Child Underperforms Because Tested Above Cognitive Level
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doodbug:
Noone will take a risk with the PSLE - and even if all enrichment centres do is to babysit one's child to spend his time constructively, parents will still send the kids for enrichment. It is an investment. Because who wouldn't want to give his offspring the best shot at the PSLE? It determines the schooling environment for the next 6 years! And some would say, the rest of the educational journey!
See below beanbear's sharing (parts in red) that fleshes out your statement in red above.beanbear:
The above explains why parents won't take risks with PSLE. Add to that that HR policies in many companies are structured such that companies are not allowed to give ITE grads promotions, despite the fact that they CAN do the job better than others, unless they upgrade themselves to a better qualification. See sharing below from this thread - http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=706680#p706680This brings back memories for me. I was the only kid from my Sec 4 class who didn't make it to JC and I recalled having so much self-doubts. During my 3-yr Pre-U centre, I remembered how inadequate the materials we were given to help us learn the A level syllabus because we were housed in a Secondary school (a well-know one some more) and we were made to feel like the \"unwanted step-sister\" bringing down the reputation of the more famous secondary school. Some of our teachers were Secondary School teachers who taught both O level & A level. Those of us who want to survive and do well for the A levels for a shot at University will have to rely on our sheer determination, find resources on our own. I still remember scoring an A for my literature test paper, and my teacher asked me if I had copied the essay from someone. He gave me an A while doubting that if I was truly capable. A few people had cheated in the class and the entire class was made to resit the test. I still got my A. Till this day, I realize that the world will be filled with people who doubt your ability to shine once you're labelled \"slower\" by the system, placed by a system to a \"lesser-able\" track and really the system will not give adequate resources to even give you one leg up to compete on fair grounds.
I remember every week I went to the National Library in search of materials for readings that will help me to my A level papers because at school there were none.
Lo and behold, at the A Levels, I actually scored really well and went to NUS. There I saw many \"JC\" students with all the previous enriched learning environment but few could articulate their own opinions about issues. By the time I went to my 4th year in university, I was thrilled to find 3 other students who had also gone through a miserable 3 pre-u programme and through their grit and hard work made it to University and honours year.
Why am I sharing all this? What made my path turn out right in the end? One thing my parents did right was give me the very-much needed tuition for some Pre-U subjects because I could barely survive with the inadequate teaching & resources. 2nd thing- they really send me the message that it's really up to me to get what I want in life. They had hopes for me to get to university but knew the odds were stacked up against me. Finally, my sheer grit and my belief in myself - my self-worth was dented by what the system had delivered me but I believed that I really wanted to get to university and it was up to me to get whatever resources and help I needed to get through.Joule:
Unless we fix the educational system, the poor will remain poor. I hope more Daddies realize this and speak up. Fix the problem UPSTREAM so that our children can inherit a kinder and more equitable future. We need Daddies to speak up. We need Daddies to help protect our children.Translation:
\"If everyone go and get diploma, then who is going to deliver my pizza?\"
is similar to:
\"If everyone can move up, we will not have enough ITE graduates out there in the workforce,\"
I was sort of 'mocking' that way of thinking.
However...however...
I think (I cannot say for you ah, only my own opinion) the workplace - especially GLCs are extremely cruel to ITE grads (only ITE cert) in terms of pay increment and benefits.
I know of friends and my subordinates who with ITE cert work 5 - 7 years still pay only less than 2k, then all the foreigners come in and get 2k ++ due to S-pass for similar job. Some more the foreigner english not so good, work ethnic not so good, anyhow take MC, still get higher pay.
I oso want to promote one of my best guys with higher Nitec to 'engineer' but HR say 'CANNOT! Engineer MUST have Dip minimum' and they do not want to pay this guy engineer payscale. And this guy also don't want to do cos more overtime but no overtime pay.
So I stand there suck thumb. In the end a 'foreigner' got it because no one internally to fill.
you hear oredi you pek chek or not?? This is the sort of crap ITE holders face in the workplace at starting level.
Then they all cannot get a place in Poly. So how? Borrow money from here and there and study part time at night and get a diploma la!
If you are from ITE, your life is not destined to deliver pizza...unless you let it!
By the way, got 1 electrician with ITE cert went to my house to fix my light. $190 for 1/2 hr work. Better than tuition I say -
doodbug:
PSLE is the first TRUE milestone for a child. No parent will want to take the risk to go easy...to ignore those intensive courses, tutors, enrichment centres to get the best shot at it. It's not the face value of the parents but the child's self-esteem for the next 4 years (assuming we are looking at O levels).
Therein lies the fundamental problem to me - the PSLE counts for too much. Noone will take a risk with the PSLE - and even if all enrichment centres do is to babysit one's child to spend his time constructively, parents will still send the kids for enrichment. It is an investment. Because who wouldn't want to give his offspring the best shot at the PSLE? It determines the schooling environment for the next 6 years! And some would say, the rest of the educational journey!
I've decided to go easy for CA1 (and the feeling takes the stress off) because my son's school will set a VERY difficult paper. No point getting all stressed up for this. -
doodbug:
And this problem leaves me rather clueless. Don't get me wrong, better textbooks and making enrichment resources available to all is a DEFINITE POSITIVE step. But I don't think this will solve the enrichment problem. Because enrichment centres are enterprising - they will evolve to carve a niche in tailoring teaching and resources to the child's individual learning need, and they will improve on the delivery of information and exam skills to the child. The demand for enrichment will be insatiable so long as (1) enrichment centres do contribute to some degree to a child's PSLE result; and (2) society and the system weighs the PSLE severely.
This is true and therein lies the big problem we are trying to solve.....for the majority.ksi:
[quote=\"doodbug\"]
Bottom line is, tuition and enrichment, regardless of the providers, be it commercial entities or one's parents, are necessary to doing well, or some say coping, within the current system.
Therein lies the fundamental problem to me - the PSLE counts for too much. Noone will take a risk with the PSLE - and even if all enrichment centres do is to babysit one's child to spend his time constructively, parents will still send the kids for enrichment. It is an investment. Because who wouldn't want to give his offspring the best shot at the PSLE? It determines the schooling environment for the next 6 years! And some would say, the rest of the educational journey![/quote]Yes I agree with you that it will not stop enrichment but at least reduces TUITION. Enrichment is for people who want extra and willing to pay and can pay, which is precisely what the commercial people are targeting at. Tuition becomes a must because children cannot cope. However, if more children can cope after getting better support for both teachers and children and twigging the exams to be majority testing what has been learnt in class and some concepts application ones, then I think Tuition can be greatly reduced and for those who cannot afford tuition to get a better level playing field. If all these are done sufficiently and parents still flog to tuition centres like bees to honey, then the issue is no longer the system.....it's more like an addiction then. Btw, have you an idea for an alternative to PSLE that can be objective testing? Maybe that can drive a change you want to see. -
janet_lee88:
Precisely Janet. But why should PSLE, taken when a child is 12, become so deterministic? It's scary. It determines the educational environment for the next 4-8 years, the child's self esteem, what he will be taught, his social circle etc etc. Deterministic exams are needed, but don't most societies conduct these sort of exams at 16 or 18?
PSLE is the first TRUE milestone for a child. No parent will want to take the risk to go easy...to ignore those intensive courses, tutors, enrichment centres to get the best shot at it. It's not the face value of the parents but the child's self-esteem for the next 4 years (assuming we are looking at O levels).doodbug:
Therein lies the fundamental problem to me - the PSLE counts for too much. Noone will take a risk with the PSLE - and even if all enrichment centres do is to babysit one's child to spend his time constructively, parents will still send the kids for enrichment. It is an investment. Because who wouldn't want to give his offspring the best shot at the PSLE? It determines the schooling environment for the next 6 years! And some would say, the rest of the educational journey!
I've decided to go easy for CA1 (and the feeling takes the stress off) because my son's school will set a VERY difficult paper. No point getting all stressed up for this.
I find it almost ironic that my husband and I are feeling a tad bit helpless with the system, when both of us did well through the system, without much enrichment help. We are first generation graduates in our families, and our parents were not able to help much beyond the early Primary School years. But we worked hard, and top grades weren't insurmountable. Yet, we are now beckoning to all sorts of external help for our kids, and they are only in P1 and K2! Everyone else we knows is doing the same, if not far more! Simply because, we look at the expectations for P6, and extrapolating backwards, we know that our children will not attain anywhere near those standards if we do not enrich them. In fact, our son was diagnosed as a slow learner at 3 - we weren't bothered, but the whole army of speech and occupational therapists and pediatricians were! He needed time to grow, and the system doesn't give much of it. By God's grace, he had caught up quite miraculously, given that he wasn't even uttering a single word at age 3.
That said, I do not think the education system of the past is better, or problem-free. Mugging a ton worked in our time too. Some telling signs - I scored an A1 for Chinese all the way, but am effectively monolingual now. Got an A1 for GP, but failed most of my essays in Uni, and I could hardly write a good paper until I was whipped into shape when I entered the workforce. I could do a ton of Calculus - I knew how to do it, but never understood it. What is integration for? To find area and volume lor, or to find speed from acceleration (I'm sure I'm not the only Singaporean whose math view is so limited). What is statistics? Plug in the formula to find probability lor. I knew nothing about the beauty of different probability density functions, and its applications, until I did basic statistics in Uni.
So it's a strange system. -
Personally, enrichment centres are for those kids who have rich parents…or parents who can well afford stuff like violin, piano, Math olympiad etc etc.
If SCHOOLS can teach well, we don’t have to spend thousands on tuition.
How many parents can afford that ? Tuition now is not a luxury but a necessity…why ? Because our kids are not able to pass exams with this stupid idea of ‘teach less, learn more’.
MOE should NOT bring the mentality of ‘only the fittest can survive’ to primary school. Primary school should be at LEVEL and fair learning. -
janet_lee88:
Sorry I haven't been sensitive to the differences between tuition and enrichment, and have used those terms interchangebly. Still learning the KSP terms! Enrichment = tuition for my earlier posts! :imsorry:Personally, enrichment centres are for those kids who have rich parents...or parents who can well afford stuff like violin, piano, Math olympiad etc etc.
If SCHOOLS can teach well, we don't have to spend thousands on tuition.
How many parents can afford that ? Tuition now is not a luxury but a necessity...why ? Because our kids are not able to pass exams with this stupid idea of 'teach less, learn more'.
MOE should NOT bring the mentality of 'only the fittest can survive' to primary school. Primary school should be at LEVEL and fair learning. -
doodbug:
Fine, no employer cares how well his employees did at PSLE...how many stars, As or whatever...but doing well in PSLE determines the child's self-esteem and confidence a GREAT deal.
Precisely Janet. But why should PSLE, taken when a child is 12, become so deterministic? It's scary. It determines the educational environment for the next 4-8 years, the child's self esteem, what he will be taught, his social circle etc etc. Deterministic exams are needed, but don't most societies conduct these sort of exams at 16 or 18?
We are first generation graduates in our families, and our parents were not able to help much beyond the early Primary School years. But we worked hard, and top grades weren't insurmountable. Yet, we are now beckoning to all sorts of external help for our kids, and they are only in P1 and K2! -
janet_lee88:
Certainly, no employer cares about one's PSLE! PSLE isn't considered for University entry either. However, where one gets streamed to after PSLE, has a huge bearing on the probability of how one does in future examination hurdles, doesn't it? And also, one's chances of entering University. Which is why, parents care about the PSLE, not for the PSLE's sake and how many stars and marks, but the consequences of PSLE.
Fine, no employer cares how well his employees did at PSLE...how many stars, As or whatever...but doing well in PSLE determines the child's self-esteem and confidence a GREAT deal.doodbug:
Precisely Janet. But why should PSLE, taken when a child is 12, become so deterministic? It's scary. It determines the educational environment for the next 4-8 years, the child's self esteem, what he will be taught, his social circle etc etc. Deterministic exams are needed, but don't most societies conduct these sort of exams at 16 or 18?
We are first generation graduates in our families, and our parents were not able to help much beyond the early Primary School years. But we worked hard, and top grades weren't insurmountable. Yet, we are now beckoning to all sorts of external help for our kids, and they are only in P1 and K2!
Maybe I am playing up the PSLE too much. Oops. -
Hi doodbug,
Yes...you said it right.
It's not the STARS or As but child's confidence and esteem after he gets his PSLE results. It matters a lot.
This forum is indeed a rifle range for me to vent those frustrations.
Thank goodness I am not alone feeling this. :lovesite: -
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http://i42.tinypic.com/1t379v.jpg\">
When an enrichment centre claims credit in half page ads for the top 2 scores in PSLE 2011, where does that leave the MOE schools? See how TLL specifically mention \"curriculum research teams\"? These teams really WRITE materials that TLL Teachers use to teach. I have seen the English compo materials. They are far better than what my son has received in English compo in all 6 years of primary school.
TLL teachers are NOT expected to write their own materials.
An ad like this is a strong indictment of the quality MOE schools deliver. Not only MOE cannot adequately teach the slower ones (whose Teachers exhort the need for tuition), it can't even produce PSLE top scores on its own (with students who are clearly highly able).
Don't Teachers realize that it is their inalienable right to have access to educational materials to teach with without having to write them personally? Would a farmer ask an odd job labourer to hoe the soil without providing a hoe? If people didn't have to write their own teaching materials, their workload would go down by a great deal.
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