[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue
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BlackAngel:
which level is your kid in? think P5/6 might not be affected.i not very optimistic, you think government will hear us? i had feedback to MOe already at http://www.moe.edu.sg/feedback. if any parents think likewise like me, please chip in your voice.
hate it from the government neglect the silent majority like us. it benefits only a small group at the expense of large group. -
to those mummies and daddies who feedbacked/emailed, did they reply? what did they say?
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The online petition was reported in today’s wanbao (below extracted from omy website):
本地新闻
Local News
日期:26/04/2010新闻来源:联合晚报记者:许翔宇
吁请教育部不要降低母语比重 605人网上请愿
网上发起吁请教育部不要减低母语教育比重的请愿活动。（图／互联网）
*年轻人意识到精通双语重要
*受访议员和学者：降低比重或让人 以为母语不重要
更多报道，请翻阅26.04.2010的《联合晚报》。
605人签署网上请愿书，吁请教育部不要减低母语成绩在小六会考的比重。
发起请愿活动的南洋理工大学中文系三年级生刘志强（25岁），接受《联合晚报》电邮访问时说，“我担忧这项政策若施行后，所可能带来的后遗症，觉得有必要提供一个能让民众表态的管道。”
教育部长黄永宏日前受访时透露，教育部将探讨是否减少母语成绩在小六会考所占的比重，引起不少国人关注。
网上请愿书3天前设立，截至今午已有605人签名。
请愿书列出的反对理由包括：小学母语难度目前算合理，再降低成绩比重，将影响学习心态，减少学习动力，导致母语的阅读、书写能力减弱。
刘志强说，上述政策若实施，发出的讯息是：母语较不重要，学生不愿花功夫去学习，老师们把母语教得再生动也是白费。 -
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1052718/1/.html
Reducing weightage of Mother Tongue in PSLE will help students: MOE
By Jessica Yeo | Posted: 26 April 2010 2228 hrs
SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry said reducing the weightage for Mother Tongue in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) can help students whose scores border between the normal and express stream.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli said this can help when streaming students to secondary schools.
It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
Some primary schools recognise that building up a student's confidence and team spirit are just as important as grades, and they are organising more camps and activities in this regard.
- CNA/yb -
James Ang:
huh...so it means if the kid is only strong in mother tongue, he or she might to post to normal stream instead of express under the new weightage..and by doing so it help them to go into a stream more suitable for them(downgraded???) :faint:
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli said this can help when streaming students to secondary schools.
It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
- CNA/yb -
vlim:
OMG, their reasoning is getting more and more ridiculous! So a student must be penalised for being good in MT and weak in other subjects. Since his/her science and maths are weak, he must go to Normal stream, SHOULD not stay in Express.
huh...so it means if the kid is only strong in mother tongue, he or she might to post to normal stream instead of express under the new weightage..and by doing so it help them to go into a stream more suitable for them(downgraded???) :faint:James Ang:
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli said this can help when streaming students to secondary schools.
It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
- CNA/yb -
vlim:
i would intepret it that those who are stronger in mother tongue but weaker in other subjects to be posted to streams that do not demand them to tackle 8 other subjects which demands good English language and other subject skills (math, science) in Secondary Level; in other words, it seems to be that the general feel is that good in MT is not good enough in SG education system. cos medium of teaching is in english for english and humanities subject and maths alone already have E, A, F math, calculus and what not, but MT governs mainly MT, so if you are good in MT but not in other subjects, you are not at the same competition platform as those who are good in other subjects but pulled down by MT although both groups score the same range of PSLE score.
huh...so it means if the kid is only strong in mother tongue, he or she might to post to normal stream instead of express under the new weightage..and by doing so it help them to go into a stream more suitable for them(downgraded???) :faint:James Ang:
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli said this can help when streaming students to secondary schools.
It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
- CNA/yb
to me, reduction of MT weightage clearly favours the middle upper english-speaking class demographics where MT is currently pulling down their overall scores. to me, change in MT weightage will favour this group as well as the 'stronger MT, weaker other subjects' group (on a broad basis), but the group of slightly above average students who leverage on consistent all rounded scores for all subjects (ie Jack of all Trades, master of none) will be greatly disadvantaged.
IMO, when the govt has already publicly announced their hint of intention, it is not surprising that some sort of plan is already in the pipeline.
to those who feared that Chinese culture will be lost, force-feeding kids to learn Chinese is also not a solution. IMO, rewarding those who do well, must continue in the form that application for places in SAP sec schools will still take performance of MT as one of the main criteria. those who really are concerned about culture will continue to focus on MT education despite lesser weightage. to those who fear that SAP schools are obsolete, is their intention of sending their children to these schools based on inculcating strong chinese culture roots or have better PSLE advantage in the first place?
JMHO. -
In the definitiion of education, there is a need to maintain fairness. Of course it is obvious that school dun forcus on music/art or health education. But it is very rare that we see a country education choose to neglect mother tongue education and allocate it a lower status by reducing weightage or relegating students good in Mother Tongue to lower league (in this case, normal stream).
For a move like that, it would only cost regrets in parents in future. I sincerely hope parents would rethink our child learning attitude and not let the policy makers sway our children future with their unsound policy.
I strongly oppose to what MOE is proposing. Concerned parents please feedback:
http://www.moe.edu.sg/feedback -
ihavethingtosay:
to those mummies and daddies who feedbacked/emailed, did they reply? what did they say?
Basically, just that they note the merits of our arguments but that the education system should try to accomodate the different groups in our society.
The teaching and learning of MTL will always be maintained in the system and they will retain the incentives for students who can excel in HMTL.
They will take various views rec'd from members of public into considerations in the MTL review. -
The key message I caught in the argument of the response in lego’s original post is:
1. if you are confident in scoring for MT, you will still score…but these people are losing their competitive edge by being all-rounders.
2. if those who are not strong in MT, give them a chance to score and not penalise them but overnight they would make the people in point 1 lose their edge which takes years to build.
They are indeed lowering the standards of MT competency but they are not addressing, just saying that as long as they don’t take MT away totally, it is good enough.
Honestly, reading such replies, you cannot fight much. They maintain the framework, just changing dosage, so it’s a small change to them. They fail to see that most people are exam-oriented and exam-smart so it will dilute the interest of learning MT. The other assumption or claim made is smart children will learn the MT language with interest, exam or no exam.
All-rounders seem over-rated…time to think specialists.
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