English Tutor
Put a band on a script and then defend it to the student who disagrees. Lower-primary reading through to JC, coaching the speaking paper out loud and marking the written ones, at home across the island or online.
Apply as an English tutor- S$35 – S$90 per hour
- Part-time contract
- Island-wide in Singapore, or online
The English year arrives in pieces. The speaking paper is sat well ahead of the written ones, listening has a sitting of its own, and the two papers carrying most of the weight come last — so a tutor who joins a student partway through the year usually finds one component nearly upon them while the writing has barely been marked. We are looking for English tutors in Singapore who can read that ordering and work to it: name what can still move in the sessions that remain, say plainly what cannot, and give the hours to the component that is genuinely nearest. What follows is the shape of the papers, what the marking asks of you, and how a match is made.
What keeps an English assignment alive for years
- Anyone who speaks fluent English believes they could tutor it. Far fewer can put a band on a script and then hold that band up against a fifteen-year-old who thought the piece was good. That judgement is the whole job, and it is why English assignments tend to sit with one tutor for years.
- You hold the evidence weekly. Put a script from two months ago beside the one you marked yesterday and the question of whether the sessions are working answers itself, long before a report card arrives to settle it.
- The runway here is the longest on the timetable. English is examined at the end of primary and again at the end of secondary, then continues in a language-heavy paper at JC. A tutor trusted with a Primary 3 reader can still be with the same family several years later.
- Plenty of students here follow every word said to them and still write in structures carried over from the language spoken at home — an article dropped, a tense that drifts mid-paragraph, a phrase translated whole. Naming that pattern out loud, in front of the student, is worth more to a family than a margin full of 'awkward'.
The role
How the work splits across a year
- While the speaking paper is still ahead, run the session out loud: pronunciation and pacing for reading aloud, and for the conversation, training a student to offer a reason and an example where they would otherwise give four words and stop. Once that paper is behind them, the same weekly hour turns quiet and becomes marking.
- Split continuous writing into Content and Language before you write a single comment — syllabus 1184 gives 15 marks to each. A tidy script with a thin plot bleeds from the same wound as a vivid story full of tense slips, and the student should be told which of the two is costing more.
- Treat situational writing as a reading task first. The brief carries instructions that all have to be answered, and the marks that go missing usually belong to the one nobody noticed. Purpose, audience and context settle the register; format follows behind them.
- Drill the summary — the compression exercise inside the comprehension paper that quietly decides a great many grades. Lifting first, then paraphrase, then cutting to the word limit with every point still standing.
- Train the clock as a skill of its own. Comprehension and summary share one sitting, and a student who writes carefully at leisure can still hand in an unfinished script. Give each section a minute budget, and teach them to abandon a stubborn question and come back to it.
- Sort comprehension questions by what they demand before answering any of them. Inference, vocabulary in context, language use and attitude each want a different shape of reply, and answering all four in the same shape gives marks away in every one.
- In the lower primary years, hold the line on decoding and reading fluency, and tell parents plainly when a decoding problem is being read as a comprehension problem.
What we check before we hand you a script
- Command of written English steady enough to explain why a sentence fails, past 'it sounds off'. Tense consistency, subject-verb agreement and sentences that run on arrive every single week.
- Working knowledge of at least one local track you would take — PSLE English or O-Level English Language — including how its four papers are weighted, because that weighting decides what you rehearse and when.
- Willingness to mark between lessons and hand the script back annotated. English tuition with no marking is conversation, and families work that out by about the third week.
- A recognised qualification, or a track record with local students that stands up to questions. We give preference to NIE-trained tutors and former MOE teachers, and that preference shows up in the rate we offer.
- Scheduling you can keep when the calendar tightens. Components fall at different times of year, and families will ask for a shifted slot or an added hour as the nearest one approaches.
Pay
The rate, and what moves it
S$35 – S$90 per hour
Hourly in SGD, paid on time. Where you sit in the range follows three things: the level you take (lower primary at the bottom, exam-year secondary and JC work at the top), what you bring on paper, and the format — one-to-one earns above small group. We give preference to NIE-trained tutors and former MOE teachers, and their rates sit at the top of the range.
How it works
From your application to your first marked script
- 01
Write to us through the contact form
Tell us the levels you can carry — lower-primary reading, PSLE, O-Level — and the component you are strongest in, whether that is marking composition or drawing a nervous student through the conversation. It is the only application route we use.
- 02
We put questions to what you have claimed
Someone on our side reads your background and asks about the subjects and levels you listed. Say you have carried candidates through the oral and the written papers in the same year, and expect to be asked how you sequenced it.
- 03
We match by level, component and area
You are matched by the exact levels you teach and by where you are, so that a Primary 4 comprehension student and a secondary exam-year script do not sit on opposite ends of the island in the same week.
- 04
Settle the slot and begin
You agree the weekly time directly with the family and start. We stay reachable if the level turns out different from the description, if the fit is wrong, or if the slot has to move as a component draws near.
By area
Prefer students near you?
This role is available island-wide. Browse tutor jobs by region.
All locations
Every region and town
ViewCentral Singapore
High demand across PSLE, O-Level, A-Level and IP-track subjects.
ViewEast Singapore
Steady demand for primary, secondary and JC tuition, with strong PSLE and O-Level interest.
ViewNorth Singapore
Growing demand for primary and lower-secondary tuition.
ViewNorth-East Singapore
Broad demand from primary through JC, with high PSLE and Secondary volume.
ViewWest Singapore
Strong demand across all levels; close to major universities for tutor supply.
ViewQuestions
Before you take your first English assignment
A family wants to start when the speaking paper is already close. Is that assignment worth taking?
Usually, provided you scope it out loud in the first session. Speaking responds faster than writing does, because much of what holds a student back there is hesitation and the habit of answering in four words. Tell the student what you expect to reach before that paper and what will have to wait for the written ones, then tell the parent the same thing in the same words.
The O-Level code changed. Do I need 1184 now, or is 1128 still enough?
Yes for current school candidates. Syllabus 1184 replaced 1128 for school candidates from 2023. Two changes reshape how a tutor plans: Continuous Writing splits into 15 marks for Content and 15 for Language, and the oral works from a video stimulus. Your ear for the language survives a code change; the current SEAB syllabus is still required reading before you take on an exam-year student.
Am I expected to mark between lessons, and is that time paid?
Marking is the role. Most tutors return one annotated script a week per student. Rates here are hourly for contact time, so tutors handle the marking either by doing part of it live — often the better lesson anyway, since the student watches the pen choose — or by pricing it into the rate they agree for the assignment. Whichever way you go, close every script with two named priorities. A page covered in red leaves a teenager with nothing to do on Monday.
Does the listening component fall to me as well?
Assume it does. Families book English whole, and listening sits on a paper of its own, which makes it the easiest thing for everyone to forget until it is close. It also repays a small amount of teaching: reading the questions before the recording starts, keeping notes short enough to stay level with a voice, and learning when an answer is already good enough to leave alone.
Can I take only oral, or only composition?
State a preference and we will record it, though most families book the subject entire and expect the whole paper covered. Narrow specialists get fewer matches. If speaking is where you are strongest, say so — it is in demand, and it is the component parents most often feel unable to help with at home.
What happens to my assignments once an exam year ends?
English continues at every level, so most families carry on to the next one. Tutors who are comfortable a level or two below their favourite tend to keep a full week through the changeover months, when schedules for the year ahead are being rebuilt.
Do I bring my own materials and past papers?
Bring what you use, and expect to start from what the student already has. Returned school work and prelim scripts are the most productive material in the file, because they carry the corrections of the teacher who sees the student every day, and the fastest gains come from finishing what the school has already flagged. Your own passages and writing prompts go on top of that.
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ViewTell us which paper you would take first
Send us the levels you teach and the component you would want nearest the papers — speaking, writing or comprehension. We will come back to you about students near you.