the grade becomes the be-all and end-all...
you have heard of the educated idiot.. the straight-A students
who don't even know what the hell is going on..
could excessive tuition be doing that?
The 'educated idiot' syndrome is essentially an asian
phenomenon of kiasuism and dogma, in contrast to USA society
of creativity and entrepreneurship (eg. Silicon
Valley), caused by a combination of the following
(i) the person's own personal lack of competence,
(ii) the person's own personal lack of creativity and
passion,
(iii) made worse by the dogma of a judgmental, paper-chase,
materialistic, superficial society, eg. common
in Singapore society
(iv) kiasu parents who are dogmatic, judgemental, fearful...
good intentioned maybe (some cases are selfish and impose their own
thinking and judgements onto their children; living your parent's
life instead of your own)
(v) incompetent teachers and burnt-out teachers (the latter
is exacerbated by the faulty Sg education system) who
unintentionally do harm to students, stifling their passion for
true real learning.
(vi) same as part (v), but for tutors.
(vii), etc etc.
However, if the soul is strong and able to rise above adversity,
judgement and dogma of the society, parents, and (incompetent)
teachers, then the soul has broken through and triumphed up
to it's own level of personal success against adversity.
Entrepreneurship and courage, in spite of lack of academic
qualifications, is one such example. But it applies to other
aspects of one's life as well, including one's relationships and
one's spirituality.
But tuition, by and large, is ethical and helpful, giving keen
students the help they need and ask for. And as for other cases, as
Bear has pointed out and as I've elucidated in my posts, it's the
unfortunate consequence of societal kiasuism, societal dogma,
societal judgement, foolish parents, incompetent teachers/tutors,
and a flawed Singapore education system.
But tuition is still good. (At least mine is.) 
