All About Parent Volunteers (PV)

[hquek]

MMM:

I heard from my mum that my auntie went to queue at 3am in order to get a place for my cousin in MBS. So those days were like.... first come first serve style

my friend's dad climbed over a school wall at night to secure a good waiting place. :shock:

[MMM]

hquek:

my friend's dad climbed over a school wall at night to secure a good waiting place. :shock:

:lol: He didn't get caught for trespassing???

[hquek]

MMM:

:lol: He didn't get caught for trespassing???

Dun think so...maybe a stream of others followed him...kekekeke

[janet88]

This PV thing is so stupid…only good for schools bcos they get parents to be traffic warden, teach art work, do admin work, water plants, wash sweet potatoes etc etc all for FREE !!!


We live within 1km of the school…because son is a Dragon kid (Year 2000), so became kiasu and wrote in to be PV. I believe he could have got into the school with no problem, but hubby didn’t want to take the risk.

[hquek]

janet_lee88:

This PV thing is so stupid...only good for schools bcos they get parents to be traffic warden, teach art work, do admin work, water plants, wash sweet potatoes etc etc all for FREE !!!

Actually I'm fairly grateful for the pv scheme (sure kena brickbats). I don't have 'lucky draw' luck; if there weren't such a scheme, sure to be balloted out of any decent schools.

PV scheme does have its benefits. Parents provide free labour - true. But from this, they will gain a better understanding of how the school and its people are about. This should enable them to make a more informed choice if the school is what they want for their child. How else to find out about the inner workings....from their advertisements?

[janet88]

Hi hquek,

I don’t have luck for those lucky draw…I find it stressful for parents to have to write in to schools to be PV and some still have to go through balloting after the hardwork (40 or 80 hours) put in.

[LOLMum]

i rather have pv, clan/church priority than having have to let my kid go for entrance exam/interview in order to get into a popular kindergarten or primary school like what is happening in hong kong.


parents there pay top money for the kids to attend entrance exam/interview preparation courses. all kinds of certificates (i remember reading about some1 submitting her kid’s brushing teeth winning certificate as wel) are submitted and boy the stress is definitely greater than ours. sometimes the kid might score well in the entrance exams but if he has a few lesser certs than another kid, he might lose out.

[janet88]

LOL mum,

Having to pay ‘professionals’ to prepare kids for entrance exam to a school is really scary…schools there will ask questions like occupation of daddy, mummy and what the kids like etc etc…that gives me the chills.

S’pore has a pretty good system in place, ie the different phases going on now. PV, church/clan & grassroots all fall under Phase 2B…I think it would be great if schools do not take too many PV every year and then ‘absorb’ all the kids whose parents did PV. After all, these parents really served the school.

[hquek]

janet_lee88:

Hi hquek,

I don't have luck for those lucky draw...I find it stressful for parents to have to write in to schools to be PV and some still have to go through balloting after the hardwork (40 or 80 hours) put in.

hi janet_lee88,

I don't think I'm the only 'kiam chye mia' person around, so people like me would appreciate that there is an avenue where through hard work, we can get our kids into schools of our choice, and not what 'lao tian ye' has in store for them.

It's stressful no doubt. The work done, the leave to take etc, these are no joke indeed. I can only lament that we are not from the right schools that'll provide an easier way through.

[janet88]

hquek,

Because there is this THING called PV, that's why it makes us parents more determined to try for it to get into that school of choice. Or else you and I will fall under 2C and very hard we are selected.

Like what other parents mentioned, there wasn't such a thing in the past. Now that we are more educated, we have expectations. If hubby was from a school which still existed, we would not have to be PV.