What is the point of tuition for your child?

It sounds silly to even be asking this question.
But, it's always useful to ask to this question when one is part of a frenzy.

Mr Yong doesn't get it. He believes the education system should help everyone realise his potential. In my experience, that's certainly not true. In fact, our education system does one thing very well. That is to categorise and segregate kids into 'classes'.

And this segregation is what keeps the university degree valuable. If everyone has a uni degree, then yours is definitely worth less. Hence, by allowing more people to get into university may sound popular with the masses, it's merely a temporary high. Because in the long run, these graduates would be faced with broken dreams when they cannot find jobs/lifestyles which match their 'graduate' dream.

Ms Ho's letter to the forum makes more sense. But she makes a huge assumption, i.e. parents are able to accurately assess the potential of their kids. And rightly so, she makes this assumption.

As more 'educated' adults start to move into the ranks of 'parents', shouldn't we expect more enlightened and rational parenting behaviour and decision-making?

If not, it just goes to show how (in)effective all that 'education' mumbo jumbo really is.
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Scoring an 'A' in any subject means one is able to give the exact answer which the tester is looking for within the test constraints. That's all it is about.
It's not about being 'intelligent'. It's certainly not about being different, special, creative etc, i.e. any of those Steve Jobs qualities, if that's what being 'intelligent' means these days.

And having the ability to give the exact answer is hardly a guarantee for a 'better future'. That's an urban myth which many people happen to subscribe to at the same time. A lot of achieving a better future stems from opportunities, and that is more related to networks. Especially, in the Asian context, family network is exceptionally significant.

If you have gone through all those years of 'education', and have not been able to figure this out, that would be the greater tragedy. And not whether your kid gets tuition or 'A' or not.
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So does this mean you should take your kid out of the tuition class immediately?

You wish that the 'right' answer is that simple.
Unfortunately, that's something we, the educated, have not been trained/educated to do, i.e. to be able to Think Independently.