Tuition in Singapore: What the Surveys Say
For 32% of parents in a new survey, primary-school tuition cost $400–$800 per child a month. That was the most common spending bracket, and the band containing the median. At the upper end, 2% reported spending more than $2,000.
The figures come from the EveryChild.SG Parent and Youth Survey, covered by The Straits Times on 9 November. Its parent sample included 2,002 people whose children currently attend, or had attended within the previous five years, a local MOE primary school.
How does that compare with other families?
A separate IPS study of 1,500 primary-school parents, published in September 2026, also asked about tuition and enrichment spending:
| Monthly spending | Median | Mean (average) |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | $500 | $677 |
| Enrichment | $260 | $355 |
All amounts are in Singapore dollars. The median is the middle value; the mean averages all reported amounts. The two studies surveyed different groups, so their figures don’t show a change in spending between September and November.
How many children go for tuition?
EveryChild.SG found that only 4% of parents reported spending $0–$50 a month per child on primary-school tuition. But that bracket includes both families paying nothing and those spending a small amount. It doesn’t give us an exact percentage of children attending tuition.
Nor does spending tell us whether tuition is useful. The students in our earlier article described help with weak subjects, but also becoming dependent on tutors and losing free time.
What are parents thinking?
In EveryChild.SG’s survey, 75% of parents saw tuition as necessary to do well. A similar share, 76%, worried their child would fall behind without it because other children had tuition.
Yet 72% wanted to put less academic pressure on their child and felt unable to because of the PSLE.
For families disagreeing over tuition and burnout, our earlier article works through a specific question: is the child struggling with the work, or struggling to fit everything in?
The IPS findings show both concerns too: 89.8% felt children spent too much time on tuition and enrichment, while 70.2% would spend more on their own children if they could afford it. And 51.9% felt pressure because other parents did so.
EveryChild.SG’s online quota survey ran mainly in January–February 2026 and also included 2,005 young adults. The tuition figures above refer to parents’ responses, including some recalling earlier school years, rather than a count of all children in Singapore.
