As parents, we always want what's best for our children. We want to see them strive in school and graduate with flying colours. This is why we also try so hard to find how to help them achieve quality education.
But what exactly is quality education? Is it all about just getting high grades? Or does it go beyond our children's academic skill sets?
Founder and creator of Knovo, Kelly Te says "quality education" is definitely more than just achieving straight A's.
theAsianparent spoke to Ms Te about the right way of providing children in Singapore with quality education and how she herself started from failing mathematics to providing an educational platform that aims to learn, teach and connect.
She also provides useful information and tips on how students and their parents can work together to achieve quality education.
Starting A Business In An Unfamiliar Industry
Kelly came from a corporate background, which she found to be completely different from the education sector. She admits it was really difficult from the start having to transition from a very stable, corporate job, into a start-up in a completely different industry.
But thanks to the support, commitment and dedication of her two other co-founders, Knovo got to where it is today.
The real turning point for her was when she was invited to get on an “education tech trip” organised by Enterprise Singapore in China.
“During that field trip I got to mingle with a lot of industry players. I got to learn and know more about the education technology businesses in China,” says Kelly.
She adds, “That experience actually helped me a lot in terms of transiting into a completely different industry. For me to start my business and to navigate to where I am today so I’m really thankful for that.”
Of course, starting a business had its ups and downs. Since Ms Te didn’t come from the education industry and was neither a teacher, she received a lot of doubts from people wondering why she would leave a stable job to start a business in this field.
“But at the end of the day, I believe results and actions speak louder than just perceptions,” says Kelly. Adding, “Focus, deliver, do your things and let the results prove themselves.”
True to her word, her company Knovo now develops digital tools that help in empowering educators’ enterprises to conduct online learning seamlessly.
Three Pillars Of Success For Other Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Speaking for herself, Kelly shares how she came from a completely male-dominated industry for the most part of her career. And, she struggled a lot with “imposter syndrome.”
“When you face male counterparts, you feel that your capabilities are not on par with them. But there is no need to do that, there is no need to feel like this. You need to make it a goal to believe in a destination that you want to arrive at so when you have a goal to move towards it, that would be good,” Kelly says to all aspiring fempreneurs.
When asked what advice she would have for other women wanting to start their own business, Kelly shares with us her “three pillars of success."
1. Persistence and perseverance
“You need to have great perseverance when there are times of failure and mistakes. Because the entrepreneurship journey is never going to be smooth,” says Kelly.
Adding, “It’s not a comfortable journey at all. You need to persevere to pick yourself up and navigate out of the situation.”
2. Work very hard
“There is no day or no night, or just day and just night. You have to run the ground from running the operations to sales and marketing,” shares Kelly.
She also advises, “You have to be your own leader because you have to lead a team, lead a business. So you need to have that great and hard work to be able to carry on doing what you’re doing.”
3. Laser-like focus
“You need to make it a dream to arrive at the end goal. In between to reach that goal is just a list of activities to help you implement the strategies that you have,” Kelly says.
She adds, “Do not second guess your capabilities. You can be whoever you want to be. Don’t be afraid to dream big.”
How To Achieve Quality Education: What Counts As "Quality Education"?
To Kelly Te, quality education nowadays goes way beyond just academic grades.
For K-12 students, for instance, she believes they should not only focus on achieving excellent grades. Students should also “look at areas where they can develop themselves a little bit more.”
“I call it personally ‘battlement skills’. For example communication skills, public speaking, peer to peer interactions and giving themselves time and opportunity to participate in a variety of programmes will help them to build up that kind of character building and self-development skills as of just academic grades,” says Kelly.
The Founder of Knovo feels the same way for tertiary students or young adults.
She believes the school curriculum could infuse a bit more “industry-based training programmes”. This way, students will get to have an earlier taste of what it is like to “go up in the workforce.”
It is also to understand the requirement of the current workforce in terms of the latest skill sets.
“Because it doesn’t teach [you in] the textbooks. You really have to hear from the employers themselves to know what kind of skillsets will make you valuable in this digital age,” Kelly tells us.
She makes sure to add, “I think tertiary students need to participate a lot more in terms of internship projects and getting themselves onto more industry-based seminars.”
Ms Te also shared five tips on how parents can support their children with their studies to ensure they achieve "quality education":
- Don’t put too much stress on your child about getting high grades.
- Communicate daily with your child to understand whether they have any challenges during their daily studies and revisions.
- Be a supportive parent to them.
- Understand what they’re struggling with is important.
- If they need extra tutoring because they think they have to and there is no one else at home to help them find the right tutor that suits their learning needs.
“But I’m still back to the point around [how] quality education should always encompass activities that will stretch your child’s potential in terms of personal development and character-building skill sets beyond just grades,” she adds.
How To Achieve Quality Education: Finding The “Right Tutor”
As finding the "right tutor" is also important in supporting your child with their education, Kelly gives us advice on how we could find one that best fits our children's studying needs.
She says, "I think a very good tutor would be one that knows how to adapt and be flexible in teaching methods. The reason I say that is every child is different. Their learning pace and their learning needs are different as well. Even the reception to the kind of teaching methods is also very different."
"I personally used to fail my mathematics and I thought that was the end. Because Math is very scary! I don’t like to see numbers at all," adds Ms Te.
"My mum had put me through many different tutors. And then one fine day, miraculously, there is this very nice, very patient lady. She understood my weaknesses in terms of why I am slow in Math. So then she adopted a ‘formula’ that [involves making] me keep on practising papers in different forms and that built up my confidence in the subject I was weak in," she adds.
Overall, she suggests finding a tutor that has the patience to try and learn your child's learning gaps and being flexible enough to adopt to their learning needs.
Thoughts With The New PSLE Changes
With the changes made to PSLE, Kelly thinks they are “really good” considering how they can help in “moulding the child to become a more rounded individual.
“The current PSLE changes compared with the traditional T-score system actually aims in a hope to alleviate some of this competitive nature within students,” she says.
She adds, “The reason is with the new achievement level scoring system, it’s not visible enough now for people to compare absolute grades against their peers. That means that the student or child themselves can go and have more time to think about pursuing other interests outside of just focusing on the core academic subjects.”
Although, Ms Te still believes in a few traditional approaches to study for the PSLE. But, she shared with us a few tips and ways students can approach exams:
- Have a structured and routine study plan to stick to it
- Do not be afraid to ask for help if you know that there are certain topics and subjects that are your weakness
- Join learning in groups if they can help you to bounce off certain concepts easily
- Do a lot of PSLE practice papers because it gets you comfortable in that momentum for certain topics that you might be weak in
“But it’s not all about studies!” Kelly makes sure to add. “After all, the grades don’t define you as a person.”
How To Achieve Quality Education While Acknowledging The Mental Health Of Students
Ms Te agrees that mental health is now a more concerning issue than ever, especially during these unprecedented times.
She shares, "I read in one of the research studies that 1 in 5 actually has mental health issues. Which is a lot! 60% do not realise that they have such mental issues so it’s really appalling."
In order for educators and parents alike to strike a balance between ensuring quality education while still nurturing the child's mental wellbeing, Kelly shares a few tips on how adults can help:
- Constantly communicate with the students
This would help to understand whether they have any "feedback or any recent trauma in their life journey." - Help them establish a consistent schedule in their social interaction activities
"Having that kind of consistent schedule routines to integrate social interactions will provide the child [with] a sense of security during these difficult times," says Kelly. - Develop a self-care plan
You can encourage the child to write down the daily activities that they do not like or are uncomfortable with. Also, get them to write down what things or people that make them feel comfortable.
"As for Knovo, we are also working with a lot of life coaches and also mental wellness institutions that will help to provide programmes to individual students or even adults to help them develop more good wellbeing practices that will help them achieve their goals," Ms Te signs off.
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