FAQ - Smart Tuition Agency Singapore

Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. This is where we list answers to enquiries about Smart Tuition Singapore and also general questions to tuition in Singapore.

The sequence of the questions may be changed due to addition of newly answered questions.

1.0. For Students and Parents

How do I request for a home tutor?
You can fill up our online Request for Tutor form and our friendly coordinators will get in touch with you to clarify any doubt or once we find a suitable Singapore home tutor for you. If you are not comfortable with the tutor request form, you may contact us directly via our friendly coodinator - Tricia @ 9621-0701.
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Can I select a specific home tutor?
Yes, you may browse through our Singapore home tutor list and indicate the home tutor's ID in the remarks section of the Request for Tutor form. However, please note that all our home tutors are subjected to their own availability and choice of students. Smart Tuition Singapore deserves the right to advise you on the suitability of the home tutors in order to maintain our customer satisfactory level.
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Is tutor XXX available?
Please help us by filling up the request form with your details and indicate the tutor ID inside. We will need the information in order to confirm with the tutor whether he/she is available and is willing to take up the assignment.

Smart Tuition's working style is to make sure both parent/student and tutor are willing to accept each other. There are many factors that will cause mismatch, such as location and tuition fee. We do not force any tutor to accept any student because it will likely increase the chance of the tutor dropping the assignment halfway.
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How do you verify your tutors' identities and qualification?
We request all our tutors to send us a soft copy of their NRIC & certificates during registration. It is a requirement for them to do it upon confirmation of an assignment. There are tutors who will refuse to submit their documents despite being requested by our coordinators personally and we will simply blacklist them for being unable to understand simple English. For more information, do read our verification article.
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Can I request to look at the softcopy of the tutor's documents?
No. You will only get to see the original certificates during the first tuition lesson, which the tutor is required to bring along. We are proud of our effort in verifying the tutors' documents while all parents and students approach us because they trust us. The reason is you will not like to send your documents to others, except to an agency with good reputation. We respect the privacy of our home tutors.
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What are the Singapore home tuition fees for different education levels?
The tuition fees rates are found in our Singapore Tuition Rates Guide Table. Note that some home tutors may quote for a much lower or higher tuition fee - The actual prices may vary depending on individual tuition assignment due to factors such as tutors' qualification, tutors' experiences, location of tuition, number of subjects, demand for the tutors and others.
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Do I have to pay you (Smart Tuition Singapore) for your service?
We don't collect any fee unless it is a short-term assignment, which means that you will only require the tutor for a couple of months or even less. We are able to continue with our free service because we take commission from our tutors. There is absolutely no hidden cost and we will tell you the cost upfront if applicable.
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How do I make payment?
For the first two weeks, you will pay your tuition fees to us (Smart Tuition Singapore) instead of the tutor as commission. For the subsequent payment (every 2 weeks or month, depending on the agreement between you and the tutor), you will pay the tuition fees directly to the home tutor you have chosen.
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What are the payment methods?
You can transfer the payment to Smart Tuition Singapore via internet or ATM bank transfer or by cheque. Please refer to our payment page for more details.
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Can I get the tutor to buy assessment book for my child?
Yes. Parent/tutee will have to pay for the assessment book (receipt is to be given), unless the tutor agrees to pay for it. However, we would strongly advise you to allow the tutor to conduct the first tutoring session before he/she can judge the standard of your child in order to get the appropriate book and materials.
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What do I do if I have a problem with the tutor I have choosen or being assigned?
Please contact us immediately. We will investigate and replace the tutor for you. We are strongly against irresponsible tutors. As a trusted tuition agency by Singapore parents, we are working hard to find the 'black sheep' among the dedicated tutors to blacklist them. By offering your observation and experience with the tutor, you are helping other parents/students and will be greatly appreciated.
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Can I change the tutor after a few weeks or months?
Yes. We do understand that some students are trying hard to communicate with the tutor and even if it fails after a period of time, we still greatly appreciate the effort and patience. Do approach us and let us know about it and we are ready to search for a more suitable tutor for you.
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Why don't you set a bidding system for tutors to apply for tuition assignments?
We believe in looking for home tutors of good qualities for students. Experienced and qualified tutors will not lower down their tuition fees much and therefore the tutor who offers the lowest tuition fee (lowest bidding) will likely not be a good choice. If parents/students have a budget constraint, we are also able to recommend some promising tutors who have less experience among our wide range of registered home tutors.
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Are all your tutors good?
Do note that everyone has different views on what is good and bad. We have been trying all means to remove bad tutors from our tutor list but we cannot promise that the list is completely 'clean'. We judge them from the way they fill up their details during registration, through document verification and when our coordinators talk over the phone with them when there is any suitable tuition assignments available for them. We have noted that a couple of tutors who have very good records with us start slacking suddenly. We can only promise you we are doing our very best.
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2.0. For Tutors: Registration

Is there a registration or joining fee to register as a tutor with Smart Tuition Singapore?
No, there is no registration or joining fee. There is no hidden cost and we do not ask for any credit card information. We will only collect part of your tuition fee from the parent/student as commission after you have conducted the tuition lesson and you do not even need to fork out any money.
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I have already joined another Singapore tuition agency website, can I register under your service as well?
Yes, you are welcome to join us to increase your chance of matching with a student (tutee), for the benefit of both you and all students/parents. It is our mission to help both home tutors and students/parents.
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Can I sign up with another Singapore tuition agency website as well?
Yes, we will be happy for you if you can obtain an ideal tuition assignment through any honest tuition agency in Singapore. Bear in mind that we have a mission to help both parents/students and home tutors. We feel that any tuition agency in Singapore that restricts you to sign up with other tuition agencies is being unfair to you, unless they can guarantee you the number of tuition assignments that you need.
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I have no tutoring experience. Can I still sign up with Smart Tuition?
Yes, if you are serious about tutoring. Some of our tutors do not have experience as well. It's okay for you to sign up with us as long as you have the passion to teach. Basically, tutors without experience will quote a lower tuition fee than others, but they can gradually increase their rates over time. There are parents who do not mind engaging tutors without experience.

Do note that it takes us time and effort to verify each tutor's profile and thus it will reflect badly on you if you were to sign up and remove your account soon.
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How do I register as a tutor with Smart Tuition Singapore?
You can join our team of home tuition tutors by filling up our online Register as Tutor form; it is compulsary.
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What are the criteria to become a home tutor?
You must have at least obtained your 'O' level certificate; however, it is up to individual parent and student to demand for a tutor with a certain minimal qualification, such as diploma or 'A' level certificate. You must also be 16 or above and either a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident (PR) or full-time student.
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Why is there an error when I try to register as a tutor?
Please check if you have already registered with us. Some tutors do mass signing up with different tuition agencies and forget they have signed up with us months later. It also could be due to wrong input of email address during registration. Some tutors have accidentally put ',' instead of '.' or '.cm' instead of '.com', while others have accidentally used a spare email to register with us. Contact us with your nRIC, email and contact number and let us know of the problem.
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I have accidentally deleted my account, can I register again?
It actually takes a couple of clicks to confirm removal of your account and thus it's quite incredible for anyone to make the mistake accidentally. Unfortunately, we won't be able to convince ourselves to convince any parent to accept tutors who can make such major 'accident'.
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3.0. For Tutors: Login Issue

I have been receiving daily assignments email updates but why can't I log into the website?
The most common problem is that tutors mistake the free daily tuition assignments updates form as registering as a tutor with us. It is an external service. The assignment update's confirmation email has stated clearly that you will still need to register as a tutor even if you have subscribed to the service. Logically, the form solely requires you to fill up your email without even asking for your name and it definitely does not seem like a registration form. To sum up, you have not registered as a tutor.
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I have registered as a home tutor and brought to a success confirmation page. However, why is it that I have not received the confirmation email after some time?
(1) Check your bulk or spam mail folder. Our confirmation email may be filtered as spam.
(2) Another common problem is wrong input of wrong email address. Do email us with your correct email address.
(3) Please do not register using your school or company email because some corporate email servers, such as NUS, tend to filter external email and may mistake our email as spam.

Under normal circumstances, you should receive the confirmation email almost immediately after registration. There may be a short delay if the server is too busy. If you fail to receive the confirmation email after an hour, do contact us with your nRIC, email and contact number, and let us know you have aleady checked your bulk/spam mail folder.
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I cannot login with the password given in the confirmation email.
You can reset your password.
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I have registered more than three months ago but I cannot log in.
It is common for tutors to have multiple email addresses or change email address (especially when old one is being hacked). Try recalling if you have signed up using another older email. Contact us using the web form with all the fields filled up.
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I manage to log in right after registration but within 24 hours or right after I submit my documents, I cannot login anymore.
If you have made no typo error in your login information (email and password), it is likely that you are been blacklisted for providing fake information. The most common problem is providing of fake IC number - a straight ban - we have made it very clear on the registration page. Another common reason may be due to spamming of your contact details inside the 'self introduction' section.

If you have a clear conscience that you have done nothing wrong, do contact us and we will solve the problem together. Blacklisted tutors will definitely not receive any reply from us though.
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I'm not able to log into my previous account and have registered a new one. However, I can't log into to my new account soon.
If you are 100% sure that you have an account with us previously, it can be due to various reasons you can't log in. Do read through this current FAQ page for the common reasons. If you manage to register a second account with us, it's obviously you have forged your details, which also means you have unintentionally stolen another person's identity and is a crime.
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4.0. For Tutors: Account Status and Verification

Can I don't submit my document for verification?
No. Please don't register a tutor account with us if you are not going to submit your document. It will be a waste of both our time and it doesn't reflect well on your character.

As a trusted tuition agency in Singapore, we require you to email us a soft copy of each of your document (I/C, certificates and transcripts) for us to verify your identity and qualification. We will never recommend any 'anonymous tutor' to our clients.

Please also bring your original certificates along during the first lesson to be verified by the parents/students.
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I'm waiting for my final official transcript/certificate and thus I'm not able to submit them for verification. Can I still apply for tuition assignments?
Yes. Do note that the indication of document submission is to verify that we have received your final official transcript/certificate. Do submit your latest result slip and we will explain to the parents/students if you are selected by them.
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What can I do if I have lost my certificate(s)?
If you have lost your cerificates issued by MOE, you may purchase them at MOE website. For other certificates, you may need to contact your respective institute for them.
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What to do if I do not have a scanner to scan my document?
Do not worry because you are not the only one facing this problem. Simply use a camera to take photos of them, upload the photos to your computer and email them to us. We do not need very good quality pictures but they must be reasonably readable to be verified.
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What do I do if I have just finished my exams and currently waiting for my certificate?
Do indicate it in the 'self introduction' or 'comment to coordinator' column in your profile. Our coordinators will explain to the parents when necessary.
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What will you do with my submitted documents?
We will look through the documents, update our database and keep them for future reference. Your document will be kept safe with us. If parents/students insist for your documents, which is rare, we will seek your permission before sending to them. At times, we may also reject working with such client.
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I have already submitted my documents long ago, why is my profile status still 'pending'?
The document submission is different from your profile status. Everytime you update your profile, the status will revert to 'pending', similar to new sign-up, and requires our administrators to manually approve it again. You have obviously updated your profile after logging in.
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I have already submitted my documents long ago, why is my IC or/and qualification status(es) not updated?
There is likely to be some problems with your document submission. The most common mistakes are:
(1) You have submitted to the wrong email address.
(2) Your email client has automatically sized down your images during the process.
(3) Your images are too small or blur.
You should double check your 'sent folder' to see if there is any mistake. Do check out the document verification page for more details.
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I have registered as a tutor and managed to log in. However, why am I not listed in the home tutor list page?
In order to prevent spamming and bad contents being shown to the public, listing in the home tutor page requires manual approval from our administrators. It will be approved immediately after any of our administrators has verified your profile details.
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How do I delete my account?
Please log into your account and use the feature to delete your account.
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5.0. For Tutors: Commission

What are the rates chargeable by Smart Tuition Singapore for each tuition assignment?
We require a one time payment of first 2 tutoring weeks.

For example, if you earn $50/lesson once a week, you will be paying us (Smart Tuition Singapore) $50/lesson x 2weeks = $100 out of your income as commission. If you have lessons twice a week, you will pay us $50/lesson x 2lessons/week x 2weeks = $200.

In cases that lesson(s) is/are cancelled, commission will be calculated inclusive of the weeks after.

For example, if you earn $50/lesson once a week, but lesson for the second week is cancelled, we will take into account of the first 3 weeks of lessons: $50/lesson x 2weeks (First and Third week) = $100.
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How do I make payment to Smart Tuition Singapore?
You do not have to make payment to Smart Tuition Singapore directly. We will collect the tuition fee directly from the parents/students at the end of the second (or third) week as our commission.
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Will I receive any tuition fee if I were terminated by the parent/student within the first two weeks?
This is based on a case by case basis. We will at most give half of the tuition fee to you. Our tuition agency should not be penalised due to faults made by tutors, otherwise, we will not be able to sustain to help other people. We would like to urge all tutors to be confident and familiar with the tutoring subject(s) before applying for them in order to reduce such problem.
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6.0. For Tutors: Tuition Assignments

Can I get an assignment without registering as a tutor?
No. If you are not intending to register as a tutor with us, please do not even bother to contact us.
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Is tuition assignment xxxxxxxx available?
All available tuition assignments are placed inside the main tuition assignments page and the availability will be stated inside their individual pages.
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Can I know the location of the tuition assignment?
All available information is shown on the individual tuition assignment's page; we will not disclose the unit (flat or condo) or house number (landed property). Some parents are not comfortable with disclosing their block number to us before selection of tutor is confirmed, and thus only road name will be indicated.
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What is the minimum commitment (months) for tuition assignments?
There's no definite answer. However, if it's not stated, parents would expect the tutors to at least help their kids until end of the year (after exams). No parent will want to keep changing tutors throughout the years, which is very distracting, especially when it requires time for tutors and students to develop good relationships. Different teaching styles may confuse the students as well. For public schools, if the kids' teacher for a certain subject is changed a few times within a year, some parents may start complaining.
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I have just registered as a tutor and my document submission status is 'pending'. Can I still apply for tuition assignments?
Yes. It will usually take around one to three working days for us to verify your documents due to the large number of tutor sign-ups everyday.
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I have sent an enquiry to show interest in a tuition assignment, but why is there no response after a few days?
We are sorry that due to the huge number of application for the tuition assignments, we are unable to respond to each individual application, but you can view the application status after you have logged in. If you are qualified for the requested assignment, we will send your profile to the parents/students. However, some parents do take very long time to confirm. Sometimes, we do meet parents who have engaged the services of many Singapore tuition agencies and they feel uncomfortable to politely tell us they have already found a home tutor. We will give some time for the parents to respond before closing the assignment, and meanwhile your application status will still be 'pending'.
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I'm interested in an assignment that has much higher rate than my expected tuition fee. Can I still apply for it?
Yes, you can apply for it, however, do note that both our tuition agency and parent's side would have much higher expectation for tuition assignments with higher rate. If we deem that you deserve it, we may also help you to get a better rate than your minimal expectation - we always try to be fair to both clients and tutors.
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If the tuition assigment consists of more than one subject, can I apply just for one of the subjects?
Yes, unless if specified. However, do note that most parents are looking for the same tutor to cover all the subjects (it's easier to deal with just one person), specially for subjects in the pre-school and primary school levels. For secondary school and above levels, as the subjects are more difficult, some parents may be more interested in getting tutors specializing in the subjects.
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For group assignments, are the rates quoted based on per student?
No. The rates indicated are the total fees. If you see a group assignment with rate similar or lower than one-to-one assignment, it is unfortunately, a low budget assignment. If you are not comfortable with the rate, please look out for better assignments and do not make a rush to apply for it and regret in future.
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Can I know which coordinator is handling a tuition assignment?
No. We want our coordinators to concentrate on handling the tuition assignments and we cannot afford to let tutors bother them with special requests. If you have any problem with certain tuition assignment, do use the contact us form.
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7.0. For Tutors: Privacy & Security

How does Smart Tuition Singapore secure my personal contact information?
Most of our coordinators are friends, friends' friends or trusted tutors who have worked with us before, which is why we are often understaff. Your password is encrypted before it is stored into our database so that nobody, including our staffs, can retrieve it. Please kindly help us to secure your account by keeping your password safe.
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Can I not use my real name?
Yes, however, do at least provide your real surname. As for your first name, at least think of an English name. Using of initials like 'CK Teo' or 'SH Tan' may not reflect good on our website and thus we may not approve your account.
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Why is my tutor profile found on search engines like Google?
You have enabled Public Listing, which tells our website to list you as a tutor for parents/students to browse through. It is a general knowledge that anything you can found inside the internet will be crawled by search engines' spiders. If you don't want it to happen, simply log into your account and disable the public listing so that visitors cannot find your profile on our website.
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What will be shown on my public tutor profile?
Basically, everything except for your NRIC number and contact details, will be shown if you have enabled Public Listing.
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What will you use my information for?
All information you have provided will solely be used for verifying your status and to match the students' preferences for tuition assignments. We only contact you for tuition assignments related purposes. We don't sell any contact away.
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I have removed my account but why is it that I can still find it in search engines such as Google?
If you have some knowledge about the web, you should know that we have no control over what information Google can grab and store.
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I have requested Google to remove my information but they say the page is still available.
Even for every non-existing, pending and removed account, as long as someone types the unique ID number at the end of the page's URL, the person will be presented with a page to inform him/her the respective status. Therefore, it is common sense that you cannot get Google to remove a webpage that is still 'existing'.

To conclude, you should get Google to update that page instead of removing it, so that Google will update its cache to replace any previously stored contents with the latest 'no such tutor' ones.
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8.0. For Tutors: Other Questions

I'm a foreigner who is interested in working in Singapore. Are you able to help me to get work permit for tutoring job?
No. We are a tuition agency that helps existing Singapore residents to find private tutoring jobs mostly on freelance basis. You may like to try applying jobs in some schools or tuition centres instead.
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How do I benefit from signing up with Smart Tuition Singapore?
Other than being able to apply for our tuition assignments, we can alert you directly when there is any suitable tuition assignment. You will also be listed in our home tutor Singapore page (optional) for greater exposure to parents and students, and thus there is a higher chance for you to get a tuition assignment.
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Will any teaching material or training be provided for tutor?
No. We are a tuition agency and not tuition centre. In fact, not all tuition centres will provide materials for their tutors.
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I have indicated a very low minimal tuition fees rate in my profile, does it mean that I will be offered only tuition assignments with the same amount of tuition fee rate?
No. By indicating a low minimal tuition fees rate, it allows you to be matched with a larger variety of tuition assignments. However, if the tuition assignment that you are taking up worths a higher tuition rate, you will be given the better tuition rate for your effort. We do our best to be fair to all our home tutors and parents/students.
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What happen if I'm rejected by the parent/student after a few number of lessons?
We will investigate it and rest assure that we do understand it may not be the tutor's fault. In cases that the student does not like the teaching style of yours, we will be glad to offer you other tuition assignments when available. However, if you are being terminated by the parent/student for violating our Code of Ethics, we may have to blacklist you.
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What are the penalties for violating the code of conduct or creating issues?
We won't hesitate to blacklist any tutor who has problem in his/her character, including those who go MIA or cancel lesson last minute. We also keep in touch with other tuition agencies to share profiles of black sheep in the market.
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(email) I'm a tutor with xx years of experience, have taught xx students.. blah blah blah.
Noted with thanks.
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If you have other doubts that we have not answered here, feel free to contact us.

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