Singapore families spent SGD1.8 billion (US$1.3 billion) on private tuition for their children in 2023, up 29% from five years earlier.
The figure jumped 64% from 2013, according to a government survey on household expenditure which is conducted every five years, as published by the The Singapore Department of Statistics.
The survey polled 13,100 households in the 12-month period ending December 2023.
Each household spent an average SGD104.80 each month on tuition, up 19% from the previous five years.
Households with income belonging to the top 20% of the country spent four times more than the bottom 20%.
Some analysts say that while the Ministry of Education has made reforms to bring down academic pressure, the tuition industry continues to grow stronger.
“We are trying to move in the direction of greater customization, where there is no one-size-fits-all kind of style,” said Associate Professor Jason Tan from the National Institute of Education, as cited by The Straits Times.
The ministry has been trying to de-emphazise the obsession with academic grades as the key criterion of success, he added.
However, parents and students still have a mentality of competition in education, which has even spread to non-academic areas, he added.
It also found that housing, food and transportation were the top three expenditure for Singapore families and accounted for two-thirds of their monthly expenses.
They were followed by health and education.
