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Police looking into tuition centre’s workshop for kids, involving fire experiment in carpark

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The police are looking into a case involving a tuition centre that apparently showed young children how to start a fire, with an experiment conducted in an open carpark, near parked cars.

Stomp user Anonymous lodged a police report after coming across a video of a workshop that the tuition centre posted on social media.

In the video, a man is seen conducting a lesson attended by two boys accompanied by two women.

The video indicates that they were watching an experiment using hydrogel and snow powder, followed by one about chemiluminescence.

The video then shows a 'bonus cannon fire experiment', with the same man pouring an unknown substance into a glass on the ground.

The same attendees are seen watching him.

Flames ignite in the glass, with an onscreen caption using the fireworks and fire emojis and saying this was better.

The workshop was apparently held by Gavin's Tuition at its Toa Payoh branch near Braddell MRT station.

Anonymous raised safety concerns after watching the video and told Stomp on Tuesday (May 17): "The tutor was demonstrating the fire experiment at the common area outside his tuition centre.

"Bystanders who seem to be the parents of students were seen taking videos of the entire process.

"There were no signs that an experiment was ongoing, endangering passers-by and public property.

"In the video, the experiment was also conducted near parked vehicles. I wonder if the owners are aware that a high-risk activity was performed at the back of their vehicles.

"Fortunately, the experiment (was) uneventful. However, who is going to be responsible if the experiment went wrong and caused an explosion? Is this sort of experiment allowed by the Ministry of Education?

"While there is value in experimental learning, teachers must be responsible with their posts on social media to spread the correct messages and not jeopardise national security.

"In light of the recent spate of fires, one of which was fatal, should we allow this?"

According to the Stomper, the video was taken down from TikTok as of Monday. But it remained accessible on the tuition centre's Instagram page.

In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed that a report was lodged and they were looking into the matter.

Stomp also contacted Gavin's Tuition and was awaiting a response.

FIRE SAFETY RULESTuitionscience