Komathy Kuppusamy, 19, is in the second year of a material science course at the National University of Singapore. She might not have got there, she said, had it not been for the tuition classes she attended in Sinda's Tutorial for Enhanced Programme (STEP) that saw her through her GCE O-level examinations in 1994.

Miss Komathy, an only child, was in Secondary 2 when she enrolled in the classes run by SINDA, the Singapore Indian Development Association. In 1992, after only a year of STEP classes, she topped her class in mathematics.

Two years later, she won an award from Sembawang constituency for being the area's best GCE O-level Indian student.

She is one of 12,000 Indian students who have benefited from STEP, which was started seven years ago. This year sees its largest enrolment so far - 2,800 students.

Recently, 32 of the students that SINDA tutors received the annual STEP awards for making significant improvements in their school examinations. It was the fourth time that these awards had been given out.

Students received book vouchers ranging in value from $30 to $75 for improving their grades in mathe-matics or combined science by two or three points, say froma C6 to a B4 or B3. They are tutored by 250 teachers, many of whom are I volunteers.

Miss Komathy said that SINDA's tutors helped her to get a strong foundation in mathematics. She had been tutored at home before, but found the SINDA classes more useful although it meant taking a bus to Fuchun Secondary twice a week after school.

"Even when I was tired after a full day of school, it was worth it because the tutors were qualified teachers who knew the syllabus inside out. "They guided us according to how we were taught in school," she said. With private tutors, she said, it was difficult because they used different ways of solving a problem from what she was taught in school, and she found that confusing sometimes.

Mr Dileep Nair, who chairs SINDA's education unit, said that students from Primary I to Secondary 4 attend STEP classes at one of 18 SINDA centres.

STEP is SINDA's single largest activity. It spent $1.7 million on these classes alone last year. This means that each student gets a subsidy of about $400 a year. They pay $25 or $35 a month for tuition. The performance of Step students is encouraging: 138 of the 230 GCE 0-level students passed mathematics. Secondary 4 students also receive career guidance counselling.

Miss Komathy hopes to be a process engineer someday. She said that career guidance counselling had helped her to decide on engineering though she had wanted to study medicine. "But that's okay.

"At least I know that I made the right decision attending the STEP classes, and I got grades good enough that helped me to get a place in NUS eventually."