Petition to Review the Singapore Education System

[Chenonceau]

PreciousMoments66:

Let primary school children have fun learning, enjoy the process of learning. Please don't rob them of their childhood.

Well said!! Oh well said!! It is terrible when parents have to hurry to teach their tots how to read thick books in 2 languages before Primary 1 in order to be confident that their kids will do reasonably well. It is terrible that others feel the need to teach their 2 year olds Primary 1 math concepts.

[QuiteKSMum]

janet_lee88:

I'm just wondering...if MOE teachers themselves cannot cope, do they 'outsource' for their own kids ? If that happens, then I believe they will understand the feelings of we parents.

Yes they do, I know lots of teachers outsource the extra coaching of their kids to enrichment ctrs, prof tutors etc . Esp evident in the upper Pri years ... telling, rite? ( shhh... even for students fm top IP schs starting with the letter \"R\"...)

[Chenonceau]

QuiteKSMum:

janet_lee88:

I'm just wondering...if MOE teachers themselves cannot cope, do they 'outsource' for their own kids ? If that happens, then I believe they will understand the feelings of we parents.

Yes they do, I know lots of teachers outsource the extra coaching of their kids to enrichment ctrs, prof tutors etc . Esp evident in the upper Pri years ... telling, rite? ( shhh... even for students fm top IP schs starting with the letter \"R\"...)

Principals outsource tuition for their own kids too!!

[cnimed]

Chenoceau,

I apologise if this has already been suggested, but I think you should be doing the petition on this website instead:

http://www.petitiononline.com/

This is purely functional. If you use Kiasuparents, you will have to put in a lot of extra time to collate the information and individual signer's name. If you use petitiononline, the petition will be laid out formally, and each individual sign separately with name, and they can also add their comments to the petition. The numbers will be tallied and once you hit the number you can send it off. It's fast, neat and efficient, and anyone can sign the petition without setting up an account. We can all send it off to our friends and they can sign it immediately on one master list. Just for your consideration.

[Chenonceau]

deminc:

Chenoceau,

I apologise if this has already been suggested, but I think you should be doing the petition on this website instead:

http://www.petitiononline.com/

This is purely functional. If you use Kiasuparents, you will have to put in a lot of extra time to collate the information and individual signer's name. If you use petitiononline, the petition will be laid out formally, and each individual sign separately with name, and they can also add their comments to the petition. The numbers will be tallied and once you hit the number you can send it off. It's fast, neat and efficient, and anyone can sign the petition without setting up an account. We can all send it off to our friends and they can sign it immediately on one master list. Just for your consideration.

I know... I know... it is a good idea. Ksi suggested it and I was exploring that option. But Chief was very kind and allowed me to separate out the thread, add a poll... and pop the article on the front page. Now I am in a dilemma... do I throw Chief's kindness back at him... or shall I live with an imperfect petition? Also, I already changed once... and people have to revote.

I feel bad to bother voters to vote a third time... How ah? How ah?

I feel like living with the imperfection leh... wanna respect the efforts of people (Chief and Voters) who have so far invested themselves a little in this. The only person to blame is me. I ain't much good at this.

My heart is in the right place but the skills are not quite there. Sorry!!

[mrspan]

I support this petition

[1G2B]

Very well said. Definitely support the petition.

[vividlaurel]

This is a subject I am quite passionate about! So YES I do support this petition!


I also heard the education minister say during one of his election speeches that they aim for 30% of a cohort to enter university and almost at the same time say the education system is one of the best in the world!

If this was so, then why just 30% of a cohort for university admissions? Isn't the other 70% just as capable? Ok I understand that some will not want to go on to Uni, but of the remaining 70%, I am sure that atleast 50% of them will want to study furhter? Why are we depriving them and instead filling our universitiies with foreign students? How many of us can afford a foreign university education for our children?

My kids are still in Primary school, but unless this is not debated now, come 10-12 years down the line, we have a whole host of Singaporean children whose parents have scimped and saved for their foreign education who will never come back! The system needs to be changed and this change should start at the foundation - which is the Primary school system!

Sorry for the rant.... :mad:

[foreverj]

I support this petition.


Interestingly, my hubby recently commented that its interesting how our society has progressed in terms of cost and quality of living and yet the class size today is no different from 30, 40 years ago when we were kids. Ironically, the level of difficulty in the exams has increased so much, likely due to the factors listed in chenonceau's article. Honestly, I believe human evolution does not happen that fast!!! :razz: I shudder to think of the kind of stressful learning environmt my 5 yr old has to go thru - this is not the way I want her to learn and grow up in.

[3Boys]

Human evolution does not occur so quickly, but social evolution evolves on a much more rapid timeline. Average life expectancy just 200 years ago was in the 40s-50s, societal changes driven by nutrition, hygiene and healthcare have driven that up significantly. I believe the same is happening in education. As with MRT and HDB, unfortunately the infrastructure has not kept up, which is where the private tuition things comes in. At risk of sounding like the MIW, I do generally believe in levelling up, as opposed to levelling down, but it needs to to be a sincere effort to help the disadvantaged.