national examinations online and in smaller venues this year.

New arrangements for the announcement and collection of examination results have been announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB).

The tentative dates for the release of exam results for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), the N levels, O levels and A levels are available on the MOE website.

Why you might want to choose to take additional mathematics at ‘O’ levels

October 21, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

Here are some reasons why you might want to choose to take additional mathematics at ‘O’ levels:

(i) A pass in additional mathematics is a prerequisite for studying H2 math or H2 further math at JC. If you are keen on pursuing higher education in medicine, science, or engineering, then it is highly advisable to take additional mathematics as most institutes of higher learning, including universities such NUS or NTU, always list a pass in H2 math as one of the entry criteria to these courses. You would therefore need to take additional mathematics at ‘O’ level in order to qualify for H2 math at JC, so that you can later do go for those courses in your post-secondary or post-JC education.

(ii) Knowledge and skills gained in additional mathematics would be of great help to you in tackling ‘O’ level Mathematics (Syllabus 4048). In additional mathematics, you are exposed to harder problems and acquire a deeper skill set that is highly transferable to ‘O’ level Mathematics.

Do not be daunted simply because additional mathematics sounds like it will be a lot harder than ‘O’ level Mathematics. You have two years to train yourself in the subject and in the hands of good teachers and math tutors, there is no reason why you won’t do well.