Yee family turns tutoring into a tradition

PETALING JAYA: Tutoring students is a “family business” for the Yees who run the Yee’s tuition centres. 

The first tuition centre in Jalan Gasing here was founded in 1957.  

Former Mathematics teacher Yee Chee Leong resigned from Catholic High School in 1970 when he opened the SS2 tuition centre here.  

After more than 50 years of teaching, he has yet to call it a day. (Participate in our online poll on the tuition issue) 

The 75-year-old grandfather has left the running of the centres to his children, but has chosen not to retire fully. He continues to teach a few classes at the SS2 centre. 

CLOSE-KNIT TEAM: Sunny showing his father Yee and sister Ennie a brochure describing a pre-SPM workshop for Form Four studentsat their tuition centre in SS2, Petaling Jaya.

“I still teach one session each week to keep myself occupied. I spend the rest of my time practising Tai Chi and gardening,” said Yee. 

“My students find me funny and they love my stories,” said the father of Sunny Yee, The Star’s columnist for Add Maths and Physics.  

“My father was a Mathematics teacher in Guangdong, China,” said Yee. 

Now, three of his four children have chosen to follow in his footsteps. 

Yee’s eldest son, who graduated from the National University of Singapore, is tutoring in the island republic. 

“My eldest son studied quantity surveying and worked as a surveyor for a few years, but then his interest in the job waned. 

“He then developed a liking for teaching, and has been teaching since,” he said.  

As for Sunny, Yee's second child, he started to tutor students when he was waiting for his Form 5 results and joined his father after graduating from Universiti Malaya with a Science degree. 

“I don’t know. Maybe teaching is in my blood,” said Sunny who is based here during the weekdays but travels to other parts of the country to conduct courses on Mathematics and Science during weekends. 

Yee said Ennie, his youngest daughter, an Australian graduate in Commerce, has also joined him.  

According to Ennie, many of her father’s former students were now sending their children to them.  

It is learnt that many of Yee’s former students are today prominent public figures.