‘Not enough to rely on parents’

IN her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua wrote about her “all stick and no carrot” approach to get her two daughters to practise music.

While her approach courted controversy, the results were impressive. Her older child Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, now nearly 30, performed at Carnegie Hall when she was just 14. Her younger one, Lulu, auditioned for a pre-college programme at the famed Juilliard School at the age of 11.

While few parents would go to the lengths that Chua did – renting piano studios during family holidays – to get their children to play music, many, such as Yeo Siew Lian, a mother of three boys, recognise the benefits of exposing their offspring to a music education and other extracurricular activities.

“Having learnt the piano myself, I know the lessons demand concentration and practice, build character, and give children an outlet to relax, rather than just being on the gadgets all the time,” Yeo told StarEdu.

Aside from piano lessons, Yeo sends her children to badminton and swimming classes. Swimming is vital because it is a life skill, she said. “Childhood obesity is on the rise. We want our kids to keep fit and eat healthily, rather than sitting in front of the computer,” added Yeo, who is a doctor.

Growing in tandem with parental awareness of such benefits is the variety of after-school enrichment activities, which include science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes such as robotics and coding, as well as speech and drama.

However, rising cost of living, the time needed for participation in such activities, and the logistics of ferrying their children from one class to another are the issues that weigh down parents, said Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education chairman Mak Chee Kin.

The cost for a one-to-one music lesson typically ranges from RM100 to several hundred ringgit per class in urban cities, depending on the age and level of the child. Sports activities are typically more affordable, especially those offered by schools.

For instance, Yeo pays RM80 for each of her sons’ weekly badminton lessons taught by an external coach hired by the school.

Yet these are just enrichment activities, on top of the tuition classes that many schoolchildren attend.

The lack of emphasis on non-academic subjects in schools, especially in national schools, is among the reasons driving parents to seek lessons offered by private tutors and academies.

“Through these enrichment activities, children will be able to explore more and learn some soft skills. By right, all these should be learnt in schools but sadly, schools have the syllabus to follow. Even today they still focus a lot on academic subjects,” said Mak.

“I hope the new Education Minister and the Youth and Sports Minister will draw up plans to tackle this so that all kids have equal access to learning and sports,” he added.