why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese

[usaik]

Hi znzyzyzx,


It will even be more sadder if parents are looking at such KPIs to select the school for P1 registration which is probably the reason the school is doing this.


Having said that, I actually think that most schools do not just look at 1 reason, they generally would also look at the other reasons - some of which may be unknown to us.

You know your child best, if you think he should take HCL, please talk to the school. My niece’s school try to cut down to only 1 HCL class for the P5 cohort last year. The parents went to speak to the school and in the end, they opened 2 classes.

[znzyzyzx]

we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

[smurf]

just curious, what is the difference between chinese and higher chinese besides higher chinese being more difficult??

[Mdm Koh]

znzyzyzx:

we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

I understand how you feel, but it's always been MOE's policy that only students who can do well in a subject are allowed to take it at a higher level.

It seems reasonable, as the emphasis of primary education is on the compulsory subjects. HCL is optional. The purpose of HCL is to allow students who are good in CL to leverage on their strengths. Hence, it makes sense that there are some requirements to be met in terms of the student's performance. HCL is not supposed to be for anyone who wants to learn it.

I guess you still find it unfair that the school is discouraging learning, but that's the way the Singapore education system rolls. Grades are important in this system and all the schools want their students to score well. To give the school and teacher some credit, they may be concerned that the subject would give your DS more stress if he is not so proficient in CL.

[daisyt]

znzyzyzx:

we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

Hi hi znzyzyzx, go for it! Most important is develope the interest of Chinese in your son. I believe and always tell my dd, if one don't put effort to try, you won't know if the interest is there. If one has not tried, don't tell me you have no interest at it. Proficiency can be easily built up if the interest is there.

Morever it is a long learning process and i am sure with your chinese level, you can make your son like Chinese. Jia you!

[znzyzyzx]

daisyt:

znzyzyzx:

we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

Hi hi znzyzyzx, go for it! Most important is develope the interest of Chinese in your son. I believe and always tell my dd, if one don't put effort to try, you won't know if the interest is there. If one has not tried, don't tell me you have no interest at it. Proficiency can be easily built up if the interest is there.

Morever it is a long learning process and i am sure with your chinese level, you can make your son like Chinese. Jia you!

hi, daisy,

Long time no chat.

thanks, thanks. We will go for it.
I hope to do some \"miracle\" with him over the holidays.

[sall]

For dd’s primary sch, the teachers did not discourage any students from taking HCL. But along the way, if they feel that any student are doing so badly, then they’ll advise him to drop. There were 2 students who had very bad attitude and did v badly all along. They scored less then 20/100 for HCL exams. They are the ones who created problems and disrupted lessons. They were advised to drop but they refused. So in the end, they failed and the % pass was affected. In such cases, the teachers did the right thing by advising them to drop, problem is they refused.

[jtoh]

sall:

For dd's primary sch, the teachers did not discourage any students from taking HCL. But along the way, if they feel that any student are doing so badly, then they'll advise him to drop. There were 2 students who had very bad attitude and did v badly all along. They scored less then 20/100 for HCL exams. They are the ones who created problems and disrupted lessons. They were advised to drop but they refused. So in the end, they failed and the % pass was affected. In such cases, the teachers did the right thing by advising them to drop, problem is they refused.

The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.

[sall]

jtoh:

The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.

The parents refused to let them drop. There are 2 extreme types of parents. One who insisted their kids take HCL when they already do badly for normal CL and other subjects. The other type of parents is afraid that their kids will be stressed if they take HCL. dd had 2 classmates last yr who are very good in their studies, including CL, but their parents refused to let them take HCL. :siao:

[jtoh]

sall:

jtoh:

The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.

The parents refused to let them drop. There are 2 extreme types of parents. One who insisted their kids take HCL when they already do badly for normal CL and other subjects. The other type of parents is afraid that their kids will be stressed if they take HCL. dd had 2 classmates last yr who are very good in their studies, including CL, but their parents refused to let them take HCL. :siao:

If the child is not good in CL and struggling in other subjects, then there's really no point in taking HCL. Might as well take the time to focus on the other core 4 subjects. Don't understand parents who insist on making their kids take HCL. As for the other group of parents, well... maybe they see no point in burdening their kids esp if they're not planning to go to an SAP school. You can always pick up HCL in secondary school.