SINGAPORE \u2013 Liang May took her son for a staycation at a hotel during his study break before sitting the PSLE in 2024.<\/p>\n
They went rock climbing, played games at an arcade and visited cafes for meals, while weaving in study time between these activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made him feel more relaxed. He was feeling the stress of PSLE, so this actually helped him,\u201d said the 44-year-old homemaker.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the examination, Liang said her friends confiscated their children\u2019s devices or limited their play time. But she did the opposite.<\/p>\n
In fact, she increased her son\u2019s gaming time and ensured there was a good balance between his studies and personal time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consciously told myself not to be reeled into that pressure\u2026 He\u2019s the one sitting the PSLE, and he\u2019s the one feeling most of the pressure,\u201d said Liang, adding that she worried her son would not be able to put in effort into studying when he was required to, if he was not rested enough.<\/p>\n
This was not the first time Liang\u2019s approach to her two children\u2019s education seemed unusual to her friends and family.<\/p>\n
Although her son had the chance to enrol at an earlier phase in her husband\u2019s alma mater, a prestigious boys\u2019 primary school, she decided to place him in a neighbourhood school near their home instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted my children to grow up meeting kids from different backgrounds, to gain a wider view of the world\u2026 And they thrived at Pei Tong Primary School, where they were able to find long-lasting friendships and had caring teachers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Liang also learnt to relax about her children\u2019s development from experience.<\/p>\n
She recalled worrying when her daughter was in Primary 2 and struggled to recite the alphabet. But instead of sending her for tuition, Liang continued reading to her and taking her to the library, trusting that she would learn at her own pace.<\/p>\n
Today, her daughter represents her primary school in a creative writing competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realised then that self-discovery is more powerful than force-feeding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Choosing a different path<\/h2>\n
In a society where families usually go to great lengths to give their children the best chance at academic success, some parents in Singapore, like Liang, are opting for a different path.<\/p>\n
This means not succumbing to the peer pressure to enrol their <\/span><\/a>children<\/span><\/a> in<\/span><\/a> tuition<\/span><\/a> and various enrichment programmes, to give them an edge over others or boost academic excellence.<\/p>\n While acknowledging the ever-present pressures from the education system here, these parents are making deliberate choices to channel their efforts and resources into what matters most to them \u2013 keeping their children happy and not pressuring them to excel academically.<\/p>\n A 2026 study by the Institute of Policy Studies found that most parents of primary school children in Singapore increasingly value holistic or broader development.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n At the same time, more parents indicate feeling stressed and anxious about their children\u2019s futures and whether they will fall behind in the long run, compared with 2016, when the study was last done.<\/p>\n And although they view the education system here as among the best in the world, more than two-thirds of them say it still causes their children unnecessary stress.<\/p>\n Still, there are some parents The Straits Times spoke to who said they do not want to be caught up in the competitive aspects of the education system. These include strategising ways to enter popular primary schools or focusing their energies on direct school admission (DSA), through sports and the arts, to get into top secondary schools.<\/p>\n A parent and pre-school administrative executive, who wanted to be known as Tang, said she did not set grade targets for her children to achieve. Instead, she was more concerned about whether they understood what they were learning and put in reasonable effort into their studies.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir childhood doesn\u2019t have to be optimised every minute\u2026 They need to grow in a way that makes sense for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her son, who is now in Secondary 4, had gained entry to the School of Science and Technology via the DSA route after taking written tests and completing science challenges. Her 11-year-old daughter will sit the PSLE in 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of gunning for one (particular secondary) school, we will be practical and choose a school based on her results and CCA preference,\u201d said Tang, adding that she does not believe that entering a top school is the only route to a successful future.<\/p>\n Jason Tan, a professor at the National Institute of Education, said there is a lack of rigorous local longitudinal research that examines the strength of the proposition that studying in the so-called good schools increases one\u2019s success later in life.<\/p>\n He added that questions still remain about how much of the perceived success of students from top schools is driven by school programmes or by students\u2019 pre-existing advantages.<\/p>\n For some parents, investing in their children\u2019s future means focusing less on academic results and more on developing life skills, pursuing interests and building resilience.<\/p>\n Former secondary school teacher Jasmine Sia, 41, takes a different approach with each of her four children, aged eight to 15, depending on their strengths and abilities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to hold the same academic standard for all kids, as each child is different,\u201d said Sia, who is now a private tutor.<\/p>\n She is also selective about enrichment classes.<\/p>\n Rather than sending them for tuition in every weaker subject, she prioritises activities that could become lifelong hobbies.<\/p>\n Her eldest child takes piano lessons, her second attends wushu classes, her third learns robotics and her youngest plays soccer.<\/p>\n Instead of signing her daughters up for enrichment classes, marketing manager Yong Qiao Qing, 39, involves them in her online business Little Warriors, which makes protective clothes for children with sensitive skin.<\/p>\n She and the two girls, aged six and 10, would brainstorm ideas and create social media content, as well as help set up booths and interact with customers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey pick up financial skills and entrepreneurship (and) learn how to speak to customers and present ideas through social media content creation,\u201d said Yong.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are skills you can\u2019t teach in schools and through preparing for exams,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Single mother-of-two Shoba Agnetha Seetaram, 46, prioritises her children\u2019s well-being, their ability to be independent and their character and values over their academic achievement.<\/p>\n Mother-of-two Shoba Agnetha Seetaram at the Singapore Oceanarium with her 16-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son.<\/p>\n PHOTO: COURTESY OF SHOBA AGNETHA SEETARAM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Her 16-year-old daughter\u2019s social anxiety began when the girl was in Primary 5 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and resulted in physical symptoms such as severe headaches, hospitalisations and difficulty attending school.<\/p>\n When she moved to secondary school, she received psychological and psychiatric support from KK Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital, and started on anxiety medication in June.<\/p>\n She is currently repeating Sec 3, after missing most of her Sec 2 and 3 classes the last two years.<\/p>\n Instead of allowing academic pressure to further threaten her daughter\u2019s mental health, Shoba, an early childhood teacher, prioritised the girl\u2019s emotional stability.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more focused on who they are growing up to be, whether they are good people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n While some parents consciously resist the academic pressure on their children, they harbour doubts whether they are doing enough for their children.<\/p>\n Marketing consultant Vanessa Ng, 38, who has two children aged four and one, said: \u201cWhen I\u2019m surrounded by conversations (about school registration strategies), there is a part of me that wonders if I\u2019m being too relaxed or if I\u2019m doing enough for my children.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, she has resisted packing her older son\u2019s schedule with enrichment classes, limiting him to no more than one class a term, usually in creative or language-based activities.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want a disappointing (academic) result to become a judgment about who they are. I just hope I can stand by this when my children are old enough to be within the system,\u201d said Ng, acknowledging that her views may change once her son enters primary school, particularly if she sees him falling behind his peers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to say you\u2019re not concerned about school prestige until you\u2019re actually faced with the possibility that your child might miss out.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the uncomfortable part of the system. I can see the logic that drives parents to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Liang May took her son for a staycation at a hotel during his study break before sitting the PSLE in 2024. They went…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Less focus on academic excellence<\/h2>\n
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