Review Underway of the Educational System
-
Oppsgal:
A sense of history is part of being human. For many many people, History is a major subject. We cannot delete subjects without regards for the interests and skills of other students who may like these subjects, be good at them, and use them to contribute.Wish the educational system can remove unnecessary subject such as history, literature etc..so more time can be spent on those major subjects.
Many many policy makers in Singapore today were Humanities students.
I too, was schooled in the Humanities and it has taught me skills in
(1) clarity of thinking
(2) strong logical processes
(3) coherent argumentation
(4) critical thinking
plus others...
Not everyone graduates into a job where people only use math and language. -
Funz:
If this was asked 20 yrs ago I would have totally agreed. sin and cos and parabolas and calulus - my passtimes...
Humanities have their place in the educational system. Literature builds one's flair for the language which may pave the way for a law/mass comm/advertising career. History is good for, law/political/social studies.Oppsgal:
Wish the educational system can remove unnecessary subject such as history, literature etc..so more time can be spent on those major subjects.
If history subject can be simply into summary version will be good. :frustrated: Hard to remember anything after years later since not much of this is used in work life.
I on the other hand am still wondering why was I taught stuff like tangent, co-tangent, sin, cosin in E math. Haha but if the only teach general application stuff they will end up with nothing to teach.
And history my nightmare
but to be honest - how often have I used them in the last 10 years - if I exclude the time I spend introducing some of these concepts to DD - zilch.
Maybe boring statistics is something that would have served me better ...
So yes, IMHO History/Literature are definetely as important as the \"core\" subjects at pre Uni level -
coast:
Agree. Who would have thought typography is important at all? Too much focus is being put on 'money-making' subjects to be deemed relevant - not to imply you are saying that, but in the context of Singapore, it seems to be the case. There is much to learn from history and literature than meets the eye. These humanity subjects are what makes us more human than merely meeting the figures. And these are the very subjects we already paying too little attention to...Just my personal opinion..
Hope you don't mind but I strongly believe in a holistic education. There is alot to learn from history, literature, ... a master in major subjects does not equate a successful career. Many skills \"essential\" for success (well, what is successful to begin with) are not \"learnt' from \"core\" subjects.Oppsgal:
Wish the educational system can remove unnecessary subject such as history, literature etc..so more time can be spent on those major subjects.
If history subject can be simply into summary version will be good. :frustrated: Hard to remember anything after years later since not much of this is used in work life.
You certainly have your reasons being frustrated (and I think I would agree on those reasons too). But there should be other ways to resolve those issues than removing history, literature ...
-
DS came home yesterday and told me that his CL Teacher had asked the whole class to hand up the materials provided by their tuition teachers so that she could compile a booklet and give out to the class.
If this does not show that MOE is lacking in educational resources and methods, I dunno what does. -
Chenonceau:
:scared: like that also can ah!?DS came home yesterday and told me that his CL Teacher had asked the whole class to hand up the materials provided by their tuition teachers so that she could compile a booklet and give out to the class.
If this does not show that MOE is lacking in educational resources and methods, I dunno what does. -
Chenoceau, I am horrified by such a request! I hope it's because the CL teacher wants to expose the students and not because she is too lazy to make her own notes :faint:
-
concern2:
So did the kids share esp those who attend branded enrichment centers? :rotflmao:
:scared: like that also can ah!?Chenonceau:
DS came home yesterday and told me that his CL Teacher had asked the whole class to hand up the materials provided by their tuition teachers so that she could compile a booklet and give out to the class.
If this does not show that MOE is lacking in educational resources and methods, I dunno what does. -
Mawar:
Only ONE kid shared... everyone else had been told by their enrichment centres not to.
So did the kids share esp those who attend branded enrichment centers? :rotflmao: -
michyms:
Chenoceau, I am horrified by such a request! I hope it's because the CL teacher wants to expose the students and not because she is too lazy to make her own notes :faint:
Actually, I am not too keen to blame the teacher. It is a bit like punishing a child for stealing food. If a child is well fed, he/she will never steal food. It is a child's basic right to have access to sufficient food.
If the system is set up correctly to allow good flow through of high quality materials everywhere in the system (in the same way our blood circulation system brings nutrients to every part of the body) then no teacher would be starving for educational materials to this extent. It is stupid to make EVERY teacher develop his/her own materials. It's like ya gotta teach and write textbooks and assessment books at the same time. No one has the bandwidth to do that.
It is every teacher's basic right to freely access sufficient resources to teach with.
With the advent of internet forum technology, this is easily done by setting up an online sharing forum accessible by teachers and students... any teacher who wants and can, can upload... and any teacher who needs and wants, can download.
Those who write and upload can earn extra income from MOE for each download of their materials. This way, you encourage those who can write, to write... and those who CAN'T write well, can still use stuff to teach with... and parents like me dun have to go around begging parents with kids in better schools for materials. -
Chenonceau, I think there could be other reasons that your feedback hasn't achieved what it deserved. Take a look at this article that one of our PE has written:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2011
CPF - my views
Many years ago, I was proud of our Central Provident Fund system. It was simple and good for the people. It allowed them to accumulate their savings for old age. Later, it was used to purchase a HDB flat at an affordable price.
The CPF system started to be changed, for the worse, after 1985. Many changes were introduced that had negative impact on the scheme and produced worst outcome for the citizens. Today, I can only say that our CPF scheme is complicated, convoluted, confusing and is not producing the right outcome.
I will be writing on what the changes that I like to see in our CPF scheme, that will make it good for the people, and for the Government.
I want to say something about why things had turned out to be so bad for the CPF. The people who manage the CPF, i.e. the Ministry of Manpower (and its predecessor ministry) and the policy planners (i.e. the scholars) were not practical people. They were planners.
Worse, they were too arrogant to consult the experts in the field. As an actuary and the head of a life insurance company, I could give them some useful ideas - but they were too proud to ask me or to discuss my suggestions (even after I wrote to them). They prefer to find their own solutions - in their ivory tower. These planners later become recruited as ministers in our Government and continue the same approach.
This is the type of system practised in Singapore that has produced convoluted systems, not only in CPF but in health care, immigration and many other areas of our life.
(source: http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2011/10/cpf-my-views.html)
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 š
Register Login