Opinions of the Primary School Registration System
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hquek:
I wrote in to be PV. When I was rejected, I asked hubby, 'What's next ? Are we still going for the school ?' He told me, 'Phase 2C..failing which we will register him in not so popular school, and maybe not so stressful'.
I did PV work (waking up early, taking leave etc) to get myself into 2B and was lucky to have succeeded. But failing which I was prepared to get into a not so popular school - such is life and I will take whatever comes my way with the knowledge that things will work out for the best. I will do what is best for my child - to me, this does not mean putting him in the most popular school in the land, but by helping and guiding him in his academic life.
Being in a popular school does not guarantee entry to a top school.
Upon successful entry to a popular school, the child must work very hard to compete with other kids. Ultimately at P6, the child decides he/she wants to work hard or not. -
mark, janet, php, Sun, citygirl
I will admit that my initial take on popular vs non-popular schools was very much in the vein of 'so what?' If the kid is bright, if DW and myself do our jobs, it does not really matter so much, yes? That is largely still the case, although having had my eldest in school for over a year now, my view on that has shifted slightly. One could choose to be sanguine about which school one's child gets too, and with benefit of hindsight, I still believe that I could sleep well at night with my boy in a less popular neighbourhood school. But do read my link to the Economist article in my other post, about unequal societies, smart begets smart, and rich begets rich, and the exceptions merely prove the rule. This troubles me and I only seek to try and level the playing field (a little).
It then begs the question, if it does not matter, then why have all the barriers in the first place? For schools with admission sizes of between 240-330, should it be that less than one third are open to the 'general public' at phase 2B and lower? And even then, in some schools you are competing with church members, associations members. TUR for Nanyang is 82% by end of 2A in 2010, i.e. if you did not have some form of link to the school, you stood a miniscule chance of your child ever getting in. Now you are in 2B, sweating 80hrs of 'parent selection', for another 30 or so slots.
No, it does not matter, not enough to indulge in insanity anyway. That being the case, why is there so little thought to make the system a little more egalitarian? Surely >60% of a P school admission locked up in special admissions is not becoming of public institutions? Perhaps the cap needs to work in reverse, i.e 30% reserved for alumni, teachers etc. all else open to public ballot.
Fair?
Not really my fight, since I am past the point of no return, but that generally does not stop me from being a lightning rod. -
Imagine if your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother, and you and your girl all go to the same primary school. And the primary school is filled with people with similar traits. No other person could get in because school is 100% filled up at P2A. The whole family tree will share the same value shaped by the school. And this scenerio is replicated in the whole school population and all sing the same song. There is no opportunity of cross fertilisation of ideas with people outside this group in the whole primary education. The end result will be an elitist group or an in group or an exclusive group, whatever term you wanna call it. And how could the parent who is a part of the equation guide the child in not having the ‘elitist’ value? Herein lies the entrenchment of classes in the current pri sch registration system.
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mummy168:
Imagine if your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother, and you and your girl all go to the same primary school. And the primary school is filled with people with similar traits. No other person could get in because school is 100% filled up at P2A. The whole family tree will share the same value shaped by the school. And this scenerio is replicated in the whole school population and all sing the same song. There is no opportunity of cross fertilisation of ideas with people outside this group in the whole primary education. The end result will be an elitist group or an in group or an exclusive group, whatever term you wanna call it. And how could the parent who is a part of the equation guide the child in not having the 'elitist' value? Herein lies the entrenchment of classes in the current pri sch registration system.
Your argument is hypothetical. First schools are not fully filled at phase 2a, secondly, children of staff are qualified for earlier phase too. -
tankee:
I don't think there are many schools attended by great grandmother & grandmother are still around. In those days, not many families can afford to send children to school, not to say girls. Also, if you are staying far from the school, I don't think many parents will send the kids there either...there will still be, but they will consider the distance.mummy168:
Imagine if your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother, and you and your girl all go to the same primary school. And the primary school is filled with people with similar traits.
Your argument is hypothetical. First schools are not fully filled at phase 2a, secondly, children of staff are qualified for earlier phase too. -
janet_lee88:
I don't think there are many schools attended by great grandmother & grandmother are still around. In those days, not many families can afford to send children to school, not to say girls. Also, if you are staying far from the school, I don't think many parents will send the kids there either...there will still be, but they will consider the distance.
that's a good point !
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mummy168:
Imagine if your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother, and you and your girl all go to the same primary school. And the primary school is filled with people with similar traits. No other person could get in because school is 100% filled up at P2A. The whole family tree will share the same value shaped by the school. And this scenerio is replicated in the whole school population and all sing the same song. There is no opportunity of cross fertilisation of ideas with people outside this group in the whole primary education. The end result will be an elitist group or an in group or an exclusive group, whatever term you wanna call it. And how could the parent who is a part of the equation guide the child in not having the 'elitist' value? Herein lies the entrenchment of classes in the current pri sch registration system.
:!: -
tankee:
Is it alright for top schools to be consistently >60% filled by end of 2A? Leaving the rest of the interested public to fight over the rest?mummy168:
Imagine if your great grandmother, your grandmother and your mother, and you and your girl all go to the same primary school. And the primary school is filled with people with similar traits. No other person could get in because school is 100% filled up at P2A. The whole family tree will share the same value shaped by the school. And this scenerio is replicated in the whole school population and all sing the same song. There is no opportunity of cross fertilisation of ideas with people outside this group in the whole primary education. The end result will be an elitist group or an in group or an exclusive group, whatever term you wanna call it. And how could the parent who is a part of the equation guide the child in not having the 'elitist' value? Herein lies the entrenchment of classes in the current pri sch registration system.
Your argument is hypothetical. First schools are not fully filled at phase 2a, secondly, children of staff are qualified for earlier phase too.
I'm not saying I know what the right number should be, but this seems uncomfortably high in my view. Has there been any public discourse on this issue? I don't think one should just sweep it under the carpet and say 'that's life, get on with it'. I use that phrase quite often, but here is a situation where I think more thought needs to be applied. -
janet_lee88:
I don't think there are many schools attended by great grandmother & grandmother are still around. In those days, not many families can afford to send children to school, not to say girls. Also, if you are staying far from the school, I don't think many parents will send the kids there either...there will still be, but they will consider the distance.
I am using girls for my example. It could jolly well be boys. If the pri school sy is to stay, the scenerio I paint could really happen in your great grandchildren time! -
mummy168:
I am using girls for my example. It could jolly well be boys. If the pri school sy is to stay, the scenerio I paint could really happen in your great grandchildren time!
Honestly, do you think it's worthwhile to think so far ?
Those parents who are old boys/girls may want to send their kids back to their former school, but let's say daddy wants to send his sons back to his former school but has 2 daughters ?
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