Average Tuition Rates in Singapore: What Parents Spend (2026)

How much does tuition really add up to by the time your child finishes school?

Private tuition has become a near-standard part of growing up in Singapore, and the bill is bigger than most parents realise when they sign up for that first weekly session.

This guide sets out what tuition costs today, from the hourly rate of a single tutor to what the average household actually spends, and works out the lifetime cost of keeping a child in weekly tuition.

Key Statistics Summary

The household spending figures below are from the Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS) Household Expenditure Survey. The hourly rates are current market rates from Singapore tuition agencies, as of 2026.

• Singapore households spent an average of $104.80 a month on private tuition in 2023, up from $88.40 in 2018.
• In total, families here spent an estimated $1.8 billion on private tuition in 2023.
• Average monthly household spending on education reached $404 in 2023, up from $374 in 2018. Over the longer run, it has more than tripled from about $116 a month in 1993.
• One-to-one tuition in 2026 ranges from about $25 an hour for a student tutor at lower primary to $150 an hour for an ex-MOE teacher at JC or IB level.
• SmartWealth estimates that weekly one-to-one tuition in a single subject, from Primary 1 to the O-levels, costs about $38,400 at 2026 rates, before you add more subjects.

How Much Do Singapore Households Spend on Tuition?

The average Singapore household spent $104.80 a month on private tuition in 2023, according to the most recent Household Expenditure Survey. That is up from $88.40 a month in the previous survey five years earlier, a rise of about 19%.

That figure is an average across all resident households, including the many that pay nothing for tuition, so households that do engage tutors typically spend a good deal more.

Across the whole population, that adds up. Singapore families spent an estimated $1.8 billion on private tuition in 2023, which tells you how normal it has become to pay for help outside school.

Year (Household Expenditure Survey)	Average monthly tuition spend per household
2018	$88.40
2023	$104.80

Tuition sits inside a wider rise in what families spend on education. Average monthly household education spending, which covers school fees, tuition, enrichment, and materials, rose to $404 in 2023, up from $374 in 2018. Over the same five years, tuition spending grew faster (about 19%) than overall education spending (about 8%), so tuition is taking up a larger share of the education budget. The longer view makes the shift clearer still: education spending has more than tripled from around $116 a month in 1993. You can see the full picture in our education cost statistics.

One caveat worth stating: the survey is run once every five years, so 2023 is the latest reading. It also measures spending, not price, so a slower rise between surveys can reflect households cutting back as much as tutors holding rates steady.

Current 1-to-1 Private Tuition Rates in Singapore (2026)

Hourly rates for one-to-one home tuition in 2026 run from about $25 an hour, for a student or part-time tutor at lower primary, to $150 an hour, for an ex-MOE teacher at JC or IB level. Two things move the rate: the level being taught, and the type of tutor.

The table below sets out the typical bands, drawn from published rates at tuition agency MindFlex and cross-checked against Tutor City. All figures are per hour, in Singapore dollars.

Level	Part-time / student tutor	Full-time tutor	Ex or current MOE teacher
Preschool	$25 to $35	$40 to $50	$50 to $70
Primary (lower)	$25 to $35	$40 to $45	$55 to $70
Primary (upper, PSLE)	$30 to $40	$40 to $55	$60 to $90
Secondary (lower)	$30 to $45	$45 to $55	$60 to $85
Secondary (upper, O / N)	$35 to $50	$45 to $70	$70 to $100
JC (A level) and IB	$40 to $60	$60 to $90	$90 to $150

A couple of things are worth noticing here. Rates climb steadily with the level, since the syllabus gets harder and fewer tutors can teach it well. And within each level, an ex-MOE teacher costs roughly half as much again, or more, as a full-time private tutor, which reflects their training and exam experience. Rates also tend to firm up near major examinations such as the PSLE and the O and A levels, when demand peaks.

The Lifetime Cost of Weekly Tuition

Put those rates against a full school career and the total is substantial. SmartWealth estimates that weekly one-to-one tuition in a single subject, from Primary 1 through to the O-levels, costs about $38,400 at 2026 rates. That is for one subject only.

Here is how that builds up, assuming one two-hour session a week, a full-time private tutor at the midpoint of each rate band, and about 40 weeks of lessons a year.

Stage	Weekly tuition	Rate (full-time tutor)	Years	Subtotal
Primary 1 to 4	2 hours	$42.50 an hour	4	$13,600
Primary 5 to 6 (PSLE)	2 hours	$47.50 an hour	2	$7,600
Secondary 1 to 2	2 hours	$50 an hour	2	$8,000
Secondary 3 to 4 (O-level)	2 hours	$57.50 an hour	2	$9,200
Total (one subject)			10 years	$38,400

This is an illustration, not a survey figure, and your own total will move with the choices you make. In my experience, it is the cost parents most often underestimate, because it comes in small weekly sums and never lands as one big bill. Three things move it most:

• Number of subjects. Few children stop at one. By the PSLE and O-level years, many take three or four subjects, which can push the total past $60,000.
• Type of tutor. Engaging ex-MOE teachers throughout would add roughly half as much again. Student and part-time tutors would bring it down.
• How often, and for how long. Year-round lessons, longer sessions, or a last-minute push before exams all raise the figure.

The point is not that every child needs this, but that tuition is a large, optional cost that is easy to absorb month by month without ever adding up the total. It pays to budget for it deliberately.

Group Tuition and Enrichment Centres

Group tuition at a centre is often, though not always, cheaper per hour than a private tutor. Rates vary widely by brand. Well-known enrichment chains such as The Learning Lab sit at the premium end, with popular reports putting their classes at around $120 to $130 a lesson, while neighbourhood centres charge considerably less. Many centres do not publish fees, so you often need to enquire directly.

At the affordable end, the self-help groups run heavily subsidised tuition for lower-income families. Programmes by CDAC, SINDA, and Yayasan Mendaki charge from as little as $10 to a few hundred dollars a month, depending on the scheme and the number of subjects.

How Tuition Fits Your Child’s Education Budget

Tuition is a cost on top of school fees, not part of them. A Singaporean child pays only about $13 a month in primary school, so the total of official school fees from preschool to junior college is modest by comparison. A full tuition journey can easily cost more than that.

Set against the big-ticket item, tuition is not far off. A four-year local university degree costs a Singapore citizen an average of $38,790 in tuition fees, so a decade of weekly tuition in a couple of subjects can rival the cost of the degree it is meant to help secure.

And like most things in education, tuition has been getting dearer. Education costs have risen faster than general prices for two decades, as our figures on education inflation show, so budgeting on today’s rates alone will understate what you actually pay over the years ahead.

None of this means you should cut tuition. It means tuition belongs in a plan rather than being funded on the fly, so it does not quietly crowd out the goal that matters most, the university fund. For how the whole picture fits together, from preschool fees to the degree and the ways to fund it, see our full guide to child education planning in Singapore.

The Bottom Line

Tuition is one of the largest optional costs of raising a child in Singapore, and one of the easiest to underestimate. Households averaged $104.80 a month on it in 2023, the industry is worth $1.8 billion a year, and a single subject taken weekly from Primary 1 to the O-levels works out to around $38,400 at today’s rates.

The practical move is simple. Decide early how much tuition your family wants to provide, put a figure on it, and fold it into your wider education budget, so you are choosing it on purpose rather than paying for it by default.

Methodology and Notes on the Data

The lifetime tuition estimate is a SmartWealth calculation for one subject, assuming a full-time private tutor at the midpoint of each 2026 rate band, about 40 weeks of lessons a year, and a single two-hour session a week throughout. It is illustrative, and actual costs depend on the number of subjects, tutor type, and frequency. Projections of this kind are estimates, not certainties.

Household spending figures are from the Singapore Department of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey 2023, published November 2024. The survey is conducted once every five years and covers resident households. The $104.80 monthly tuition figure and the $1.8 billion total are the 2023 readings as reported from that survey, and the $88.40 figure is the 2018 reading.

Education spending of $404 a month (2023, up from $374 in 2018 and about $116 in 1993) comes from SingStat Table M212981 and covers school fees, tuition, enrichment, and related materials as an aggregate, with no separate breakdown of tuition within it.

Hourly tuition rates are market asking rates compiled by tuition agencies MindFlex (updated 2026) and Tutor City, not fixed prices. Agencies do not set rates. Individual tutors quote their own, so treat the bands as a guide.