Secondary School Chinese
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From 2026, more students to be allowed to study higher mother tongue from Sec 1: Chan Chun Sing
More students will be allowed to study their mother tongue languages (MTLs) – Chinese, Malay or Tamil – at a higher level in secondary schools as part of a raft of efforts set to kick in over the next few years to shore up bilingual education.
From 2026, pupils who do well in the subject in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) will be able to take higher mother tongue languages (HMTLs) in Secondary 1, regardless of their overall PSLE score.
These are pupils who score AL1 or AL2 – the two highest possible scores – in their mother tongue, or a distinction or merit in HMTL in the PSLE.
This is a change from the current system, where pupils must do well across all four subjects – English, maths, science and mother tongue – in the PSLE to qualify to study HMTL in secondary school.
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@Schootopia Honestly speaking, using AI to write something devaluates the meaning of writing in the first place. We write when we want to say something. Having a machine write for us makes us lazy and redundant.
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@ChiefKiasu I think it really depends on whether AI is left to be the final arbiter of what is appropriate, correct, etc. I would not want to treat AI’s output as the final product - a human should always be the final editor and checker. As it stands now, there are too many risks in assuming AI will always get things right.
I attended a short intro course on LLM’s last year, just to learn more about what they can and can’t do. My takeaway is that we should treat them like a fairly intelligent intern - they can produce a decent first draft if given correct and exhaustive prompts! But the output still needs to be carefully checked and refined. This is what students need to learn - how to evaluate what LLMs produce, and how to improve the output so that they are willing to sign off on them.
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@ChiefKiasu There’s also the issue of style - after a while, LLM “writing” can be recognised as such. If I’m going to put my name at the end of something, I would want it to sound like me!
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@Schootopia Lol… of course you are not suggesting that people just copy with AI.
However, the tendency for people to do so is just right there, and people will just copy. Why think when someone else can think better than us? In the not so far off future, works from Leonardo di Vinci will pale in comparison to computer generated graphics, so why bother painting?
Think about chess. It was very popular in the 1900s, but with computer algorithms being so good now that no human can beat the machine, it was relegated to the background. Few people strive to be a chess champion these days, unlike 60 years ago.
I understand that it is suggested that AI be used as a tool. But like all tools, it can be used to destroy and maim. It is all too easy to use AI as a tool, and become a slave to it.
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@slmkhoo Maybe the correct way is to use AI to generate some suggested passages, and then write something totally different. It’s easier said than done.
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@bbbay said in Secondary School Chinese:
Not sure about other SAP colleges, For HCI college, to get exemption from H1 Chinese , O level students need at least a C6, IP students need at least B4 (or B3?), in O level HCL grade.
My children were from non IP SAP secondary schools. All of them require to attempt HCL from secondary 1. I know another non IP SAP secondary school does not require all students to attempt HCL. so best is to email the school to check
yes this is true
min B4 for HCI kids advancing to HCJCto ride on this, any recommendations for hcl tuition for hci kids? my kid in sec3 now, not failing but not ace-ing his higher chinese exams in hci
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On AI taking over everything:
the cheaper, more accurate and features rich digital watches have not replaced analog watches completely. the hand made Swiss analog watches still command a very high premium. The cheaper more durable plastic crockeries have not make porcelain china obsolete. People are willing to pay much more for porcelain china even when they are very fragile compared plastics. If AI is the digital watches/plastics, analog watches/porcelain china are the human spirits - has a valuable place in the world.
This is for entertainment:
In the movie Creator, world war breaks out between 2 camps: AI and its human supporters camp , and human camp. The human camp blame AI for a nuclear disaster when it was the human that made a mistake is programming AI that cause the nuclear disaster. In the movie, the AI machine is the benevolent good guys , the human camp is the cruel bad guys.
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@ChiefKiasu Yes, it needs a basic ability that has to be honed first. That’s why I personally wouldn’t want AI to be introduced in Pr school. I don’t even like calculators in Pr school! Some basic skills and understanding have to be worked on an internalised first, then the person can control the machines and assess the output later on. I’ve had too many people tell me “it came from the computer, so it must be right!” when it’s obviously wrong.
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@MintLeaf u did not state for sec1 or 2 or?
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