Advertising Guidelines for Tuition and Private Education Services to Prevent Fear-based Marketing

The Ministry of Education (MOE) is reviewing the measures needed to discourage undesirable advertising practices by tuition and private education providers.

Currently, all advertisements in Singapore, including for tuition services, are already subject to the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice. The code requires advertisements to be legal, decent, honest and truthful, and be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the consumer and society.

Tuition and other private education providers should comply with this code in their advertisements. In line with the Code of Advertising Practice, the advertisements should not capitalise on anxieties to induce demand for tuition services.

We understand that some of these anxieties stem from the perceived stakes of academic grades. To address this and to better support the holistic development of our students, MOE has made shifts in the education landscape to reduce the over-emphasis on academic results. In the coming months, MOE will be engaging parents, students and educators to see how we can continue to reduce the "arms race" in education and attendant anxieties.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir, and I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his reply. I would like to ask the Ministry two supplementary questions.

One, I understand there is a general code of conduct for advertisements. Similar to the medical practice where there is a specific set of guidelines for medical practices, is the Ministry looking at a specific set of guidelines for private education and tuition centres?

Secondly, more than traditional forms of advertisement, currently there are very subtle forms of fear-based messaging on digital platforms such as social media. Will the Ministry be doing anything to address this as well?

I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. I do note that as far as tuition is concerned, it can drive a fair bit of anxiety in our parents as well as our students, and I can understand where he is coming from. As I mentioned earlier, MOE is reviewing the measures needed to discourage any undesirable advertising practices by the tuition industry. We will carefully study our options, but we also do not want to rush into implementing any additional measures. Thus far, as far as we can tell, tuition and other private education providers have generally been responsible in their advertisements.

To the Member's second question, in relation to fearmongering in the online context especially, our position is such that if parents or members of the public find that there are some egregious or outlandish claims with regard to tuition, they can also file a report with the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore, which is an advisory council under the Consumers Association of Singapore.

The other aspect in relation to education is also this: we are working towards the holistic development of our students and we recognise that an over-emphasis on academic results alone will not do justice to that. So, the focus of MOE has always been towards a holistic education, wherein we also want to build the social-emotional competencies of our students to develop alongside the 21st Century Competencies, which include critical as well as innovative thinking, and at the same time, the ability to communicate and collaborate as students in schools. This remains our focus. Our desire is when we look at education, it is not merely just about academic grades alone, but also about the holistic development of the child. This is something we continue to encourage in our children as well as message to our parents.