Petition to Review the Singapore Education System

[sall]

ksi:

Is this new? Any official MOE statement on this as a practice across all schools? I felt really sympathetic towards that child who went through IP and ended with only a PSLE cert. which could get him nowhere. :sad: Most importantly, employers or private institutions recognise this certificate?

I don't know whether it is a practice across all IP schools. In dd's sch, the P assured us about this.
Parents should not worry that the students will only have psle cert if they fail A level. They have records of their performance in the IP sch and I'm sure the sch will help them with their next move.

[meinteel]

Records of performance mean little. As far as I can see from the websites of NUS/NTU/SMU and our largest private uni SIM, the very FIRST criteria of APPLICATION - not acceptance - is well, GCE A Levels, Diploma from a local Polytechnic or other international qualifications like SAT, IB, FB, Gao Kao etc.


Any decent universities will require you to submit your two highest qualification ( in this case failed A levels + PSLE). Unless you get a minimum of straight Cs for your GCE A levels, it is generally the accumulated blessings of several generations for the student to get admitted into a local university. Anyone who Ds and Es -which by the way are still passes- can well, forget about applying.

These universities did not ask for, and would not look at transcipts from your college/schools. For example, SIM does not even accept MOE’s graduation book displaying your A level results. They insist on referring to Cambridge’s certificate.

[corneyAmber]

meinteel:

Records of performance mean little. As far as I can see from the websites of NUS/NTU/SMU and our largest private uni SIM, the very FIRST criteria of APPLICATION - not acceptance - is well, GCE A Levels, Diploma from a local Polytechnic or other international qualifications like SAT, IB, FB, Gao Kao etc.


Any decent universities will require you to submit your two highest qualification ( in this case failed A levels + PSLE). Unless you get a minimum of straight Cs for your GCE A levels, it is generally the accumulated blessings of several generations for the student to get admitted into a local university. Anyone who Ds and Es -which by the way are still passes- can well, forget about applying.

These universities did not ask for, and would not look at transcipts from your college/schools. For example, SIM does not even accept MOE's graduation book displaying your A level results. They insist on referring to Cambridge's certificate.

I tend to agree with you because they don't put decision-makers behind the admission desk so they would only look at all standard documents. If you need to vary, it will take alot more effort to get the attention of the decision-maker and sometimes it is just impossible to make that exception too even with the decision-makers.

[meinteel]

In a law by law, everything by the book place…Better to be safe than sorry. Look at the hard cold facts, the "worthless piece of paper" can make a world of difference.


When the school says "help them make the next move", they are by no means referring to helping your child make it into a university. They can "reccomend" your child for a placing, assist him into securing foundation programs or arrange for him to retake his A levels the following year. I don’t think any of these solutions would sit well by a parent, would it?

[Fairy]

Chenonceau:

[u]

At present, the larger proportion of PSC scholars come from HCI, RI, NYGH & RGS. Suppose that a quota were set to pick at least 2 scholars from each of the 11 IP schools, then what will happen is that competition into the top 4 schools will be less frenzied. The prospect of a scholarship spurs many to compete for places in the Top 4 schools.
Indeed, talent will be more evenly distributed across 11 IP schools as parents like me with children who have the potential to be in Top 4, choose to go elsewhere just to have a better work-life balance.

Pardon my ignorance. I do not understand the logic for setting a quota for the award of scholarships to any school. Shouldn't scholarship be awarded based on merit? The 3rd 'best' student from a top school-A may have done way better than the 'best' student from another top school-B. Shouldn't the 3rd 'best' student from school-A deserves the scholarship more than the 'best' student from school-B? I believe the scholarships were awarded based on the students' achievements rather than which school they were from. It just happened that most of the good ones were from those few schools.

[Fairy]

partime-mum:

I heard from my friends whose kids are asked to write a \"Journal\" during the 1st week of Primary 1. I am wondering whether it is supposed to be a \"Journal\" to be written by parents, so that teacher knows what is the commitment and educational standards of the parents??? I think it is ridiculous to expect a P1 kid write a Journal during the 1st week of school. Does MOE expect that all P1 kids have been taught Grammar and Vocabulary prior to start of P1? Does our government expect all mothers to be SAHM and coach the kids personally before our kids start P1? Or does the government that all kids has been tuitioned before they start P1? I hope MOE can review the standard that it has set for the students, as well as for us, working parents.

A friend of mine has been writing the scripts for 'show-&-tell' for her son since last year when he joined MSH at P1! I understand many parents there did that for their child as the marks awarded count towards the overall results for the year.

[meinteel]

Fairy:

Chenonceau:

[u]

At present, the larger proportion of PSC scholars come from HCI, RI, NYGH & RGS. Suppose that a quota were set to pick at least 2 scholars from each of the 11 IP schools, then what will happen is that competition into the top 4 schools will be less frenzied. The prospect of a scholarship spurs many to compete for places in the Top 4 schools.
Indeed, talent will be more evenly distributed across 11 IP schools as parents like me with children who have the potential to be in Top 4, choose to go elsewhere just to have a better work-life balance.

Pardon my ignorance. I do not understand the logic for setting a quota for the award of scholarships to any school. Shouldn't scholarship be awarded based on merit? The 3rd 'best' student from a top school-A may have done way better than the 'best' student from another top school-B. Shouldn't the 3rd 'best' student from school-A deserves the scholarship more than the 'best' student from school-B? I believe the scholarships were awarded based on the students' achievements rather than which school they were from. It just happened that most of the good ones were from those few schools.

I agree with Fairy. Assume that there 6 students, A B C D E F.

Students A B C are from RI, while D E F are from Victoria. Assuming that their academic rankings are as follows; D F A E B C. By current standards, A D F E will be awarded with a scholarship. By Chenonceau's suggestion of quota, only D F from Victoria will be awarded while A B from RI will be awarded as well. Why isn't E from Victoria not be awarded since he did better than B?

[corneyAmber]

Fairy:

Chenonceau:

[u]

At present, the larger proportion of PSC scholars come from HCI, RI, NYGH & RGS. Suppose that a quota were set to pick at least 2 scholars from each of the 11 IP schools, then what will happen is that competition into the top 4 schools will be less frenzied. The prospect of a scholarship spurs many to compete for places in the Top 4 schools.
Indeed, talent will be more evenly distributed across 11 IP schools as parents like me with children who have the potential to be in Top 4, choose to go elsewhere just to have a better work-life balance.

Pardon my ignorance. I do not understand the logic for setting a quota for the award of scholarships to any school. Shouldn't scholarship be awarded based on merit? The 3rd 'best' student from a top school-A may have done way better than the 'best' student from another top school-B. Shouldn't the 3rd 'best' student from school-A deserves the scholarship more than the 'best' student from school-B? I believe the scholarships were awarded based on the students' achievements rather than which school they were from. It just happened that most of the good ones were from those few schools.

Are scholars picked based on national ranked results? Not possible right? I thought it is based on application by the students to the organisations? For example, A(RI), B(VS), C(HCI), D(RI) , E(VS), F(HCI) results are ranked (A best to F)

2 organisations offer scholarship (X, Y)

A, B, C applies organisation X
D, E, F, applies organisation Y

If only one is awarded per organisation, then A and D will get it and it happens that both from RI...

So I think it is based on the merit of the applicants. So already there is certain sense of \"unfairness\" or we call it \"luck\".

[Chenonceau]

We now have 203 signatures here... http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SgEd2011&1


And a response from MOE here...
http://www.facebook.com/moesingapore#!/moesingapore?sk=notes

The petition is still open for signature because I don't feel that the response has adequately addressed parental concerns on exam difficulty, and small class sizes. And I rather believe (pending confirmation) that if you plot the nation's t-scores on a frequency chart, the resultant curve would be pretty much a normal distribution curve. We now have 203 signatures... and signatories' comments can be found here...
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SgEd2011&1

It is good to see robust debate in this thread. I encourage more participation. Agree or disagree... pro or con... please write your thoughts.

[janet88]

ksi:

janet_lee88:

[quote=\"meinteel\"]Parents should first consider how your child managed to get the high score for PSLE. Is he capable of handling much more work load on his own? If not, take the normal route. The number of years taken till A levels would still be the same, the only difference is that he will be provided with the additional O level certificate.


One should be mindful that an IP student who fails his A levels only has PSLE qualifications. That itself would not even be sufficient for him to become a management TRAINEE in a fastfood outlet.

Do weigh the pro and cons of any programs carefully before throwing your kid in it.

A child who manages to gain high score for PSLE may not necessarily mean he/she is mature enough to take on IP workload & peer pressure. Being gifted doesn't apply to all subjects, but the child is able to cope with weaker ones with more ease.

Say, the above scenario you mentioned, as parents, we opted out for the child...sometime down the road, the child felt that he/she was able to handle but was not given the chance to try, how? We cannot turn back the clock. I believe other than being kiasu, there is a group of parents who also fear making the wrong decisions for the child especially when the stakes are so HIGH![/quote]It's bcos the education system that we have to choose our children's sec school wisely. Supposing my child is of IP calibre, I would still not want him/her to take that route...if he is intelligent, he can still make it the normal route and excel.