Petition to Review the Singapore Education System

[Edureach]

janet_lee88:

I hope MOE, or should I say Education Minister, works on this issue asap.

The present system sure needs fine-tuning. Primary school education is giving we parents jitters.

Parents have to be involved with children's education NOW. Quite a large sum of money has to be spent on tuition or else they will fail. Tuition now is a necessity.

That's why we as parents must be prepared to accept whatever the results as long as our kids continue to learn and progress. You have a valid point but here in this forum i found so many forumers eager to send their kids to top schools in particular thru dsa. Very little information about parents struggling with challenges in helping their kids to enter neighbourhood schools-express stream. I prefer to see results of ordinary kids overcoming challenges to qualify for good schools or making progress from normal academic to express. Also would like to hear success stories of ITE students making it to poly and the latter to local unis. Just too much of these gep queries and RI/RGSHCI/NGHS those kind of stuff. Need some balance mah!

[kitty2]

Chenonceau:

SAHM_TAN:

Glad to see that your efforts has paid off. Also good to know that MOE is also listening and did not treat our comments and concern as noise.


Hopefully by the end of the year, there will some indication of MOE direction.

Ummmmm... dunno got really paid off or not leh... must wait and see. Hope that it's not just a nice lunch and then nothing... Much prefer to have no lunch but see some things improve.

:thankyou: Chenonceau for your time and great effort!!!If no action taken,please write another letter to them :evil: :rotflmao:

[Chenonceau]

Edureach:

That's why we as parents must be prepared to accept whatever the results as long as our kids continue to learn and progress. You have a valid point but here in this forum i found so many forumers eager to send their kids to top schools in particular thru dsa.

How come ah? I hardly come across the GEP and DSA queries in this forum. It depends on the threads you read, I think. I am not interested in GEP, and my son is not applying through DSA at all. So I overlook these threads.

This notion that parents are all to blame is not new. For some reason, there are people who think the system is perfect as-is and cannot be changed.

Me... I tend to think that blaming parents' kiasuness won't help. Saying parents are at fault is actually saying that we have no solution except that parents must change. System changes can change parent attitudes and behaviors en masse.

Hypothetically, if all the top people in the PSLE cohort were distributed evenly throughout the nation's secondary schools, the notion of top schools would disappear, and DSA no longer matters. Change ONE mechanism, and parent behavior and attitudes will change.

We need to examine the system and find the one or two mechanisms of high leverage. Study the impact of changing them and then make a wise decision to change. This takes time, but if we all say that parents are to blame then there is no motivation to re-look the system because well... parents are kiasu mah... what to do?

The way the MOE system has evolved, there seems to be no helicopter view on the system. Different silos within MOE propose ideas that get implemented without co-ordination with other systemic features of the MOE infrastructure. There seems a lack of Systems Thinking (à la Peter Senge).

The same thing happened with the immigration issue. One part of the government decided to let more immigrants in but there was no co-ordination with transport and housing. At the end of the day, it is the bureaucrats who tell the politicians what to do, but these bureaucrats can only have a silo view, which means that the parts of the system are optimised whilst the whole system is sub-optimised.

We need politicians who have muscle and guts and the intellect to make sense of the helicopter view of the educational system, and bring all the silos into balance... and optimise system even if it means sub-optimising system components.

However, this potential for change can be scary for those who have their livelihoods in the tuition industry. There will be strong resistance to change from this quarter I think. It is better for tutors to blame parents so that the mindset is that unless parents change, nothing will change. Thus, people will leave the system alone, and tutors livelihoods are not threatened.

[janet88]

Edureach:

janet_lee88:

I hope MOE, or should I say Education Minister, works on this issue asap.

The present system sure needs fine-tuning. Primary school education is giving we parents jitters.

That's why we as parents must be prepared to accept whatever the results as long as our kids continue to learn and progress. You have a valid point but here in this forum i found so many forumers eager to send their kids to top schools in particular thru dsa. Very little information about parents struggling with challenges in helping their kids to enter neighbourhood schools-express stream. I prefer to see results of ordinary kids overcoming challenges to qualify for good schools or making progress from normal academic to express.

I know my son...not that I'm putting him down. He is not cut out for HCI or RI. If he can make it to ACS or St Andrew's, I would be very happy.
Forget about DSA...it's not an easy route at all. Boys usually mature at 14 or 15...in the meantime, I'm still nagging at him to be careful and reduce his carelessness.

[Edureach]

Chenonceau


All these while i hve the idea you have two dds, so you have a son, total 3. Good job!

[Edureach]

janet_lee88:

Edureach:

[quote=\"janet_lee88\"]I hope MOE, or should I say Education Minister, works on this issue asap.

The present system sure needs fine-tuning. Primary school education is giving we parents jitters.

That's why we as parents must be prepared to accept whatever the results as long as our kids continue to learn and progress. You have a valid point but here in this forum i found so many forumers eager to send their kids to top schools in particular thru dsa. Very little information about parents struggling with challenges in helping their kids to enter neighbourhood schools-express stream. I prefer to see results of ordinary kids overcoming challenges to qualify for good schools or making progress from normal academic to express.

I know my son...not that I'm putting him down. He is not cut out for HCI or RI. If he can make it to ACS or St Andrew's, I would be very happy.
Forget about DSA...it's not an easy route at all. Boys usually mature at 14 or 15...in the meantime, I'm still nagging at him to be careful and reduce his carelessness.[/quote]
At workplace it still depends on his attitude, performance and most importantly favors from people around him, not so much on academic prowess lah. Believe as he progresses, he will find his place and therefore less careless. My ds also went thru this stage.

[fifiyeo]

https://www.finnfest2011.com/events/education/movie-finland-phenomenon-inside-worlds-most-surprising-school-system

[fifiyeo]

Won't it be nice if our kids had the same learning environment?


http://bertmaes.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/why-is-education-in-finland-that-good-10-reform-principles-behind-the-success/

[SAHM_TAN]

fifiyeo:

Won't it be nice if our kids had the same learning environment?


http://bertmaes.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/why-is-education-in-finland-that-good-10-reform-principles-behind-the-success/

What I like is that all kids are taught to have the knowledge base, competencies and skills to handle higher education demands. They try to increase the talent pool by developing all, believing that all will blossom.

In theory, our fundamental belief is like theirs but when it comes to implementation, we go the other extreme. We test and test to find the talents and in the end I believe we lose more talents along the way.

I wonder are Finnish parents as kancheong as us?

[fifiyeo]

I wonder are Finnish parents as kancheong as us?[/quote]


Well, it’s a system that believes in all. Here it’s either you make it or you are outcasted. Entering a decent secondary school might even be a problem!