[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue
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part of education is to inculcate some form of tenacity and desire to overcome challenges. please dont expect things to fall your way.
like some forumer said, kid who does well in 4 subjects > kid who does well in 3. be it english or chinese or math or sci or humanities or whatsoever. the former has better mental capacity ‘at that stage’ to be more all-rounded in all aspects. THAT IS IT. live with it and learn from it and challenge yourself to be better. and not whine and ask for things to suit your way. it is quite a joke.
think I should add in that this initiative branches off from parents of kids who cannot get a place in top schools because of MT. it should be noted that they lost their places to kids who did well in all subjects. what is there to complain? it is not that the top schools offered places to kids who did well in Chinese but did badly in English…
though I absolutely do not agree with FTs taking up all the places belonging to Singaporeans, it is the fact that some PSLE FT kids fare better. If we are not happy with it, what Singaporeans should do is to improve yourself and put up some fight and show them that we are not poorer. please don’t become a bigger joke and show some selfish minds. Nobody said English-speaking people are always better than the Chinese-speaking. -
tamarind:
Hi Tam,Dear all parents,
Please use this feedback form and send your comments to MOE.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/feedback/
They will definitely reply you, I tried it before.
Based on my experience with maid issues, we can complain thousands of times in the internet forums, the gahmen pretends not to see. This is because one person can create many different accounts and post under different nicknames. The gahmen only wants to listen to comments from \"real people\".
Thanks for your link. I've submitted my comments. -
goldenretriever:
Frankly speaking, I think that nowadays the Chinese is tougher compared to my times. Just look at their comprehension/cloze passages, and the type of phrases that the teachers expect to see in the student's compo. Even when you look at the composition guidebooks, they are filled with bombastic phrases, which I think is definitely beyond the kids ability. Lowering the weightage maybe a good thing cos MOE got to be realistic about the fact that most kids come from English-speaking family background. As a Chinese, I have always stressed to my kids that they must know how to read, write and speak Chinese fluently. However, the local environment says otherwise when almost every subject is taught in English.
I am not sure I will agree with you on this. You did not mention \"your times\" was how long ago. Anyway, I was born in the late sixties. The then education system was divided into English and Chinese school for both primary and secondary. My parents enrolled me into a Chinese primary school, and subsequently I was successfully switched over to English stream when I entered sec 1.
From what I have gone through, Chinese during my times was much more difficult and more in depth. The intensity and the standard of the passage we studied were much higher than todays so call Higher Chinese. For some of my school mates who continue their secondary education in the Chinese stream, the Chinese text book were totally different from today Higher Chinese in secondary school. I mean the level of difficulty. World apart.
My sister was 6 years my junior and she was from a sap school, during her time, there was Chinese as a 1st language and Chinese as a 2nd language category. She took Chinese as a 1st language, but again the standard of 1st language during her times was lower than those who were in the Chinese stream during my times.
What I am trying to say is the standard of Chinese subject in our education system has been lowering ever since and yet both my kids are struggling. Having said that, I lack the English foundation they have at a very young age.
I did not have an easy time at secondary school as my English foundation was poor. And even struggle through for math initially as math was thought in mandarin in my primary school years. I guess my then situation was somewhat similar to those China students coming over here for education. Hard work can eventually pay off. -
goldenretriever:
Frankly speaking, I think that nowadays the Chinese is tougher compared to my times. Just look at their comprehension/cloze passages, and the type of phrases that the teachers expect to see in the student's compo. Even when you look at the composition guidebooks, they are filled with bombastic phrases, which I think is definitely beyond the kids ability. Lowering the weightage maybe a good thing cos MOE got to be realistic about the fact that most kids come from English-speaking family background. As a Chinese, I have always stressed to my kids that they must know how to read, write and speak Chinese fluently. However, the local environment says otherwise when almost every subject is taught in English.
I beg to differ.
During MY time, I've to read essays from renown writers like 冰心, 鲁迅, 巴金 and even learn simple 文言文 for P6. Ok, maybe I took CL1 during primary school, but if you compare the HCL at P6 now, the chinese level is world apart! I'm pretty sure the HCL these days will not ask to analysis, write reviews and compare writing styles etc for this kind of essays? -
Some of you may want to write directly to Mr Ng?
[email protected] -
Hi
I have submitted my feedback to MOE. I encourage more to do the same. We need to be heard. -
Hmmm... I'm wondering what kind of reduced weightage the ministry has in mind? If it is a 26% x 3 + 22% or 27% x 3 + 19%, I think it is still acceptable. However, any reduced weightage of Chinese in PSLE score must be quite demoralising to all the Chinese teachers, esp those teaching in primary schools.
I strongly feel that the 'weightage' of Chinese should be doubled when the children are still small, when they are less than 5 years old! MOE should take over to study how Chinese should be taught preschool level. If they have a good foundation understanding the Chinese characters at preschool level, they will have better success rate in Chinese at primary school level. Introducing Hanyupinying at P1/K2 is not helpful at all.
I came from a Chinese-speaking family, but my children are English-speaking. However, my youngest one at 5 years old loves to read Chinese books aloud to me every day and his mandarin improved in leaps and bounds over the past 1.5 years and he can recognise and understand the meaning of more Chinese characters than my other child at P2. Why? Because since young, I read a lot more interesting Chinese books than English books to him, compared to the pathetic Chinese reader books I read to his elder siblings when they were still small. -
tree nymph:
You are welcome
Hi Tam,tamarind:
Dear all parents,
Please use this feedback form and send your comments to MOE.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/feedback/
They will definitely reply you, I tried it before.
Based on my experience with maid issues, we can complain thousands of times in the internet forums, the gahmen pretends not to see. This is because one person can create many different accounts and post under different nicknames. The gahmen only wants to listen to comments from \"real people\".
Thanks for your link. I've submitted my comments.
Sending an email to feedback to MOE is the best way to complain. Everything is in black and white, and can be forwarded to the relevant people, that is, those who decide on the changes. -
Blobbi:
Blobbi,
Nolah. She means that they think of themselves as Singaporeans. Am I right, Tamarind?Way2GO:
What a laugh!
No matter how much potatoes they eat
They can never be angmo!
Yes you are right that is exactly what I mean.
The younger generation are smart enough to know that they will never be considered by the ang moh as one of them.
However, they are proud of being Singaporeans, and I think that being a Singaporean is now considered more \"prestigious\" compared to other countries in Asia, second only to the Japanese.
It is like the Americans. All those Americans whose parents/grandparents originally came from India, China, Japan, Korea, Europe, etc, all consider themselves \"Americans\".
Being Singaporean is like a new \"race\". Not Chinese and not ang moh. -
longreach:
My English was also poor. No matter how hard I tried, my best grade was B, never get A. I managed to get As in all the other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, English Literature, etc, because I memorized the entire textbooks.
I did not have an easy time at secondary school as my English foundation was poor. And even struggle through for math initially as math was thought in mandarin in my primary school years. I guess my then situation was somewhat similar to those China students coming over here for education. Hard work can eventually pay off.
I knew a student from mainland China, she also said that she did well only because she memorized all the textbooks.
If we put in the hard work, nothing is impossible.
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