The Real Cost of P1 Tuition Nobody Talks About.
Most parents do the sums on tuition fees. Almost none do this one.
Tuition in P1 is not always money well spent. Most centres teach to a generic syllabus — not the one your child’s school is actually following. Singapore’s Maths is built around model drawing, number bonds, and conceptual thinking. A lot of tutors still drill the old way. So children sit through sessions, get ticks on worksheets, and still don’t understand why the answer is what it is.
And a lot of P1 parents are only realising this months in.
The Problem Isn't That You Chose Tuition. It's What Tuition Is Actually Teaching.
One session a week at $80 adds up to over $4,000 a year. But the bigger cost is time — ferrying kids across town after school, arriving home tired, homework still waiting. By the time the session ends, the child is drained. And if the tutor’s approach doesn’t match what the classroom is doing, you’re not filling a gap. You’re adding confusion.
What Some P1 Parents Quietly Switched To
KooBits is an MOE syllabus-aligned platform for Maths, Science, Chinese and English, used in 7 in 10 MOE schools in Singapore. It’s not a replacement for school. It’s what fills the gap between school and falling behind — without the cost or the commute.
It teaches Singapore Math the way school does. Every topic on KooBits follows the MOE syllabus exactly, with animated video explanations that walk through model drawing and number bonds the same way your child’s teacher does. No disconnect between what they learn at the centre and what they’re tested on in class.
Your child does it on their own — 20 minutes a day. KooBits is built for kids to log in independently. Daily missions, coins, badges, and peer challenges keep them going back without being told. Most parents find the harder battle is getting them to stop, not start.
“I was paying for tuition and still checking his work every night. With KooBits he just does it. I look at the dashboard in the morning and I can see exactly what he covered.” — P1 parent
You always know what’s happening. The parent dashboard shows which topics your child has done, where they’re stuck, and how much time they’re spending. No waiting until the next test to find out there’s a problem.
Confidence in Math is built early. A lot of parents who start in P1 find their child doesn’t need extra tuition all the way through P4 — KooBits covers the syllabus well enough that they never felt the gap. By P3, when school assessments start, that’s a meaningful saving in both money and stress.
KooBits is around $18 a month — less than one tuition session, and a yearly plan so there’s no monthly commitment.
If you’re weighing up your options, it’s worth a look.
