Forum Letter – Family bonding hit by weekend schoolwork
The Straits Times Forum 26 Mar 2012
THE Government introduced the five-day work week in 2004 to improve work-life balance and provide a more relaxed environment for parent-child bonding on weekends.
Schools followed suit, with some cancelling supplementary classes and co-curricular activities on Saturdays to allow families to spend time together.
Eight years later, this has not translated into more families with school-going children visiting beaches, parks or other places of leisure on weekends.
Instead, what resulted was a boom in the number of tuition centres and, ironically, an increasing reliance on live-in maids despite the five-day work week.
During weekends, it is not uncommon to find parents busy ferrying their children from one tuition class to another.
Even invitations to social gatherings such as birthday parties are sometimes declined because of tight tuition schedules.
My husband and I chose not to enrol our children for tuition classes. Even so, they spend many hours on weekends completing homework assignments, and they no longer look forward to weekends or school holidays.
We do not have a maid as we believe in training our children to do their share of chores. But this is a struggle because of their school workload on weekends.
Time aside from academic pursuits is needed for families to bond and for children to grow in other areas.
Families in the United States and Australia do not have live-in maids or face this tuition frenzy. Though their children may not be as good in their studies as their Singapore peers at an early age, many still go on to qualify for Ivy League universities.
Something must be done to stem this academic overload, starting with schools, so parents have time to teach their children values.
This is important if we want to build stronger families and have the next generation grow up to become caring and compassionate adults, and not self-centred people.
Dr Sandra Tan
