Newspaper Article: Sorry, your child is not bright enough

[Chenonceau]

Oh dear… my son was spending all day trying to amuse himself feeding spaghetti to ants pre-P1. Maybe that’s why he did so badly from P1 to P3!!

[looking4Tutor]

Very soon we will be the world No.1 for such news -

Worry over high student suicide rate in India

EDUCATORS in India are worried over an increasing figure - that of the rising suicide rate among adolescents.

Its main cause? The pressure to do well in school, said a Times of India (TOI) report.

And the pressure is not from teachers but from parents,the report added.

India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and recent studies suggest about 40 percent are adolescents.

At least 125 people aged 29 years or below are committing suicide every day and 51 per cent of the total suicide victims are graduates, college students or younger.

In several cases, students commit suicide after failing exams, according to local newspaper reports.

In Mumbai alone, 25 students have taken their lives since beginning of the year, leaving parents, teachers and officials struggling to understand the reason behind the deaths.

High marks, college admissions

Mr Mahesh Poddar is one such grieving parent as his daughter, Mini, committed suicide in 2001 when she was 15 years old.

She was distraught about college admissions and had just missed out on getting into the college of her choice.

Union human resource minister Kapil Sibal said that the sudden spike in suicides among students is a result of the growing parental pressures on the child to beat his peers, said TOI.

In many cases, the trigger appears to be academic pressure, said a report in CNN.

India's education system is based on rote learning, or memorisation, with a strong emphasis on scoring high marks.

Authorities are organising counselling sessions, said MrSanjay Kumar, education secretary of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai is located.

The suicides were a wake-up call for educators, said Mrs Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Vidyala, a government school in North Mumbai.

Though none of the recent suicide cases in the city involved students from her school, she is worried.

Recently, a student from her school ran away from home before exams.

She said: \"As teachers, we have a lot of effect on the students, even more than parents have.\"

This article was first published in The New Paper.

[tankee]

Pen88n:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"coast\"]With adequate materials available in schools to ALL students, I think it is a right move to a level playing field and enabling social mobility.

Yes!! :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

So get Learning Lab to produce materials and train teachers for all the primary schools in Singapore??? :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

I can't believe I said that...... [/quote]
:idea: train the teachers instead of students?


IMHO, the students that did well are already the better ones in the first place.

[coast]

Pen88n:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"coast\"]With adequate materials available in schools to ALL students, I think it is a right move to a level playing field and enabling social mobility.

Yes!! :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

So get Learning Lab to produce materials and train teachers for all the primary schools in Singapore??? :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

I can't believe I said that...... [/quote]I need to clarify that I have NOT seen Learning Lab's materials. I have read from this forum that they have dedicated resources developing materials and I have friends who told me about their materials. But why do we need Learning Lab? It should not be an issue for MOE to come out with adequate materials.

[LLK]

In my opinion, Learning Lab is an enrichment centre, and not a tuition centre. That is the difference.

[coast]

Busymom:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"coast\"]With adequate materials available in schools to ALL students, I think it is a right move to a level playing field and enabling social mobility.

Yes!! :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

But I heard not every student who has attended Learning Lab has done well in school.

Still a case of finding the right enrichment/tuition for your child eventually.

Some who are homeschooled will do better if the mummy is extremely resourceful or capable. We have some in this forum... [/quote]Yes you are right. Every child is unique. What works for one might not work for another.

But if school doesn't provide good materials while enrichment centres do ... it makes the gap wider

[coast]

looking4Tutor:

coast:

Personally, I think the magic is the centres' materials (worksheets). Even at P1 level, I have seen an inadequacy of the official textbooks and materials.


With adequate materials available in schools to ALL students, I think it is a right move to a level playing field and enabling social mobility.

Personally, I think KSP provides better help than ds's primary school.

I am fortunate and grateful that DS's P1 teachers are great!

Adequate materials is a necessity, not something that we should expect enrichment centres to provide or parents searching high and low or paying a fortune for it. Many self-motivated students can do wonders on their own with adequate materials and teachers are left to focus on those who really need help. It is also easier for teachers to teach if the materials are good. Parents will have the assurance that materials provided by the school are sufficient for their kids to do well in PSLE but is this the case right now? From what I read in this forum, it is definitely lacking and parents have to rely on enrichment centres, popular assessment books and even proprietary materials.

[coast]

Busymom:

coast:

Hi, there is actually an episode on Singapore as well! I did not catch the show from the beginning so not sure what I have missed but here's what I caught:-

(i) an expensive pre-school that charges S$1,300 per month (guess many parents here know about these schools anyway)
(ii) a Kindergarten boy having to attend a few enrichment classes on Sats ... he said Sat is a working day ...
(iii) another Kindergarten boy attending many enrichment classes, including very late at night ... he said he wants to be number zero and that number one is being 2nd

What intrigues me is how the parents in the show think about the Singapore education system.

While I know tuition/ enrichment is really common these days, it still alarms me that some parents would ask their Kindergarten kids to spend so much time on academic classes and worksheets at home for \"P1 preparation\". I hope viewers of the show would not think that is common in Singapore. I suppose this show is presenting a certain segment (enrichment classes?) and not reflecting the whole society in general?

I wasn't aware that was also an episode on Singapore. The Japanese one was the first episode (based on info provided at the time when documentary was shown). You are probably right in that the show reflects only a certain segment of the society in each country, as in how parents prepare their children for primary school, and sometimes to the extremes. However, it is clear that in certain countries such as Japan, children will have to go through entry tests and interviews in order to gain entry into prestigious primary school that are privately run (some offer through train to well-known universities). We don't have this in Singapore and this is what I feel fortunate about.

Thanks for sharing

We do not know how widespread is the practice in Japan (or other countries). In Singapore, even though we do not have the practice, maybe the same ratio of kids are subjected to the same \"preparation\" (in terms of hours in academic and enrichment)? Even if it is not during kindergarten ... how about P1? P2? ... A lot of schools has \"streaming\" at end of P2 ... and I know there are alot of kids having to put in hours and hours in academics during P1/ P2 because of this streaming and other reasons

[Chenonceau]

coast:

looking4Tutor:

[quote=\"coast\"]Personally, I think the magic is the centres' materials (worksheets). Even at P1 level, I have seen an inadequacy of the official textbooks and materials.


With adequate materials available in schools to ALL students, I think it is a right move to a level playing field and enabling social mobility.

Personally, I think KSP provides better help than ds's primary school.

I am fortunate and grateful that DS's P1 teachers are great!

Adequate materials is a necessity, not something that we should expect enrichment centres to provide or parents searching high and low or paying a fortune for it. Many self-motivated students can do wonders on their own with adequate materials and teachers are left to focus on those who really need help. It is also easier for teachers to teach if the materials are good. Parents will have the assurance that materials provided by the school are sufficient for their kids to do well in PSLE but is this the case right now? From what I read in this forum, it is definitely lacking and parents have to rely on enrichment centres, popular assessment books and even proprietary materials.[/quote]I write my own materials.

[coast]

Busymom:

coast:

I have a different view on the psychological impact on children who fail the entry tests. Such an entry test should not have a serious impact. If it does, then will the kids be able to handle other setbacks in life (school tests, exams, ... etc)? It is just a test. We should help and guide our kids to grow stronger each day ... to understand that there are many setbacks in life but you just stand up from where you fall and move on ... 失败是成功之母。。 I always tell my DS ... even world No. 1 in his favourite sports does not win every time, be gracious when one loses (try your best but accept the result), move on and focus on the next match

:goodpost:

Thanks! :oops: My DS is very active in sports and I think unlike academics where one can always score well in a subject (and hence not facing any setback) ... there are more ups and downs in sports competition ... I try to use it to impart certain values to him .. I was shocked when he told me last year that some of his P1 classmates would \"boo\" when others score full marks ... I told him one should feel happy for all who did well and for those who didn't ... it is like losing a match and they can always look forward to the next one to do better.