In Light of MOE’s Review on Fear-Based Tuition Marketing — Where Do We Stand?

Recent par­lia­men­tary dis­cus­sions about adver­tis­ing prac­tices in the tuition and pri­vate edu­ca­tion sec­tor have sparked impor­tant con­ver­sa­tions.

As edu­ca­tors, busi­ness own­ers, and par­ents our­selves, we believe this is a moment not for defen­sive­ness — but for reflec­tion.

The tuition indus­try in Sin­ga­pore has always occu­pied a com­plex space. On one hand, it com­ple­ments the for­mal edu­ca­tion sys­tem by pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al sup­port. On the oth­er, it can some­times be per­ceived as ampli­fy­ing aca­d­e­m­ic pres­sure in an already mer­i­to­crat­ic soci­ety.

There is no sim­ple right or wrong in this dis­cus­sion. There is only a spec­trum of intent, respon­si­bil­i­ty, and exe­cu­tion.

So per­haps the bet­ter ques­tion to ask is this:

Why do some tuition cen­tres resort to fear-based or exag­ger­at­ed adver­tis­ing in the first place?

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A Truth Few People Talk About

Most tuition cen­tre own­ers did not start out as mar­keters.

They start­ed as teach­ers.

They are pas­sion­ate about their sub­ject. They love see­ing a stu­dent under­stand a con­cept. They believe in edu­ca­tion. That is why they opened their own cen­tres — to teach the way they believe teach­ing should be done.

But run­ning an edu­ca­tion busi­ness is more than teach­ing.

There are rentals to pay. Staff salaries. Util­i­ties. Mar­ket­ing costs. Mort­gages. Fam­i­lies to sup­port.

When enrol­ments dip, fear sets in.

And when fear sets in, deci­sions are made from des­per­a­tion — not inten­tion.

We under­stand this deeply, because we have been there.

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When We Took the “Standard” Route

In our ear­ly years, we relied on mar­ket­ing agen­cies to guide us. We were told what most cen­tres are told:

• Focus on par­ents’ pain points.
• High­light gaps.
• Empha­sise results.
• Call out anx­i­ety.
• Promise trans­for­ma­tion.

And it worked.

Leads increased. Enrol­ments grew.

But some­thing felt mis­aligned.

We realised that while the strat­e­gy was com­mer­cial­ly effec­tive, it did not reflect the cul­ture we want­ed to build. It did not rep­re­sent how we want­ed to speak to fam­i­lies.

When we con­sult­ed mul­ti­ple agen­cies, we received the same frame­works again and again. The indus­try play­book was clear — and pre­dictable.

That was when we decid­ed: if we want­ed to grow dif­fer­ent­ly, we had to think dif­fer­ent­ly.

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Choosing a Harder Path

We made a con­scious deci­sion to move away from fear-dri­ven mes­sag­ing.

Instead of ask­ing par­ents if they were wor­ried about their child’s grades, we focused on demon­strat­ing learn­ing.

We filmed sci­ence con­cepts in uncon­ven­tion­al ways — even push­ing my co-founder into a pool to explain grav­i­ta­tion­al poten­tial ener­gy.

We recre­at­ed com­plex PSLE Math ques­tions visu­al­ly so fam­i­lies could under­stand the think­ing process behind the solu­tion.

We pro­duced free demon­stra­tions of oral pre­sen­ta­tion tech­niques, invest­ing time and effort for pub­lic edu­ca­tion.

These projects were far more demand­ing than run­ning con­ven­tion­al ads.

They required cre­ativ­i­ty, pro­duc­tion, align­ment, and patience.

But they allowed us to build some­thing far more sus­tain­able: trust.

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A Broader View of Success

Over time, we also expand­ed our approach beyond aca­d­e­mics.

Through sem­i­nars, webi­na­rs, com­mu­ni­ca­tion work­shops and inter­view prepa­ra­tion pro­grammes, we began empha­sis­ing skills such as con­fi­dence, artic­u­la­tion, and per­son­al brand­ing.

Because we believe suc­cess is not defined by grades alone.

And because all of us in the found­ing team expe­ri­enced suc­cess in our pre­vi­ous careers — in law, finance, engi­neer­ing — we under­stand that aca­d­e­m­ic abil­i­ty is only one part of the equa­tion.

Clar­i­ty of thought. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Com­po­sure. Char­ac­ter.

These mat­ter just as much.

To Fellow Educators — And a Commitment to Responsible Growth

We do not pre­tend this tran­si­tion was easy.

Mov­ing away from fear-based mar­ket­ing can feel risky. Growth may not be as imme­di­ate. It requires patience, con­vic­tion, and the dis­ci­pline to build brand equi­ty over time.

And not every founder has the band­width to man­age ped­a­gogy, oper­a­tions, hir­ing, finance, com­pli­ance, and eth­i­cal mar­ket­ing — all at once.

If you are a tuition cen­tre own­er who loves teach­ing but feels over­whelmed by the com­mer­cial pres­sures of run­ning a busi­ness, we see you.

Over the years, we have had the priv­i­lege of work­ing with like-mind­ed edu­ca­tors who share sim­i­lar val­ues but pre­fer to focus on what they do best: teach­ing. Togeth­er, we built struc­tures that allow them to grow respon­si­bly — with­out com­pro­mis­ing their prin­ci­ples.

There is space in this indus­try for col­lab­o­ra­tion over com­pe­ti­tion.

There is room for cen­tres to scale with­out sac­ri­fic­ing integri­ty.

Per­haps the next chap­ter of edu­ca­tion in Sin­ga­pore is not about loud­er adver­tis­ing, but stronger ecosys­tems.

We believe tuition cen­tres need not exist in oppo­si­tion to the for­mal edu­ca­tion sys­tem, nor oper­ate in ten­sion with pub­lic trust. If we lead with integri­ty, trans­paren­cy, and inno­va­tion, we can con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to the broad­er edu­ca­tion­al land­scape.

For par­ents, this means clar­i­ty in what we promise and con­sis­ten­cy in what we deliv­er.

For edu­ca­tors and founders, it means build­ing busi­ness­es that align with your val­ues — not against them.

Growth mat­ters. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty mat­ters.

But trust mat­ters most.

If you are build­ing some­thing you believe in and won­der­ing what comes next, per­haps it is time for a con­ver­sa­tion. Reach out to us . We would be hon­oured to explore how we can sup­port you — because edu­ca­tion is too impor­tant to be built alone.

Yours In Edu­ca­tion
Shou Yee
Co-Founder