Heartland Mall sits right next to Kovan MRT station, and its fourth floor is given over almost entirely to tuition and enrichment centres — which makes it one of the more obvious places in the Hougang/Kovan area to find a class after school. We swept every listing in our directory by distance from the mall’s address rather than trusting category tags alone, and only two came back as genuinely inside the building: I Can Read Education Centre and Bamboo Green Education Centre, both on Level 4.
That’s a smaller list than the dozen-plus tuition centres scattered along the rest of Hougang Street 21 — places like Mavis Tutorial Centre, AGrader, and Crestar are all a short walk away in neighbouring blocks, not inside Heartland Mall itself, so we’ve left them out of this one. We also came across Xuelin Learning Hub, which the mall and other sources list as operating from Heartland Mall’s fourth floor — it isn’t in our directory yet, so we can’t verify its unit number or profile it here, but it’s worth a mention if you’re looking for Chinese tuition specifically on-site. Here’s what the two listed centres offer.
Quick Peek at Tuition Centres near Heartland Mall
| Centre | Location | Levels | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Can Read Education Centre (Kovan) | Heartland Mall, #04-00 | Preschool–Primary | English literacy & phonics |
| Bamboo Green Education Centre | Heartland Mall, #04-02 | Primary–Secondary | Math & Science |
1. I Can Read Education Centre (Kovan)
205 Hougang Street 21, #04-00, Heartland Mall, S(530205) · +65 6343 0320 · sg.icanread.asia
I Can Read runs on a phonemic awareness system developed in Australia in 2000, built around the idea of teaching children the 44 individual sounds of English and how they combine, rather than starting from whole-word memorisation. The programme spans four stages, from pre-reading sound recognition through to Primary School English for P1–P6, and the brand says it’s worked with over 300,000 families across its 25-plus centres in Singapore. Classes here run small, which matters more for reading than for most subjects — a child sounding out words needs to be heard, not just taught at.
- Preschool: English
- Primary: English
Free trial class available.
View I Can Read Education Centre’s full profile →
2. Bamboo Green Education Centre
Kovan Heartland Mall #04-02, 205 Hougang Street 21 S(530205) · +65 8186 6223 · bamboogreentuition.com
Bamboo Green sticks to two subjects — Math and Science — across Primary and Secondary levels, including Elementary Math and Additional Math at the upper secondary tiers. It’s a smaller, single-location outfit rather than a franchise chain, which tends to mean the same tutors see a student through several years rather than handing off between branches. There’s no trial class here, so it’s worth calling ahead to ask about their placement or diagnostic process before committing.
- Primary: Math, Science
- Secondary: Additional Math, Biology, Chemistry, Elementary Math, Math, Physics, Science
No trial class available.
View Bamboo Green Education Centre’s full profile →
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there other tuition centres near Heartland Mall, even if they’re not inside it?
Yes — Hougang Street 21 is dense with them. Mavis Tutorial Centre, AGrader Learning Centre, Crestar Learning Centre, HCL Education Centre, and several others sit in the neighbouring blocks (203, 206, 208, 210, 211), all within a few minutes’ walk of Heartland Mall. They’re just not physically inside the mall building, which is why this list only covers the two that are.
Is there Chinese tuition at Heartland Mall?
Not from a centre in our directory yet. Xuelin Learning Hub is reported elsewhere as operating a Chinese-tuition branch from Heartland Mall’s fourth floor, but it isn’t listed on tuitioncentres.sg at the time of writing, so we can’t confirm its exact unit or verify details first-hand. Worth checking directly if Chinese tuition on-site specifically is what you need.
Which centre is better for a preschooler just starting to read?
I Can Read is the one built specifically for that — its Reading Foundations stage starts from age 2.5 and works on sound recognition before children are reading words at all. Bamboo Green doesn’t take preschoolers; its youngest students are in Primary.
Can I get Math and Science help for a secondary school student here?
Yes, that’s Bamboo Green’s whole focus — Math, Additional Math, Elementary Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and combined Science through to Secondary 4. There’s no trial class, so ask them directly about assessing your child’s level before signing up.
Is parking at Heartland Mall expensive for a short lesson?
Not really — at $1.00/hour in the daytime, a 1–1.5 hour lesson runs about $1.00–$1.50 in parking. It jumps to $2.00/hour overnight, so it’s worth timing evening pickups before 10.30pm if you can.
How do I get to Heartland Mall without driving?
Kovan MRT station (NE13) is a 1-minute walk via Exit C, which faces the mall directly. If you’re coming by bus, Kovan Hub bus stop (63221) on Hougang Street 21 is served by Services 53M, 112, 113, 115, 119, and 146.
About Heartland Mall
Heartland Mall opened on 1 December 1984 as the largest outlet of the Oriental Emporium chain in Singapore. In 2001, Heartland Retail Group took over the Emporium Group’s assets and renamed the building Heartland Mall. Ownership changed hands again in 2012, when Guthrie GTS (which already held half the group) took full control of Heartland Retail Group, and again in 2015, when Alpha Investment Partners — part of Keppel Capital — bought the mall’s lower three levels from Guthrie GTS.
The building has four floors and no basement. The first three are a fairly typical heartland mix: Cold Storage supermarket anchors Level 1, Scarlett Supermarket (思家客), an Asian specialty grocer, sits on Level 3, and the rest of the space is filled out by Popular Bookstore, Japan Home, Watsons, and a run of F&B and service shops. Level 4, though, is essentially a tuition floor — which is exactly why this list exists.
Getting to Heartland Mall: MRT & parking
By MRT: Kovan MRT station (NE13, North East Line) sits right beside the mall. Of its three exits, Exit C is the one that faces Heartland Mall, Kovan Market and Food Centre, and Paya Lebar Community Club — it’s about a 1-minute walk from the exit to the mall, and there’s a lift at that exit if you need one.
By bus: The old Hougang South Bus Interchange building on Hougang Street 21 is now known as Kovan Hub, and its bus stop (63221) is served by Services 53M, 112, 113, 115, 119, and 146 — 53M and 115 both terminate there.
By car: Coming from the city, take the CTE and exit at 8B onto Upper Serangoon Road, then Upper Serangoon Viaduct to Hougang Street 21. From the east, take the TPE to the KPE, exit at 9A onto Tampines Road, then continue to Hougang Street 21. From the west, it’s the AYE-CTE route via Exit 8B, same as from the city.
- Car parking: $1.00 per hour from 7am–10.30pm, rising to $2.00 per hour overnight (10.30pm–7am), daily including public holidays — no weekday/weekend split.
For a typical 1–1.5 hour lesson, that’s roughly $1.00–$1.50 in daytime parking.
Looking for more options in the area? Browse the full Hougang tuition centre directory.