Opinions of the Primary School Registration System
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citygirl:
Couldn't agree more.
Everyone advocates rule changes that would benefit their situation but there is never one system which can be fair to all. Instead of clamouring for a 0.5km distance category or arguing that others in earlier phases are less deserving, we should make the best of what we have, I think.
Besides having different opinion on which earlier phases are less deserving, I think some also strongly do not agree with the \"close door\" PV selection process.
It is interesting some of us may accept that they not successful after the job interview and only a few would call the company, say it is not fair and demand an explanation on not being hired. But when it comes to PV selection, the general expectation seems to demand more transparancy explanation and fairness. Perhaps schools are not private entity and expected to be \"socially more responsible\" and find \"favouritism\" hard to be tolerated. Interesting.
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It's not possible to have a system which is fair and will please everyone.
I know parents who are registering for first time will be throwing bats at me for saying this
. I am staying within 1km of Pei Hwa and like many, I did wished there was another advantage 'created' ie 'Within 500m' when I registered my son then.
There are phases in place for every child - from Phase 1 (only phase guaranteed 100%), Phase 2A1/2A2 (99.9% guarantee), Phase 2B and 2C (places are split 50/50). -
janet_lee88:
Er..........am glad the \"bats\" missed you............It's not possible to have a system which is fair and will please everyone.
I know parents who are registering for first time will be throwing bats at me for saying this. I am staying within 1km of Pei Hwa and like many, I did wished there was another advantage 'created' ie 'Within 500m' when I registered my son then.
There are phases in place for every child - from Phase 1 (only phase guaranteed 100%), Phase 2A1/2A2 (99.9% guarantee), Phase 2B and 2C (places are split 50/50).
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dorisp:
may be some more bats akan datang......
Er..........am glad the \"bats\" missed you............janet_lee88:
It's not possible to have a system which is fair and will please everyone.
I know parents who are registering for first time will be throwing bats at me for saying this. I am staying within 1km of Pei Hwa and like many, I did wished there was another advantage 'created' ie 'Within 500m' when I registered my son then.
There are phases in place for every child - from Phase 1 (only phase guaranteed 100%), Phase 2A1/2A2 (99.9% guarantee), Phase 2B and 2C (places are split 50/50). -
:siam:
Jokes aside, some parents are eligible for Phase 2A but want a shot at another school whom they think is \"better\" so they end up joining other parents and \"compete\" in P2B and P2C of another shcool of their choice. If this group of parents fails to succeed in 2B/2C, hope they don't blame the system as this was their choice.
On the other hand, there are some that genuinely didn't have a P2A choice so comparatively, this group is certainly more \"ke lian\"......... -
verykiasu2010:
And I wonder who you might be referring to, unless it be innuendo also?
it is easy for people who are not involved and ill-informed to sneer at it and make all kinds innuendoes and sacrcasm.... -
verykiasu2010:
who are willing to give up specialist doctor's clinic hours to be a PV to provide free medical services in school sports meet, carnivals etc, regular sick bay duty ? or dentist who give up clinic hours to provide free dental care for the school's kids as a PV ? paying someone equally qualified to do it sounds more like bribery
Right......a specialist doc is better deployed covering a sports day scratches, sprains and dehydration, than running his clinic. And I suppose he is there of he own free will and would be in attendance even if his child were not in the running for a place.verykiasu2010:
And one needs 40 hours of that to drive the lesson home....it is easy to just mention traffic warden duty, but how many parents are willing to do it before they appreciate importance of road safety when many motorist drive like devils on wheels in a school zone ?
You've completely missed the point.
What part of the PV exercise is not coercive? Don't speak of the very few that subsequently get their child in AND establish lasting links. Are there not better ways of doing so, in a more equitable way? That is what I am asking. -
Look, I am not here to knock the PEOPLE who do PV. I’ve been there myself and I know the motivations. However, as this is a thread about P1 admissions, I am stating a view about the PV SYSTEM, the behaviour it engenders, and the inequity it promulgates.
I had the ‘privilege’ of doing PVs at 2 different schools, and having my son admitted to one of the schools eventually. No one doubts the earnestness and sincerity of the administrators tasked to manage PVs, at least in the schools I volunteered at. However, one could not get a sense of whether they really understood or felt that PVs were provisioning anything that they could not more easily just had procured from a private vendor.
Further, my experience in both schools were so vastly different, from the selection process, the administration, to eventually the PVs roles (one offered a role related to my professional interest, one completely unrelated) performed, that I cannot but feel that it was a somewhat arbitrary exercise.
Last but not least, this scheme favours the well educated and well heeled, at least in the majority. If you have some qualification, control your own hours, or an SAHM for whom the husband earns enough to keep the house going, congratulations, you are in the frame. If you have to punch time in and out at the factory, too bad. Kudos to TNS for flattening the playing field, but what you end up, even there, is nothing more a parent selection exercise, if all you get to do is be a lollipop man. And one gets the sense that in that case, it really is opening a PV programme for the sake of doing it.
Call it hypocritical if you will, but having benefited from it, I can see how weighted it is against families who already have things stacked against them, and I really wish for this to be changed. -
3boys you have gotten the crux of my views which many have failed to. To reiterate, I am not against any phase. What I am saying is that under the current P1 registration sysyem, phase 2A can effectively fill up to 100%. There will be no phase 2B/C if this happen. Thereby, creating an entrenchment of an elite class. Core values are shaped at early age. And if our future generations are already grouped (in vs out group) so early in life, how can the government then expect these elite groups to integrate with the masses later in life? And the worrying part is-- some schools already hitting 70 plus percent now. Thus, the call for the government to address this gap in the system.
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mummy168:
3boys you have gotten the crux of my views which many have failed to. To reiterate, I am not against any phase. What I am saying is that under the current P1 registration sysyem, phase 2A can effectively fill up to 100%. There will be no phase 2B/C if this happen. Thereby, creating an entrenchment of an elite class. Core values are shaped at early age. And if our future generations are already grouped (in vs out group) so early in life, how can the government then expect these elite groups to integrate with the masses later in life? And the worrying part is-- some schools already hitting 70 plus percent now. Thus, the call for the government to address this gap in the system.
But then, is there any easy way out? I haven't thought this through very much; but if they lift the 2A and 2B, it will all boil down to distance right?
In that case, only those with loads of money to spend (aka the elite) will be able to afford homes near the schools and still end up in those schools they eye (or at least with a very good chance). Property prices near choice schools possibly will spiral to dizzying heights.
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