Petition to Review the Singapore Education System
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ksi:
my dd (p3) school's also doesn't give many many compo writings..I think about 2 to 3 per terms..In p1, they were taught to practise writing sentences for HCL. In p2, they have to write a paragraph with a picture with some helping phrases..and p3 they have to write a proper essay with 4 pictures provided and some helping phrases. She will usually write about 1 to 2 pages.vlim:
I would think is the school fault..as the teachers will go according to the curriculum or worksheets plan by the school(I strongly believed)...they cannot suka suka teach whatever they like right :scratchhead: ..in such a case got to raise the issue to the principal.. :mad:
So Chenonceau and my experience are the exceptions? Every school teaches MT or Eng compo with more sessions? ok...I just recall one neighbourhood school I remember gave additional creative writing class outside the school hours, are there many schools doing so? -
vlim:
Does this approach guarantee an \"at-least- average\" score for the compo by P3?
my dd (p3) school's also doesn't give many many compo writings..I think about 2 to 3 per terms..In p1, they were taught to practise writing sentences for HCL. In p2, they have to write a paragraph with a picture with some helping phrases..and p3 they have to write a proper essay with 4 pictures provided and some helping phrases. She will usually write about 1 to 2 pages. -
ksi:
I supposed so..but nevertheless..coming to language the kids got to really read more story books in order to master the sentence construction especially for Chinese as nowadays most of the family are English spoken plus Chinese is tougher to learn ...so no choice got to put in more effort. If the parent is well verse in Chinese, then they can teach their own kid else got to outsource like me...
Does this approach guarantee an \"at-least- average\" score for the compo by P3?vlim:
my dd (p3) school's also doesn't give many many compo writings..I think about 2 to 3 per terms..In p1, they were taught to practise writing sentences for HCL. In p2, they have to write a paragraph with a picture with some helping phrases..and p3 they have to write a proper essay with 4 pictures provided and some helping phrases. She will usually write about 1 to 2 pages. -
vlim:
I supposed so..but nevertheless..coming to language the kids got to really read more story books in order to master the sentence construction especially for Chinese as nowadays most of the family are English spoken plus Chinese is tougher to learn ...so no choice got to put in more effort. If the parent is well verse in Chinese, then they can teach their own kid else got to outsource like me...[/quote]Well, even my Chinese is ok, I need to ensure she can get by the marking within the short period, so we basically only crash-course to meet requirement of exam and no more course now. :rotflmao: It tells me one thing my child can learn but not within 3 sessions. So if they have given proper teaching in school, I can save the money.
Does this approach guarantee an \"at-least- average\" score for the compo by P3?ksi:
[quote=\"vlim\"]
my dd (p3) school's also doesn't give many many compo writings..I think about 2 to 3 per terms..In p1, they were taught to practise writing sentences for HCL. In p2, they have to write a paragraph with a picture with some helping phrases..and p3 they have to write a proper essay with 4 pictures provided and some helping phrases. She will usually write about 1 to 2 pages. -
vlim:
Ermmmm... what about when the parent is not good at Chinese and has no money to buy tuition... like my relative, who bore a child out of wedlock and now works in a bar/nightclub? The kid is smart. I taught her a bit before I was accused of being kaypo... and told to bugger off. :gloomy:
I supposed so..but nevertheless..coming to language the kids got to really read more story books in order to master the sentence construction especially for Chinese as nowadays most of the family are English spoken plus Chinese is tougher to learn ...so no choice got to put in more effort. If the parent is well verse in Chinese, then they can teach their own kid else got to outsource like me... -
Our education system retards sports development.
With our rigorous high standard academic demand of primary education which taxes on our children energy and time, I cannot foresee any form of concrete evident that our education and sports ministers have any vested interest to develop local youth sports talents; beside spending (so-called justifiable) peanut dollar, on YOG and building the sacred sports hub, to buy global mileage. Coupled with the hard fact that our policy makers are insured with FT to field the athletes.
Should we go to foreign villages to hunt for potential scholars and sports talents. Is it that there is none found in our heartland. Fandi will readily dismiss this, he is here in Singapore, scouting potential players to play in EUROPE. (hello, Fandi, are you copying our garment FT policy ah, patended you know?)
Many potential sports talents are killed by our educational system. Beside the high tuition fee, which many heartlanders cannot afford. How can they afford to join a local swimming club for training? -
In primary schools, students in sports cca have training at least 2 times a wk. In secondary schools, it is 3 times a wk for students in sports cca. Students are given the chance to learn a sport, maybe a lot chose not to. Or maybe their parents forbid them to, due to the long hours of training.
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Hi,
Been silently reading this and I think the education system definitely need to change due to the need/necessity for tuition/enrichment as a result of :
1) teachers not teaching in schools, even top students need enrichment
If standards have been kept more or less the same (pt 5) and MOE does not grade according to bell curve (pt 3) as stated by MOE from the reply, why is it not possible for top students to ace the exam without enrichment ? In fact, we shld expect more A and A* now since kids are so prepared and have lots of tuition and enrichment?
2) teach less learn more or holistic assessment approach but PSLE still the same old same old assessment setting the kids up for failure from p3 onwards?
My friend who has a son in P1 just told me her son failed his test (42/100). She asked her son why he does not know if the teacher had taught him. Well, the answer is the teacher only taught some not all that was tested!!! Her colleague told her this is a strategy to ensure that parents teach their kids in addition to what is being taught in school. So, she is now all kiasu and trying to get her son tuition and all. At p1, i find this incredulous!
3) class size too big, not enough teachers
As long as there is a need for tuition/enrichment as pointed out in 1 and 2 above, MOE will always have a problem with getting enough teachers or good quality teachers as they will leave the school and be private tutors. NO matter how many you train, they will leave as tuition is definitely more lucrative. Class size and
low PTR will not change much.
4) no time to teach/exams questions too difficult?
Teachers do not teach because they do not have time to teach? Can teacher be relieved from non-teaching job? Is the syllabus too tough, exam questions too difficult?
Maybe MOE can explain the above. The way i see it, it seem to suggest that is is better to not send them to school but send them for tuition at the top enrichment agency and they will be doing really well. This cannot be the state of the Singapore eduction system. -
jenao:
Agree. Might as well home school the kids with tutors instead.1) teachers not teaching in schools, even top students need enrichment
If standards have been kept more or less the same (pt 5) and MOE does not grade according to bell curve (pt 3) as stated by MOE from the reply, why is it not possible for top students to ace the exam without enrichment ? In fact, we shld expect more A and A* now since kids are so prepared and have lots of tuition and enrichment?
Some top students attend enrichment/tuition to stay at the top in their classes, while some others need tuition to pass exams.
2) teach less learn more or holistic assessment approach but PSLE still the same old same old assessment setting the kids up for failure from p3 onwards?
My friend who has a son in P1 just told me her son failed his test (42/100). She asked her son why he does not know if the teacher had taught him. Well, the answer is the teacher only taught some not all that was tested!!! Her colleague told her this is a strategy to ensure that parents teach their kids in addition to what is being taught in school.
I have yet to receive the results from last week's class reviews. It's just ridiculous that teachers in some schools now teach just the bare minimum and expect parents/tutors to do the rest, sit for exams and score A and A*.
3) class size too big, not enough teachers
As long as there is a need for tuition/enrichment as pointed out in 1 and 2 above, MOE will always have a problem with getting enough teachers or good quality teachers as they will leave the school and be private tutors. NO matter how many you train, they will leave as tuition is definitely more lucrative. Class size and low PTR will not change much.
Teachers in schools earn better money as tutors but some stay on so that they are in the loop of school/MOE changes.
4) no time to teach/exams questions too difficult?
Teachers do not teach because they do not have time to teach? Can teacher be relieved from non-teaching job? Is the syllabus too tough, exam questions too difficult?
Some Math teachers have no time to teach...so they write the answers for problem sums on board for students to copy. What/How do students learn ?
Maybe MOE can explain the above. The way i see it, it seem to suggest that is is better to not send them to school but send them for tuition at the top enrichment agency and they will be doing really well. This cannot be the state of the Singapore eduction system. -
I have a different angle of looking at this similar topic.
The article that follows was posted on ST forum in Nov 2008. Find MOE’s reply below as well. I was appalled by their lack of understanding of the main idea of my letter.
Flaw in their reply (2): The answer is flawed because MOE has assumed that only children from reputable schools go for tuition. The sad (or happy for our tutors here) situation is that students from MOST if not ALL schools go for tuition. Is MOE not aware of that? Therefore, having a spread of students from different primary schools doing well does not disprove my point that tutored kids do better at PSLE.
Flaw in their reply (3): Which child, if left without parents’ financial support in outside-school enrichment in their sport, art or ‘special talent’ can gain entry to their secondary school of choice? Take music for example, EVERY school that takes music for DSA requires the student to pass an exam at a specified grade. Now please enlighten me, which primary school in Singapore adequately prepares students to take music exams good enough to gain entry to any secondary school? Ditto for dance. Now let’s look at sports, most schools would need the child to be a medalist or a finalist to gain entry through DSA. Most would have training in clubs, school training of a couple of times a week is not enough. Also, while I agree that students gain invaluable learning experience going overseas for exchange, exposure trips or competitions, I’d be interested to know which secondary school in Singapore take DSA students who have made such trips?
MOE knows this is an inherent problem, by ignoring the problem does not mean it is not there.
As posted on ST Forum:
LAST Thursday, my daughter received her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results. We were proud of her 25X, not because it is high, but because she wanted no help and designed her own study schedule with no external or home tuition. It will get her to the secondary school of her choice, which is what the PSLE is supposed to do, and nothing else. To us, it does not measure her intelligence or maturity against her cohort, give any gauge of her academic ability or provide any bearing on her future.
The PSLE is no longer the placement exam it was designed to be. Through the years, it has evolved into an exam that divides the haves and have-nots among our 12-year-olds.
While hinting at a student’s academic ability, the PSLE measures more the family’s ability to find and pay for good tuition teachers. Those who have money to employ tuition teachers will inevitably do better than their peers with equal academic ability. Many parents fork out thousands of dollars a year to prepare their children for this exam, in the hope of getting them into a better school. Therefore, a lucrative shadow education system is forming, with many good school teachers leaving for it.
A few years ago, the Ministry of Education introduced the Direct School Admission (DSA) programme with some top secondary schools. Those who display talents ‘beyond’ their peers get into these schools via DSA. This fuelled anxious parents scrambling to enrol their children in numerous art, music and sports programmes.
Students from well-to-do families will get into better secondary schools. Students from one-income families who have a stay-home parent and can be driven around can pack in more tuition and activities. With money, students can participate in overseas training, exposure trips and competitions. These beef up their testimonials – a criterion many good secondary schools use to choose their students.
If all this fails to get the average child into a good school, knowledgeable parents will know how to bypass the normal PSLE route, via the supplementary intake or appeal round, visiting principals and authorities to persuade them to accept their child, even if his score falls below the cut-off point.
If average students with tuition, enrichment classes, credible sporting endeavours and smart parents are taking all the places in the good schools, what does that leave bright, promising but poorer students?
MOE’s reply:
Equal Chances for All
We refer to the letter “It’s about who can afford better tutors” (ST Forum, 26/11), in which Ms Pamela Liu opined that students from well-to-do families would get into better secondary schools and questioned what would be left for bright but poorer students.
Ms Liu is wrong to assert that the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) has “evolved into an exam that divides the haves and have-nots among our 12-year-olds”. The top 5% of students in the PSLE do not come only from a few schools with rich parents. In fact, they come from more than 95% of our primary schools and across all socio-economic groups. In addition, over 2,000 students from 155 schools (or about 90% of our primary schools) successfully obtained a place in participating secondary schools this year under the Direct School Admissions (DSA) exercise, based on their talents in different fields. These students likewise came from various socio-economic groups. The criteria each school uses for the selection of students under the DSA are made public on their websites.
In our schools, all students have access to enrichment activities, such as art, music and sports programmes, or overseas training, exposure trips and competitions. Our school-based co-curricular programmes provide opportunities for all students to develop themselves in art, music, and sports. Additional funding is also provided to help students, especially those from less well-off families, go on overseas exchanges.
MOE strives to enable all students, regardless of their family background and circumstances, to achieve their full potential.
Jennifer Chan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications Division
So what happened to this Daughter?
How time flies! DD1 finished Sec 2 and managed to get into a top Sec 3 class in her school. I suggested she took the SAT last year. Bought her some books from Amazon and left them on her table. During the December holidays, she pored through the books. She also requested I send her for some SAT preparation, as she was not confident she could do well compared to other test takers who were at least 5 years her senior. I told her those classes were so ridiculously expensive, I needed to think about it. She did not pester me again, and went on to sit the test through only self-preparation. Her results? (She does not want me to reveal it here.) Enough to get into an ivy league university. She was 14 when she earned a place to read psychology in a good university. She’ll be leaving soon to start a new phase of her life, something she charted, worked for and deserves.
Still proud of her. Not because of her results, but because of her fighting spirit, tenacity, ability to plan and study on her own. Something I know she would have lost if I had sent tutors her way, and deprived her of a chance to think, learn, plan and make mistakes.
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