MOE Relooking P1 registration - Too much priority to alumni

[nms1]

Mdm Koh:

If all schools are not the same and well-known schools produce students with better grades, why are there students in the neighbourhood schools who can score above 250, 260 and even 280? :?

There will always be students in \"good\" schools who do badly and students in \"not so good\" schools who do well. While the school and the teachers have an impact, the child's underlying intelligence, personality and interests as well as the family environment will also be factors in their success. You can put a child in a top school but if they are not naturally academically inclined and they have no parental support, they are still not going to be a top PSLE scorer.

[corneyAmber]

Full.Cream:

ksi:

I agree and especially the highlighted point is a good one to implement. Alumni should be the school they graduated from. And also the downward affiliation from secondary back to primary, to be consistent, it should be scrapped cos some schools have this and some do not, confusing and unnecessary. This also results in some people having 2 school choices and some have none.

not sure if I read u correctly, but secondary-primary school affiliation is NOT applicable for P1 registration.

It is applicable...my relative had 2 choices to put the kids. One was her primary and the other was her secondary which has a primary arm. In the end she placed them in the secondary-primary affiliated school because she wanted the primary-secondary affiliation for lesser stress. So simple and hassle free. I really don't mind personally but if this is deemed as unfair because some schools practise this backward affiliation, some don't, perhaps better to standardise.

[phankao]

Full.Cream:

ksi:

I agree and especially the highlighted point is a good one to implement. Alumni should be the school they graduated from. And also the downward affiliation from secondary back to primary, to be consistent, it should be scrapped cos some schools have this and some do not, confusing and unnecessary. This also results in some people having 2 school choices and some have none.

not sure if I read u correctly, but secondary-primary school affiliation is NOT applicable for P1 registration.

There are some full schools where the parents may not have studied in the primary school, but only in the secondary school, but the child is eligible to apply un Phase 2A for P1 registration. Full schools like SNGS, CHS.

I do not agree with scrapping the Alumni phase, but I do agree with refining it's definition. eg. if the parent had never studied in the primary school, the child is not eligible. That would make the pool of eligible applicants narrower and possibly more manageable. I'm not sure how they can refine the definition of those who studied only for a short while in the pri school. Some children change schools due to being offered GEP for instance, so would have been in 2 pri schools for 3 years each. They might complain if they really wanted to put their child in the pri school they 1st studied in bc it's near their parents who might be helping with the care of the child.

Maybe another way could be to have the Alumni take out his old school records / testimonials and show contribution. If that parent had been active in the school activities/CCA and was a key member of the CCA, prefect, won prizes for school, maybe can give extra chance for his child to be in? Bc quite likely this parent would be a supportive parent in school activities.

[corneyAmber]

Mdm Koh:

If all schools are not the same and well-known schools produce students with better grades, why are there students in the neighbourhood schools who can score above 250, 260 and even 280? :?

You are right! Schools are not as critical as the child herself/himself. So current system is ok except for those who want to twig it so hard to enter a school of choice.

[caroline3sg]

Just like HDB ruling that one must have met the MOP of 5 yrs before one can sell his house, to tackle the problem of shifting house nearer to popular school to move up to earlier phase, one must own the property (not rent) and stayed for 5 years to qualify.


And to eliminate P2B (PV & grassroots). The school can take PV from existing students’ parents if they need help. These parents have stake in their children’s well being, so they are naturally a good choice. In this way, there is no such thing as wasted PV hours (if there is ballot and unsuccessful) do PV "in exchange for a place" (if no ballot).

[tankee]

nms1:

There will always be students in \"good\" schools who do badly and students in \"not so good\" schools who do well. While the school and the teachers have an impact, the child's underlying intelligence, personality and interests as well as the family environment will also be factors in their success. You can put a child in a top school but if they are not naturally academically inclined and they have no parental support, they are still not going to be a top PSLE scorer.

:goodpost:

[tankee]

caroline3sg:

Just like HDB ruling that one must have met the MOP of 5 yrs before one can sell his house, to tackle the problem of shifting house nearer to popular school to move up to earlier phase, one must own the property (not rent) and stayed for 5 years to qualify.


......

this is hard to implement, as there are Singaporean of lower income group that do not own any property. And new PR and new Singaporean couple that are waiting or saving to buy their first property.

[caroline3sg]

One thing I have pondered for some time. Since infrastructure is fixed (ie no. of classrooms), assuming no change in class size (we had 40 per class during our time, now also from P3 onwards; except P1&2 which is 30). So they can keep the enrolment figures instead of reducing 1 - 2 classes (Nanyang has kept its enrolment size, maybe due to huge alumni. But some others reduce) though no. of babies is lower when comparing to previous year.

[HappinessSmile]

Parent Volunteer is ridiculous. Firstly, nowadays, parents have to work and where will they find time to do 40 hours of volunteer?? Only for those rich tai tais or maybe those who can afford not to work, they can do volunteer. And to me, it’s free labour that the school is exploiting. Worse still, parents volunteered and still unsuccesssful. Actually it shouldn’t be called parent volunteers. It should be called slave parents who volunteer with a motive. PV should not exist. It’s stupid and a BIG waste of time.

[caroline3sg]

HappinessSmile:

Parent Volunteer is ridiculous. Firstly, nowadays, parents have to work and where will they find time to do 40 hours of volunteer?? Only for those rich tai tais or maybe those who can afford not to work, they can do volunteer. And to me, it's free labour that the school is exploiting. Worse still, parents volunteered and still unsuccesssful. Actually it shouldn't be called parent volunteers. It should be called slave parents who volunteer with a motive. PV should not exist. It's stupid and a BIG waste of time.

I have suggested scrapping of P2B.

For your info, parents take leave to volunteer.