band vs cop?

[autolycus]

Kiasu Friend:

JonC:

Means the school and the school management has a lot more say than other school when comes to many decision affecting the school.

Thank you JonC.

Can you please explain how 'autonomous schools' differ from 'independent' schools? It is somewhat confusing.

Thanks and regards.

I think the best way to explain is to say that both ASs and ISs have a large degree of control over how they spend their 'capitation grant'—that is, the amount of money MOE passes to them per student.

This money can be used for all kinds of enrichment programmes and special facilities, within reason.

All Singapore schools must still adhere to certain guidelines such as the bilingual policy, national education, and so on.

However, ASs run curriculum completely within the system while ISs can do things like adopt unusual systems leading to different academic qualifications. For example, NUSHSMS, Sports School, SOTA, ACS(I) (among others) have alternatives to the O and A level standard system.

In this sense, ASs and ISs are the non-standard schools within the Singapore education system, but ISs are even less constrained than ASs.

[JonC]

Maybe you should read here,

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=81712#81712

[autolycus]

JonC:

Maybe you should read here,

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=81712#81712

Yes, what is stated there is generally true. But you will also note that ISs now have fees starting around $300 pm for Singaporeans. For ACS(I), it's an exorbitant $400. And that doesn't include the many supplementary fees and other expenses.

From my perspective, parents should do their due diligence when scoping out ISs. You need to know exactly what your children are getting for the huge amount you will be spending. If a school charges $50 a year for notes, photocopying etc, that's about 1800+ pages of notes per year per student.

I know it's hard for many parents to make sense of the hugely complex Singapore education system and the terms which schools (sometimes rather loosely) use in describing their programmes. But if you're going to put your child in an 'elite' IS for 4-6 years, it's worth the effort to get an explanation in detail.

That's why I think KSP is a very useful site that provides a good service. I've learnt a lot from fellow forum users in my short time here.