This is a repost from Jeffrey Teo, a brilliant banker-turned-tutor, who has built up a thriving business called Ace Your Econs (www.aceyourecons.sg). Jeffrey is a dear friend of mine and he is an active and contributing member in the Tutors Assemble! community.

Jeffrey applied his expertise in economics and business to the Covid-19 crisis that impact us all, to arrive at some spot-on analysis on the new normal for tuition industry.

Jeffery can be reached at jeffrey@aceyourecons.com or mobile number 9729 9250.

(Repost with permission from http://www.aceyourecons.sg and https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.chek/posts/10157866680341677)

---

Was scrolling some of the earlier group photos when I realised how much I missed having an actual class with my dear students and the face to face interactions.
And after predicting on Feb that this pandemic has a lasting effect on Singapore (and the rest of the world) and being one of the first to implement & launch mandatory online classes back then, here’s three takeaways I’ve gotten from the three phases of post CB ending 1st June:
#1 – In the short run, enrichment centres will be one of the last to open up – If you recall, enrichment centres were the first to shut down during end March. And the reason is because enrichment centres are deemed to be non-essential and high risk. Therefore using this line of thought, the enrichment centres will be the one of lowest priority to reopen.
#2 – In the mid term, enrichment centres will be subjected to even more stricter regulation – safe distancing, health declaration and contact tracing will be the new norms once enrichment centres have the green light to reopen. In addition, based on what MOE is adopting right now, it is also very likely that a mandatory cap on number of students is implemented based on size of enrichment centre OR rotation basis of group A & group B students to attend face to face class. All this means that average cost / student is likely to be driven higher.
#3 – In the long term, enrichment centres must rethink their viability approach – Saddled with a permanently higher cost structure as well as potential threats of a second outbreak, enrichment centres must learn to adopt or face extinction. This means having the courage to make permanent adjustments to include online solutions as part of your core offering such as developing a content management solution (CMS) instead of merely firefighting with Zoom or Google Classroom + weekly delivery of worksheets.
In a nutshell, this virus has taught me one thing – you cannot solve problems of the future with methods of the past. Fellow educators & my former students (now friends), what’s your take on the post CB insights? Share with me below!

-Written by Jeffrey Teo