Does my child need maths tuition?

Not for every child. Tuition earns its cost when there is a gap that needs teaching. For a child who is coping, it often adds little, and three facts are worth knowing before you pay.

1. 1Many children who take tuition are already coping. MOE has said that some children take tuition even though they are coping well, and that too much of it can even be detrimental, when the extra load becomes hard to cope with.²
2. 2Families spend a lot on it. The average Singapore household spent S$104.80 a month on private tuition in 2023, up from S$88.40 in 2017/18.³
3. 3Tuition helps, but less in maths, and feedback helps as much. A large review of the research finds one-to-one tuition adds about 5 months of progress in a year on average, but 2 months in maths. Feedback on a child's own work adds about 6 months.^4–5

So the useful question is not whether to get tuition. It is what kind of help your child needs, and that starts with where the marks are going.

A report card tells you a mark was lost, not where. Your child brings home 62 for maths: 38 marks went somewhere. Nearly every one of them went one of two ways. Either the question was set up wrong, or it was set up right and the working slipped. This question separates the two.

Both wrong answers score zero, and on a report card they look the same. But they need opposite things. The $20 child has to be taught to read the question and keep the remainder in view: that is teaching, and it is what a good tutor is for. The $9 child already knows the method and needs practice under time until the division stops slipping. Practice costs far less than teaching. Buying the wrong one is how a family pays for a year of tuition and watches the same marks disappear.

Here is the working, step by step.

1. 1Find one unit. The book took two fifths, so think in fifths. $60 divided by 5 is $12, and that is one unit.
2. 2Take out the book. Two fifths is two units, so the book cost $24. Most children are fine to here.
3. 3Count what is left. Three units remain, which is $36. This is the line the $20 child never wrote.
4. 4Take a third of the remainder. This is where the $9 child slipped. Stay in units and there is no division left to get wrong: a third of three units is one unit, and one unit is $12.

"Weak in maths" is not something anyone can act on. These patterns are, and each one needs different help.

Careless mistakes belong in the second row. A slip that keeps coming back on the same step is a step your child has not made automatic yet. More lessons will not fix it; a few weeks of regular practice usually will.

When a gap shows, not at a set level. One bad paper is not a gap; two weak results on the same topic are. Here is what is new in maths each year, and the help school already gives for free.

Many gaps first show in P3 and P4, when problem sums get longer and fractions arrive. A gap caught there is a few weeks of work. Left to P5, it sits under every new topic.

More than most parents know. Ask about these before you pay for anything.

1. 1Learning Support for Maths, P1 to P4. Small-group lessons in school hours, run by trained teachers, for children who need a firmer number foundation. The school picks children at the start of P1 and can add more in P2 to P4. Ask the form teacher.^1,7
2. 2Foundation Maths, P5 and P6. The same subject at a slower pace, with more time on the basics. The school recommends it from the P4 year-end exams, and you fill in an option form. MOE says taking a subject at Foundation level is not a disadvantage.^7–8
3. 3Free or low-cost tuition. CDAC, SINDA and MENDAKI run tuition for families who meet their income criteria, and schools work with them through the Collaborative Tuition Programme.^2,9–11
4. 4An assessment, if maths stays hard. If your child still struggles after a term of help, the Dyslexia Association of Singapore's psychologists can assess for a learning difficulty in maths.⁶
5. 5Your child's teacher. The person who sees your child work every day. Ask which topics cost marks, and whether it is the setup or the working.

You do not need a formal assessment, and you do not need to do the maths yourself. You need a week, and something that files the mistakes for you. StudyLah does that free.

1. 1First, look at it yourself. Ten minutes, no account. Three real exam-standard questions, for you rather than your child: Lah, the tutor, talks a wrong answer through out loud while the figure lights up step by step, and the mistake book waits at the end. Try it free
2. 2Then register your child, free. Every wrong answer is filed for you, with its worked solution. The free plan is enough for this week. Start free
3. 3Have them sit an exam paper like a real one. Timed, no help, one sitting. It comes back marked, with an Achievement Level for P5 and P6 or a Band for P1 to P4, to hold the report card against.
4. 4Then read the mistake book. Every wrong answer is there, grouped by topic. That is your answer to which topics cost marks, and, question by question, whether it was the setup or the working.

When your child gets a question wrong, Lah, the tutor built into StudyLah, explains it out loud, in a real voice, step by step: she lights up the numbers she means, draws the bar model, and chalks the angle or the side on the figure, the way a teacher does at the whiteboard. Every wrong answer then goes into the mistake book, and Retry Mistakes brings it back rebuilt with new numbers until your child has really got it.

1. 1Mistakes practised until they are understood. Every wrong answer goes into the mistake book, sorted by topic and by whether it was a careless slip or something still being learned. Retry Mistakes brings it back rebuilt, with a new story and new numbers, as many times as it takes, so you can see your child really understood rather than just read the correction.
2. 2You can see whether it is working. The parent dashboard, free on every plan: time spent, accuracy, every topic from new to mastered, an Achievement Level on every P5 and P6 paper (a Band for P1 to P4), and every mistake with its solution.
3. 3A report in your inbox every Sunday. A short email each Sunday evening: what your child practised that week, how it went, and what to work on next. Free on every plan.

By the end of the week you will know which topics cost marks, and whether it is the setup or the working. That is a briefing a tutor can act on, or a reason to decide you do not need one yet.

Sometimes it is, and no practice at home replaces it. Find a good tutor if any of these is true.

• Your child has stopped trying. Confidence is a people problem. A tutor your child gets on with can rebuild something no app can.
• The gap is more than a year deep. If P5 work fails because P3 place value never landed, a person needs to find it and reteach it in order, patiently and out loud.
• Nobody at home can supervise. Be honest about this one. A tutor who turns up is worth more than a better tool that goes unused.
• Your child works better with someone beside them. Some children do. That is a fact about them, not a failure.

Already in tuition? Two things help. Brief the tutor: "He loses marks on fractions of a remainder, and it is the setup" gets a targeted plan; "he is weak at maths" gets a general one. And use the six days between lessons for short practice, with each mistake explained while your child still remembers their thinking. One teaches the method; the other makes it stick.

1. 1Ministry of Education, Learning support in primary schools (last updated 5 December 2025), read 20 October 2026LSM: P1 and P2 in groups of up to 8, 4 to 8 periods a week; P3 and P4 in groups of up to 15, 11 periods a week
2. 2Ministry of Education, Private tuition, parliamentary reply, 5 February 2025, read 20 October 2026
3. 3Department of Statistics Singapore, Household Expenditure Survey 2023, average monthly household expenditure by type of goods and services (detailed tables 17967 and 18035), read 20 October 2026Private tuition per resident household per month, 2023 and 2017/18, by income fifth
4. 4Education Endowment Foundation, Teaching and Learning Toolkit: One to one tuition, read 20 October 2026
5. 5Education Endowment Foundation, Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Feedback, read 20 October 2026
6. 6Dyslexia Association of Singapore, Identifying mathematical learning difficulties, 25 November 2025, read 20 October 2026An assessment by the DAS SpLD Assessment Services, whose registered psychologists assess learning profiles
7. 7Ministry of Education, Plans to support students academically weaker in Mathematics and Science reach higher proficiency levels, parliamentary reply, 4 February 2025, read 20 October 2026Learning Support for Mathematics since 2007 for P1 and P2, extended to P3 and P4 since 2023; Foundation level at P5 and P6
8. 8Ministry of Education, Subject-based banding for primary school (last updated 5 December 2025), read 20 October 2026The school recommends a P5 subject combination from the P4 year-end exams; parents fill in an option form
9. 9CDAC, Tuition Programme, read 20 October 2026Free for eligible students; 2027 income criteria; classes of 10 to 12
10. 10SINDA, SINDA Tutorials for Enhanced Performance (STEP), fee structure, read 20 October 2026Primary: a S$10 flat fee; full waiver at per capita income of S$1,600 or below, or for MOE FAS, School Pocket Money Fund or SINDA Bursary recipients
11. 11Yayasan MENDAKI, MENDAKI Achievement Programme (MAP), formerly the MENDAKI Tuition Programme, read 20 October 2026The S$10 registration fee was removed from Academic Year 2026