Child Underperforms Because Tested Above Cognitive Level

[Daddy D]

janet_lee88:

Daddy

PTM session could be used to iron out these differences, and improve on the communication between Teachers and Parents, Excluding the kid's presence.

Teachers in some primary schools can't seem to go the full length of helping kids to pass exams...if that's the case, what's the point of having parent-teacher meeting...it's more like 'Here, pls teach your child this. I can't, bcos I have a class of 40.'
I don't bring my kids for PTM sessions.

Assuming the teacher knows her work and is knowledgeable,
Perhaps it's \"I can't cos' I dun have time to give personal attention to all 40 kids.\"
If she's not, then we dun have the option to change teacher as what we do for enrichment classes.
No easy solution... Otherwise we'll have world peace Liao :xedfingers:

[janet88]

Daddy

Assuming the teacher knows her work and is knowledgeable,

Perhaps it's \"I can't cos' I dun have time to give personal attention to all 40 kids.\"
If she's not, then we dun have the option to change teacher as what we do for enrichment classes.
No easy solution... Otherwise we'll have world peace Liao :xedfingers:

Basically there is no solution.
Teaching is a passion and calling...unless MOE does something about the crazy admin work/CCA which is not part of teaching, word will go round that it's no joke being a teacher, esp with that BIG paycut.

[Chenonceau]

I agree with Janet and Daddy D.


It is hard for Teachers to keep the passion when the odds are so stacked against them. Suppose that we focus not upon the human propensity for weakness, and look instead upon the equally prevalent human propensity for noble acts, there are Teachers aplenty to take joy in seeing their students bloom under their care. Seriously, you would have to be a depraved human being to NOT feel proud knowing that a young life became something beautiful SOLELY thanks to you.

However, the odds are stacked against our Teachers. No matter how hard they work, there is no way to give that kind of care to students when you have 40 per class (and chick lit textbooks). When it has become common practice for Teachers to ask the following (in red)... then it is an indication that something systemic needs fixing.

psle2011mum:

DD1 in P2 could not do \"stack up sums\" in her first term when everyone else in her class could. Was she dumber than the rest? Not in my opinion, even though she is a late December kid. After she was seen struggling, she was called up to the teacher's desk and the first question she was asked was \" Do you have tuition for math\"? Why this was the teacher's first response baffles me to this day but my DD1 stood for an hour next to her teacher to learn how to do stack up addition. I did not learn of this from DD1 - bless her little soul -- she never complained; a mum pulled me aside at a birthday party both our girls attended and asked if I knew my daughter was struggling. Can you imagine how it broke my heart?

It cannot be that the majority of Teachers are lazy and incompetent bums. That just does not happen because left to naturally evolve, even Teacher attitudes fall upon a bell curve. However, if I were a Teacher with 3 classes of 40, teaching compo... would I assign 1 compo a week? Of course not!! I also have kids and I also need to sleep.

But in many cases, 1 compo a week is really what the children need to write well enough for PSLE (if they have no tuition). Hence, Teachers become resigned to the fact that children won't really flower under them. They have no time to help them flower. Not being able to see children flower under you, and due largely to your efforts, takes away so much meaning from your job. It DEmotivates in a big way.

Teachers either leave, or they just learn to exist in the system and \"partner parents\" as directed by MOE. Those who still keep the passion have had to exert so much of themselves to see one or 2 children flower only... and for that, they pay a high price... many of these dedicated Teachers are unmarried or have no kids.

We may as well start nunneries.

[janet88]

I remember an earlier post regarding kids attending enrichment centres.

Why are the teachers teaching in those centres instead of schools ? Bcos they don’t have to attend meetings, conduct remedial lessons or CCA. Their CORE responsibility is to TEACH.

I seriously think and feel our SCHOOL teachers will be happier if they don’t have to bring kids out for CCA, attend meetings etc etc etc. Oh yes, if possible, please bring up the salary too. Ministers serve the citizens…teachers groom our young.

Teachers are professionals and they teach our children. Teachers are humans too…people became teachers because they want to teach and see their young charges blossom under their care. BTW, I am not a teacher.

[Chenonceau]

I think MOE management lacks compassion. They've been groomed to run the education service using the School Excellence Model (SEM), which was adapted from the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) criteria. In its turn, the SQA found its origins in the American manufacturing sector. A system imbued with the values of a production line, have care of our children.


MOE Policy shows little compassion for Teachers (no one bothers about their workload), who in turn learn to show little compassion for our little ones. It occurs to no one, it seems, that placing averages and medians at 40+% would break the hearts of too many children. See Linden2000's sharing below.

linden2000:

Last year in my son's neighbourhood school, the average and median marks for P5 Math both SA1 and SA2 were 40+ which means the average kid failed Maths.

Good for the kids who have Mommies to patch them up. Those kiddies who don't, just have to bear with the pain. It used to be that one could count on kindness and compassion within the school compound because Teachers were there to nurture and help. Only the corporate world was cut-throat. Now, schools drive children like little slaves... the ethos of the whole education system has changed. We have brought corporate values right down to our little kids.

Why? Is this necessary?

[violin_lover]

beanbear:

Wow, thanks for sharing. Didn't know it could be that bad...

I am also getting amazed at the kind of 'compo' the kids are asked to write in school. I couldn't believe DS could write such good Chinese, and sure enough, he said he was asked to copy someone else's work. But I went :? Why need to copy? If copy from friend means friend can write so well? If copy from teacher, then how are they expected to write one on their own (tested) in 2 weeks' time?
I'm starting to scramble already.

When I first discovered that my DD2 was asked to copy a model Chinese essay, I was stunned. Plagiarism gets you a \"Failure\" grade immediately in university. The Chinese teacher pasted the model student's essay in my daughter's book and then asked her to copy word for word onto the next page. When I saw that, I called the teacher and told her I think it's against my morals and my stand against plagiarism. I refuse to let my child do it and I told the teacher that if the essay is not good enough, I'll let her do the essay again. No problem. The Teacher actually told me she was trying to save me time!!! I told I don't need to save this kind of time. I would rather my daughter learn that it is WRONG to copy someone's essay. We can use some clever phrasing demonstrated by someone, but we must still create the sentence ourselves.

Given the state of affairs in the schools, it's really no wonder character education & values are being called into attention. There's something seriously wrong. Our teachers don't know how to teach our potato children chinese and instead learning more refreshing methods, they resort to asking our children to copy!! :slapshead:

Hmm... so it is not OK to memorise model essay? Cos some parents here actually force their kids to memorise model essay. I intend to follow her method until you mention about plagiarism . I think it is more important to teach the kid the correct moral value rather than making sure that he passed his Chinese. beanbear, thanks for pointing this out. It stops me from moving towards the \"dark side\". We must have a baseline in our conscious

[Chenonceau]

Are you talking about me violin_lover?


If you are, then I need to qualify that we don’t memorize the essay to regurgitate. Like that, sure cannot score, because it would be out of point. We memorize to build cognitive pathways to process Chinese. DS still needs to write his own piece at the exam.

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

Are you talking about me violin_lover?


If you are, then I need to qualify that we don't memorize the essay to regurgitate. Like that, sure cannot score, because it would be out of point. We memorize to build cognitive pathways to process Chinese.

Ha ha, I mention parents. I think a lot of parents are doing that :evil: . Don't get paranoid :slapshead: . As I mention, I intend to let my kids memorise too but after reading beanbear's comment, I have a second thought now....

[Chenonceau]

violin_lover:

Ha ha, I mention parents. I think a lot of parents are doing that :evil: . Don't get paranoid :slapshead: . As I mention, I intend to let my kids memorise too but after reading beanbear's comment, I have a second thought now....

Kekekekeke!! Just make sure mah... I think memorizing is very important in learning Chinese. As long as your aim is not to get the child to regurgitate EVERYTHING as memorized, then it isn't plagiarism. Through memory work, the child will pick up short phrases and good vocab, which will come out later in his own compos.

However, we have found it useful to pick out nice phrases to ting xie and nice chunks to mo xie so that we develop the write-recall function of his brain.

Actually, I don't see how one can plagiarize in an exam... unless you know the question before hand. Whatever you have memorized is unlikely to fit the question exactly. You still have to write your own thing right?

[janet88]

Our teachers do not get compassion from their BIG boss, which is MOE.

Teachers are facing human beings, very young as in 6+ to teenagers (who are in the rebellious stage). If the workload is not lightened from school teachers, how can they possibly show any compassion to their students ???

Not every child has the luxury of a parent who knows how to teach.
I am hopeless when it comes to Math...that thing about models just switches me off :siam: many of us were brought up in the algebra era.
I 'taji' coaching Math to hubby. Corporate world is cut throat. Must MOE bring this to primary school ?