Any Updates As To When PSLE T-Scores Will Be Scrapped?

[floppy]

Technospaz:

lee_yl:

From what I see right now, out of 100 votes, only 8 think that the new banding will help to reduce PSLE stress. I am not sure how the govt conducted the survey before announcing and implementing the new banding system with balloting and how they ascertain that the majority of the parents welcome these changes.

Ok, so 8 folks here are from MOE

When did the G ever seek our advice before announcing and implementing policies?

I don't recall them doing it with the extremely popular population white paper either.

It's a nanny state.
1. The G is always right.
2. If you think the G is wrong, see 1.
(P/S: there's probably an Internet meme that says 70% welcome and sarpok these changes )

:evil:

[UBKmom]

hquek:

floppy:

[quote=\"hquek\"]

It's fair only when it's private money. But schools take taxpayers money. I would wonder why I am paying for other people's privileges?

By this argument, you have just validated the logic for affiliation.

Affiliated schools are not fully funded by taxpayers money as they are independent or government aided schools.

Refer to http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/choosing-primary-school-singapore:
\"These are schools which has a significant part of their funds coming from the Singapore government. These funds are supplemented from other private sources such as fund-raising activities. Many of these schools form part of a group of schools that cover from Primary up to Junior College and even tertiary education. Such schools maintain a certain level of autonomy over how they operate. For example, they can choose to offer class sizes that are different from that recommended by MOE. Some parents prefer these schools because of their flexibility and affiliation to a certain brand of education.\"

unless they are independent, they still take monies from govt, no?[/quote]Independent schools still get funds from government for their operation and government also invest substantial amount on the school infrastructures. For both government aided or independent schools, they don't pay 100% of whatever they build, government subsidised upto 80%. For truly independent school, we are talking about private school/international school with zero funding from government and the yearly school fees goes up to $30000, that you can take in whoever you want.

If you read this articles (http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/f ... -singapore) then we will understand the direction or logic MOE is taking with this change. From P1 registration to Psle now...may be we can expect more changes in DSA, affiliation etc....all these changes are done to mitigate the problem of \"close circle\"/worsening student diversity in top schools and the gap between these top schools and neighbourhood schools....one aim...to spread the top talents to more schools and increase student diversity in top schools.....I think MOE is moving in the right direction but not bold enough although I understand we cant have drastic changes in education.

[pirate]

Melaka1986:

My opinion is Life Is Not Fair. Some are born with more brain, others with more ball sense. I told my kid hardwork never guarantee you get what you want. Because every boy thinks he works the hardest and he should get what he wants. But there is a limited supply of \"RI\"...


I am inclined to think with more top kids \"spilling\" out to other schools, we will be better off creating more \"top\" schools.

Unfortunately, some people are so caught up with 'meritocracy' that they fail to see that a few point difference under the present T-score system is just as likely due to pure dumb luck as merit. Just having the 'right' or 'wrong' questions come up for a particular child in the PSLE papers will easily account for the difference. And with so many multiple choice questions, a few lucky guesses will also make up the points.

Child A may get 265 and Child B 260 in one PSLE. But if they had taken another PSLE with a different set of questions on a different day, the result could well be the complete opposite.

[SpartanMum]

pirate:

SpartanMum:

I believe the competition won't be in the category where the total points is 4 or less becos I believe there won't be that many of these. It will be likely in the 5-7 category that the competition to get into elite schools will be intense.

I am one of those who believe that spreading the high scoring students among more schools instead of having all of them crammed into a handful of so-called 'elite' schools is the right direction.

Pirate that would be ideal. Then, now that IP and IB are here to stay, all schools must offer onre or both programmes too.

Oh and while we are at it, let's seriously make it more sensible by abolishing affiliation, SAP schools and such schemes that give an advantage to certain groups only. Yes please!

[UBKmom]

SpartanMum:

pirate:

[quote=\"SpartanMum\"]I believe the competition won't be in the category where the total points is 4 or less becos I believe there won't be that many of these. It will be likely in the 5-7 category that the competition to get into elite schools will be intense.

I am one of those who believe that spreading the high scoring students among more schools instead of having all of them crammed into a handful of so-called 'elite' schools is the right direction.

Pirate that would be ideal. Then, now that IP and IB are here to stay, all schools must offer onre or both programmes too.

Oh and while we are at it, let's seriously make it more sensible by abolishing affiliation, SAP schools and such schemes that give an advantage to certain groups only. Yes please![/quote]Why we need to abolish SAP schools? SAP schools play a very specific role in Singapore education due to historical and political reasons but I don't think it prohibit other races to study there because I did saw some other races at SAP schools. To me, it is just like another programme eg GEP, NUSH, SOTA, SST and run in a limited number of schools.

[hquek]

pirate:

SpartanMum:

I believe the competition won't be in the category where the total points is 4 or less becos I believe there won't be that many of these. It will be likely in the 5-7 category that the competition to get into elite schools will be intense.

I am one of those who believe that spreading the high scoring students among more schools instead of having all of them crammed into a handful of so-called 'elite' schools is the right direction.

Broader view, sprinkle high scoring students over more schools rather than have them concentrated in a few. But as a parent, or as a student, if you are high scoring, would YOU rather you/your child go to ABC secondary school and not the prestigious one?

Armchair vs actual situation, will there be a difference?

[floppy]

hquek:

pirate:

[quote=\"SpartanMum\"]I believe the competition won't be in the category where the total points is 4 or less becos I believe there won't be that many of these. It will be likely in the 5-7 category that the competition to get into elite schools will be intense.

I am one of those who believe that spreading the high scoring students among more schools instead of having all of them crammed into a handful of so-called 'elite' schools is the right direction.

Broader view, sprinkle high scoring students over more schools rather than have them concentrated in a few. But as a parent, or as a student, if you are high scoring, would YOU rather you/your child go to ABC secondary school and not the prestigious one?

Armchair vs actual situation, will there be a difference?[/quote]You are right except that it is not a case of going to ABC secondary school and not the prestigious one.

You are talking about high scoring students going to the likes of Nanyang Girls or Cedar Girls (no offense to either school). Both schools will produce a student of a high caliber. So there's no difference apart from bragging rights to the parents relatives.

[SpartanMum]

UBKmom:

Why we need to abolish SAP schools? SAP schools play a very specific role in Singapore education due to historical and political reasons but I don't think it prohibit other races to study there because I did saw some other races at SAP schools. To me, it is just like another programme eg GEP, NUSH, SOTA, SST and run in a limited number of schools.

Ah UBKMom... Why abolish SAP schools? Why get rid of affliation? Why try and negate the concept of elite schools? There will always be reasons for wanting and keeping certain ways of doing things...that's the point I was trying to make. Very few situations in life are truly ideal and as you said political and historical reasons influence the way things are done.

By the way, didn't at all mean to offend any SAP school folks on this forum. Love my SAP alumni friends to bits. UKBMom is right - SAP schools DO NOT prohibit other races....I do believe though that they disallow taking any other languages other than Chinese. Friend of mine tried to her DC in and was very politely told sorry not possible. Oh and GEP, NUSH, SOTA, SST all take in students who take any MTL.

:offtopic: sincere apologies!

[pirate]

hquek:

Broader view, sprinkle high scoring students over more schools rather than have them concentrated in a few. But as a parent, or as a student, if you are high scoring, would YOU rather you/your child go to ABC secondary school and not the prestigious one?


Armchair vs actual situation, will there be a difference?

I think you exaggerate.

If my child has score of say 8, I would have no issue with a school with a projected cut-off of 9-10, and choosing an 11-12 as the really safe kiasi option as 5th or 6th choice. Even then, the chances of ending up in the 11-12 point school is really slim unless my child's batch suddenly had a surge of 8 pointers and better.

Bear in mind that an 8-pointer does not have to ballot against a 9-pointer even if the 8-pointer puts the school as the 6th choice and the 9-pointer puts it as 1st choice. It is not as though the system is going to throw an 8-pointer to a school with a cut-off of 25, unless the child or student did something really stupid with their 6 choices, like putting 7 points cut-off schools as 1st - 3rd choices and 8 points cut-off schools as 4th to 6th choices.

[hquek]

floppy:

You are right except that it is not a case of going to ABC secondary school and not the prestigious one.

You are talking about high scoring students going to the likes of Nanyang Girls or Cedar Girls (no offense to either school). Both schools will produce a student of a high caliber. So there's no difference apart from bragging rights to the parents relatives.

Me not from either school so not going to comment - both schools are good I'm sure.

I was in different JCs (first 3 months vs rest of JC life)...there WAS a difference in what the kids offered. In the 'more named' one, kids were offered S papers (H3), scholarship talks etc - basically all the information they could possibly want to study overseas and get scholarships; in the lesser one, such just weren't available, teachers had it up to their ears just trying to teach.

Sadly, there ARE differences in what the kids get exposed to, I believe that's why parents would aim for some schools as opposed to others.