Petition to Review the Singapore Education System
-
Agreed and signed.
-
chamonix:
Yup... we are against any changes to system mechanisms that will have the downstream effect of:thankyou: Chenonceau.
I think only vividlaurel and you understand what I am driving at.
(1) taking away our children's baby and toddlerhood
(2) upping stress levels -
Faun:
No need sorry lah... oso not your fault. I'm just allergic to responsibility. :boogie: :dancing: :evil:
So sorry. I could feel you had some reservation carrying this through at first. After all, it's SA2 period and everyone is busy with their own lives. It's very kind of you to take this up to help us parents. I'm not good in writing so can only help to spread this. Will shoot my email out to friends tomorrow.
Did you say we need 1000 signatures?
As to the 1000 signatures... please, oh please, oh pretty please!! :please: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Would other forummers kindly email and facebook the petition too? It's at http://www.petitiononline.com/SgEd2011/petition.html. -
Chenonceau:
Yes, agree that ksi is gd! In a lot of other areas too - just look at her talents ranging from maths expertise to anything under the KSP sky .... Multi-talented & helpful too. She also sounds like a very fun lady to hang out with.ksi:
I just remember a new feature with the upgrade. You can now PM multiple people in one PM, maybe you can use the nicks from the original list which Quiteksmum has helped to collate and PM all and attach the new petition link for them to go and sign up there?
Man! You are really good at this!!
I'll do that too, tomorrow. Now, sleepy...
Sorry, somewhat :offtopic: -
1. It is politically unsound to make all school equal. If NYPS, RGS, etc, become like neigbourhood school it will upset the rich and famous. A high political price to pay.
2. Top traniees in NIE deserves to be in top schools, this is only fair to them. Unless, they willingly or foolishly asked to be posted to your average school, then good luck to them. Well as for the rest of the teacher-wannabe , they will be distributed accordingly. By the way they are equiped to teach, be it math, science, history, etc. So, we expect them to teach whatever. Are we not fair.
3. All are equal but some must be more equal, especially when we want to redue FT. Hence, if PSLE is to be designed to be passed by all P6sers with A* who is going to ITE. It cost alot to build the ITE and staffed it for these peasant children to have a fighting chance - if they die, die still want to study.
4. If PSLE can be attempted without tuition, then many tuition centres have to close shop. Many jobs will be lost, including those offering private tuition services. By the way, they exist for the good of those who can afford and have the wisdom to buy some quality education, to compensate their children average results from average schools.
5. As for class size issue, blah, blah, blah we are actually NATOing it. If it will happen it will happen to the - ahem - top schools.
6. If don’t like the system run by us then privatized the whole educational system lor. Big deal.
7. Every country MUST have a larger portion of peasant. Don’t worry for them of not having a equal footing or headstart in education. Let them toil where we don’t.
sorry I’m just working for the devil. -
looking4Tutor:
Oh dear! Oh dear! I can understand your frustration and feel the extent of your emotions. :snuggles: It has come forth in online sarcasm that may well be quite quite justified.1. It is politically unsound to make all school equal. If NYPS, RGS, etc, become like neigbourhood school it will upset the rich and famous. A high political price to pay.
2. Top traniees in NIE deserves to be in top schools, this is only fair to them. Unless, they willingly or foolishly asked to be posted to your average school, then good luck to them. Well as for the rest of the teacher-wannabe , they will be distributed accordingly. By the way they are equiped to teach, be it math, science, history, etc. So, we expect them to teach whatever. Are we not fair.
3. All are equal but some must be more equal, especially when we want to redue FT. Hence, if PSLE is to be designed to be passed by all P6sers with A* who is going to ITE. It cost alot to build the ITE and staffed it for these peasant children to have a fighting chance - if they die, die still want to study.
4. If PSLE can be attempted without tuition, then many tuition centres have to close shop. Many jobs will be lost, including those offering private tuition services. By the way, they exist for the good of those who can afford and have the wisdom to buy some quality education, to compensate their children average results from average schools.
5. As for class size issue, blah, blah, blah we are actually NATOing it. If it will happen it will happen to the - ahem - top schools.
6. If don't like the system run by us then privatized the whole educational system lor. Big deal.
7. Every country MUST have a larger portion of peasant. Don't worry for them of not having a equal footing or headstart in education. Let them toil where we don't.
sorry I'm just working for the devil.
However, I was hoping that we would be able to focus on pushing possibilities for concrete action in a civil and reasonable way. It is not so much that I don't believe strong words are in order here. I only took the step to organise this petition because I was very much upset. In my private moments, I too have much sarcasm to share. So you see, I do understand lah... I do.
But I don't want the government to dismiss us as a group of emotional and anonymous online ranters, you see. I also dun want the thread to become politicised and anti-govt. This is not its purpose.
Our govt thinks better than it feels. It reasons better than it empathises. Like it or not, that is the govt we have now and need to work with. We must invite it to work with us on an issue of great importance, not chase it away with sarcasm. The good thing though, is that your post says what I feel... even though I think it is not appropriate (as yet) to get mad at them.
When they continue to ignore us despite our reasonableness... then we can escalate the emotive response? Does that sound reasonable to you? We need to open the govt's mind to CONSIDERING a paradigm shift, and if we abuse it with sarcasm, it'll do what my husband does when I am determined to make him suffer. He'll shut up and go away, and leave me talking to the toilet sink.
Clearly, you feel strongly - won't you please help to publicise the petition? That would give us a chance at seeing whether the govt will make good its election promise to listen and dialogue. -
And oh, Looking4Tutor... the petition did not suggest completely NO ABILITY BANDING. It suggested broadening the band to account for the fact that many variables affect t-score - child's motivation levels, child's energy levels on the day of the exam, child's emotional states on the day of exam.
Such states can account for 10 to 15 marks on a paper from my experience. If my son goes into a math exam tired and overwrought, he will make careless mistakes worth 10 to 15 marks. Many students go into exams tired and frightened, the exam scores are thus an imperfect reflection of that child's ability. The BROADENED ABILITY BANDING ensures that such children have access to good educational resources too, even if it means that students in the 4 top schools go for 1 study trip in 4 years rather than 3. -
QuiteKSMum:
Yes, agree that ksi is gd! In a lot of other areas too - just look at her talents ranging from maths expertise to anything under the KSP sky .... Multi-talented & helpful too. She also sounds like a very fun lady to hang out with.Chenonceau:
[quote=\"ksi\"]I just remember a new feature with the upgrade. You can now PM multiple people in one PM, maybe you can use the nicks from the original list which Quiteksmum has helped to collate and PM all and attach the new petition link for them to go and sign up there?
Man! You are really good at this!! I'll do that too, tomorrow. Now, sleepy...
Sorry, somewhat :offtopic:[/quote]She has a reputation in notti corner too :lol: ... I keep wanting to apply to go and see, but haven't got around to it yet. -
I know what I am going to write about will not go well with a lot of people, especially if your children are in any of schools with affiliation. Well my kids are also in one of these schools, however, I feel that it’s time for the MOE to step in to regulate the cutting off point (COP) between the affiliated students and non-affiliates as I felt that the current COP is too huge a disparity for students, especially if they are from the non-affiliated schools. Let me cite an example: Student A from a non-affiliated school scored 240 in T-score and yet he/she is unable to get admitted into the school of his/her choice that happen to be a school with affiliation while Student B of 220 T-score can easily get admitted to his/her affiliaed school. The 20 points difference in T-score will mean greater than 20 points in actual papers. How would Student A feel? Worse if Student A didn’t manage to get into the affiliated primary school during the Primary One balloting exercise. This is a double blow to him/ her. How about Student B? Because of the affiliated scheme, Student B might be complacent and not work hard.
I just feel that this is a very bias system, not a fair system as what MOE or any of the ministers have advocated. It’s fine to keep the affiliation if you want to satisfy the good deed or contribution by the communities, however do you need to have such a huge disparity in the COP? Most of these schools have COP as great as 20-50 basis points different!
I sincerely hope that MOE will step in to regulate the COP to one that is more palatable so that more students from non-affiliates can gain access to school of their choice and not be a victim of current system.
As parents, I should be happy since my kids are in these affiliated schools. However, I am advocating for a fairer education system for all kids. -
:thankyou: everyone for the wonderful insights that I have been reading through this topic.
I am not a product of this system and so this is extremely daunting for me. I'm learning on the job so to say and now that my children are in P2, I am realising what I have ahead for me. I am learning so much reading the posts here, so thanks to everyone here for their insights and ideas...
Reading all this has convinced more than ever that the decision I took earlier this week to resign my job and take up a lesser paying albeit more flexible hours job was the best decision I have made for my children (need money to pay for tuition and enrichment classes mah!).
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login