Petition to Review the Singapore Education System
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Busymom:
Actually, I 'll be surprised if there isn't a normal bell curve for 'O' and 'A' level as well. How then to ensure some consistency in the results as exams are set by humans and you can't ensure that every year, papers would be set at the same standard.
There is... there should be... and I also see that standards have risen, but at a more acceptable pace. A bit like house prices. Are these a gradual rise, in tandem with productivity and median pay? OR do they far outstrip median pay allowing capital rich people to become the only land and apartment owners. And being rich, they get richer.
I've looked into the requirements for Geography and Economics at 'A' levels... and standards have risen, but not shockingly (not for a Singaporean at least)... and quite in keeping with generally rising literacy rates worldwide and educational infrastructure in many countries. This could be because 'O' and 'A' levels are common in Commonwealth countries and not every country has the same level of educational infrastructure.
The 'O' and the 'A' bell curves is not just us. Other countries are part of that population too. The population is larger and hence there is more stability. We don't have that many students every year at the PSLE, and the bell curve just blows our standards away.
At the end of the day, my bugbear is not the risen standards. I support rising standards. My bugbear is that standards have risen to a point where teachers and schools cannot teach everything they test. I agree with Coast that the bell curve issue is secondary to the issue of adequate teaching, even though both are related. In my following post, I will provide a real life anecdote that shows this beyond all doubt.Busymom:
The US system is not a good model in my opinion. It is Americans who invented the reality we know in Singapore today, from KPIs to bonuses to incentive systems. Theirs is a system that tends to accentuate top end and bottom end of the population. Burnout research started in teh USA because burnout became such a problem someone had to research it.Our friend's kids living and studying in the US have to take up some competitive sports, besides a sterling academic result, in order to have a chance to get into the Ivy Leagues (heard it is even more competitive if you are a resident as there is a quota for students coming from each state/county). However, these are the equivalent of our secondary school students, not primary school.
Would be interesting to do a poll to see if parents are keen for such a system.
Singapore follows US so much that we end up where we are today.
Why not examine the Finns and see what we can learn? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2062419,00.html. The Finnish have one of the world's best trained workforces without the burnout rate.
Reality can take many forms. We know the bell curve, we know the competitive systems that hold sway in many Anglo-Saxon worlds... we come from (at least Singaporean Chinese do) a culture that had the Imperial Exams where the prize that went to the top performer was fame, money and power... We know only this and think there are no alternatives to the bell curve, to school placement.
Really? No alternatives? We conclude this without searching... without thinking outside of the current reality that holds our minds and hearts captive? Perhaps, just as an intellectual exercise, we should try and imagine a world sans bell curve and see if we find something nice.
Be brave. Think outta the box and outside of the reality that we think has no alternative. I'm not saying I am right. I am just encouraging us to explore the idea first. It could well be a stupid idea but then, many of what we appreciate in life today looked like a stupid idea at first too.
\"Man can fly\" is one. -
verykiasu2010:
I kept my girl's papers from 7 years ago. Very different. Teachers who log in here attest to the rising standards. So... Emphasis on process skills is also relatively recent. I guess it depends on which years you are comparing to.there are past years questions around
the standard hardly varies, though there are differences in style of question, if that could qualify as 'higher' standard
I have tried and cannot get PSLE papers earlier than 5 years ago. -
Real-life Anecdote that Teacher Refuses to Teach All that is Tested in Exams
3 weeks before SA1, I emailed the Math teacher 2 questions from Onsponge asking if she could explain to my son how to do them. The teacher said that the 2 questions were too difficult because some things have not yet been taught, and there is no time.
Guess what. AFTER SA1, when going through the papers, the teacher explained that the last question that my son could not do, was in fact, like the ones I had emailed her. If that is the case, why refuse to explain it before SA1?
There were students in the best class scoring 99.5% because their tutors taught them how from Onsponge. My son has no tutor, and I am no good at Math. His father is not always available to help. I was too naive and told my son \"Never mind. It won't be tested.\"
But it was. I was naive.
It isn't just the 5 marks though 5 marks are important if you're bell curving. Ya gotta be better than others because of the bell curve. It's also that this does not reflect the true ability nor work ethic of the child. The ones who scored 99.5% had tutors who made sure they learnt the technique. My son scored 94.5% for Math. If Teacher had taught him in response to his question, he would have scored 99.5% too.
The difference between my son's 94.5% and those others who scored 99.5% is Have Tutor and Have No Tutor. -
Chenonceau:
Oops I just threw out mine (papers from 2003) last weekend as we hv decided not to put any more children through psle and leave the Singapore system. I like Chen's remark about man can fly. Yes, there are alternatives, we just need to be brave. Write about it another time when I am on a computer.
I kept my girl's papers from 7 years ago. Very different. Teachers who log in here attest to the rising standards. So... Emphasis on process skills is also relatively recent. I guess it depends on which years you are comparing to.verykiasu2010:
there are past years questions around
the standard hardly varies, though there are differences in style of question, if that could qualify as 'higher' standard
I have tried and cannot get PSLE papers earlier than 5 years ago. -
Chenonceau:
O! I know how much that can hurt. - the anger , helplessness :frustrated:Real-life Anecdote that Teacher Refuses to Teach All that is Tested in Exams
I
3 weeks before SA1, I emailed the Math teacher 2 questions from Onsponge asking if she could explain to my son how to do them. The teacher said that the 2 questions were too difficult because some things have not yet been taught, and there is no time.
The difference between my son's 94.5% and those others who scored 99.5% is Have Tutor and Have No Tutor.
Anyway that is just a small exam, the war is only on next year!
:snuggles:
Given that things are likely to remain the same at least till your son's Psle, I really suggest you try and post your questions. The gurus here not just solve the problem, they use clear colorful models , and other explanations for a clear concise answers. And all within a few hours of posting. And the latest to join the Maths Demi God Club is our own Chief :evil:
PS: I have the Psle 2004-2009 series that I bought when DD was in P5, I think maths and science. Are you interested? But i not selling it just loan it 2012? Then you can return it ,
( assuming the world doesn't end by then of course
)
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Sorry, don’t know why duplicate again.
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The year was 2005, and DS1 was only in P5. He came home with his SA2 Maths paper with a score less than 90, the lowest he had ever obtained for Math, and he was quite upset. I spotted a few errors in the marking, a total of about 7 marks. I sent him back to school with the paper to be checked and confident it would be regraded. After many weeks, he came home with the same marking errors after seeing his form teacher, Maths teacher and marking teacher, and he could not explain to me why because he did not understand why.
I then guided him to speak to the Math HOD in the school. My son came home that day and told me that the Maths HOD agreed that his solution was right, but nothing could be changed because \"it was too late\", the marks were already submitted to MOE. DS1 cried in school that day upon hearing this.
Since I knew the principal personally and was always impressed with the way he conducted himself and ran the school, I was sure he would right any wrong. Had it been another school principal, I would have just let the situation go. I knew any other principal would not have 'dared' to own the mistake. The principal did not disappoint me. He arranged for a meeting. Without even looking at DS1's solution, he told me that they were the experts and their decision should be final. It did not matter that my first degree was in Maths, and was teaching Statistics in a teritiary institution at that time. Their decision was final, I was told.
Not contented with the school's reply, I went on to seek four other independent opinions. I wrote to MOE, a website in States, the writer of the textbook the school was using, and a former Maths HOD in RGS. All them agreed that DS1's solution was correct. I then wrote to inform the school. The school was not interested in any other replies except MOE's. You can find DS1's answer to the question and MOE's reply at the end of this post.
I could not understand why ALL the teachers could not understand his working and solution, when it was crystal clear to me that his solution was correct. Perhaps it was because he had no tuition and did not know a standard answer. I therefore called up a good friend whose son was in the same class. She forwarded her son's answer to me. Which can be found at the end of this post as well. To my amazement, his answer was not exactly correct but he was given the full credit for this question (can you spot the error?).
The principal was fuming mad when I pointed out the marking errors to him, I believe he thought I was all out to look for an error. I wasn't, that was the only other student's paper I looked at, and it happened that there was a marking error. The school then decided that no one could decide if my son's answer was right except a professor from NIE, whose name was never revealed to me. The next time I asked, the Vice-Principal told me that professor said it was wrong because there could never be a fraction of two ratios. (But that wasn't a fraction; he drew a line across his answer). I did not bother to argue anymore, not because I agreed, but because I saw no point in pursuing this matter further. The school was more interested at protecting its position with MOE than ensuring a child was given due credit for his work. Bottomline: My son's answer was correct and he was not given a single mark because teachers could not comprehend his steps. The school admitted to the two other marking errors, but conveniently left his marks unchanged. The marking error on his friend's paper was never corrected as well. The records at MOE was therefore left in tact.
After the whole incident, my son approached me for a favour. He told me never to meddle with his work again. He told me he could fend for himself and this whole episode only made him unpopular among his teachers. (He was a very popular student.) I agreed.
Having looked at the 'model' answer, I finally understood what this education system wanted. They did not want creativity, they did not want a short method or an alternative method. They wanted a typical way of solving a question, an easy way for teachers to award marks. I then told my son to stop spending time to think up clever and innovative problem solving methods for standard questions and use tried and tested methods teachers are familiar with to solve. I also spent two weeks teaching him a few standard tricks I knew would help him solve all problems at PSLE level. That's about all the coaching he needed for PSLE Maths.
The next year, I met the principal again during the school's sport carnival. My son was participating in the competition. He won six gold medals at the meet. For each, he went forward to receive the medal. Every single time he was there to collect the medal, the crowd would clap or cheer. The principal would either be touching his nose, rubbing his eyes, or looking elsewhere. He made it a point not to clap even once in the six times my son went up to get his medals. I had forgotten the whole incident. He had not.
During the P6 prelims, DS1 scored 99.5% for his prelims exam. The only student out of two schools (including GEPers) who scored full marks (rounded up) in the cohort. It was a difficult paper. I went on and taught a few more students the same tricks. All those I taught (free) including my children, obtained A* for PSLE. It was not thinking skills, creativity or problem solving skills the markers wanted. They wanted to have a way to award marks. I found a methodology! I helped a few students scored well for PSLE Maths and got many thank you notes from their parents, but I also killed their creativity along the way.
The principal was promoted and became a secondary school principal in 2008.
Here's the question and how my son answered it:
QUESTION:
1 kg of pears cost as much as 1.5 kg of apples. Mother spent $18 on 2 kg of pears and 4.5 kg of apples. What is the cost of 1 kg of apples?
DS1's ANSWER:
Pears : Apples
3:2
----------------------
6: 9
[$18 (15 parts)]
Cost of 9 parts -> 18/15 x 9 = $10.80
Cost of 2 parts -> $10.80 x 2/9 = $2.40
Cost of 1 kg of apples is $2.40
RESPONSE from MOE:
The solution is correct.
You may want to clarify with the person who said that the answer was wrong to find out more. Regards,
Mdm TSH Curriculum Planning Officer/Mathematics
Curriculum Planning & Development Division § Ministry of Education,
Singapore § Tel +65 6 879 6599
http://www.moe.gov.sg/
DS1's classmate's ANSWER:
1 unit -> 1 kg pear + 1.5 apples
2 units + 1.5 kg apples ($18) -> 2 kg pears + 4.5 kg apples
2 units -> 2 kg pear -> 3 Kg apple (the marker put a tick here)
$18 - 1.5 kg =
1.5 kg apples -> $18 / 5 = 3.60
0.5 kg apples -> 3.60 / 3 = 1.20
1 kg apples -> 1.20 x 2 = $2.40
1 kg of apples cost $2.40. (another tick here) -
OMG! In maths problem, there is no such thing as a single method to a solution. I was told that the marker will not fault with any other methods as long as it is logical?
My boy is good at Maths and he is rather creative in coming out answers. What should I do? Should I just conform him to standard method? :faint: -
laughingcat:
OMG! In maths problem, there is no such thing as a single method to a solution. I was told that the marker will not fault with any other methods as long as it is logical?
Fortunately for my DS school, they accept any method so long as it is logical and the answer is correct - full marks
Now in sec school the same : the teacher want them to try as many different ways to solve the problem as possible -
verykiasu2010:
If the marks were not already submitted to MOE before the HOD realized the marker's mistake, I think my son would have gotten full credit as well. The issue is not the method. It is something else. Incidentally, he used the exact same method to solve a similar question one more time (even though I told him not to) but the P6 teacher gave him full credit.laughingcat:
OMG! In maths problem, there is no such thing as a single method to a solution. I was told that the marker will not fault with any other methods as long as it is logical?
Fortunately for my DS school, they accept any method so long as it is logical and the answer is correct - full marks
Now in sec school the same : the teacher want them to try as many different ways to solve the problem as possible
The question is not whether your child is good at maths or whether his answer is logical or not. It is whether the marker understands him.
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