Retired private driving instructor Sunny Kang photographed on Apr 16, 2024, before he had to give up his instructor licence upon turning 75. SINGAPORE: The year was 1978 and it was a day former private driving instructor Sunny Kang remembers vividly: One of his students stepped into his car for a lesson – wearing a wet swimsuit.
Singapore had 305 private driving instructors as of March 2024, said the traffic police in response to queries from CNA. This is in stark contrast to the 1980s, when there were thousands of private driving instructors, Mr Kang estimated. Other than Mr Kang, CNA also spoke to five private driving instructors. They say that in around 10 years, there will be no more private driving instructors in Singapore.
“Some students who were upset or had just ended a relationship, they even drove through red light at traffic junctions,” he said.Like Mr Kang, 73-year-old Tony Ng said it is the variety of students he has taught that made his 30-over years as an instructor as interesting as they have been.“Every day I meet all kinds of different people, all with very different personalities,” he told CNA in Mandarin.
Mr Kang began teaching driving part-time in the mid-1970s when he was 27. Back then, driving instructors did not need a certificate to teach, but he attained one in 1979 before becoming a full-time instructor.His income as a driving instructor was three to four times more than what he made in his previous jobs, he said.
According to 74-year-old private instructor Alan Lee, the figures check out. Each lesson costs about S$50 an hour, and when taking a driving test, a student has to fork out another S$350 to the instructor. He said that private instructors are more flexible with the timing of lessons. They do not have to follow a strict lesson plan, so they can tailor the classes to students of various learning speeds and abilities.