SINGAPORE, Aug 22 — Amy Chua, better known as the original “Tiger Mother,” is exporting her brand of “tiger” parenting to Singapore with the launch of an after-school enrichment centre.
According to CNBC, the Keys Academy, which launched on Thursday, will focus on both academics as well as soft skills such as creativity and leadership.
In addition to offering tuition classes for six core subjects, the centre aims to groom secondary-school students for university and “jobs of the future,” with classes in robot-building and computer-coding as well as “externships” with global corporations and college admissions programmes, the report added.
In 2011, Chua gained notoriety after the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, in which she listed 10 things that her two daughters were forbidden from doing while growing up.
The list included attending sleepovers, having playdates, being in a school play and getting any grade less than an A.
The 52-year-old Yale law professor and author is one of four advisers to the centre, which she called “the best of both worlds.”
Chua told CNBC on Thursday, “I like that Keys Academy preserves the hard core ‘you need to know the basics, and there’s no way around that hard work.’ But, [it equally focuses on] personal communication skills, how can you be interesting and dynamic, because that’s really what it takes now.”
According to data obtained by CNBC, more than 70 per cent of parents in Singapore send their children for extra tuition classes to the tune of an estimated US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) a year.
The Keys Academy has no current plans to launch in other countries.
