Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition

[dorisp]

hokkiengirl:

dorisp:

Hey, can I join? I'd like my boy to learn dialects but he does not seen to like it leh..... ... :sad:

Oh, dorisp, my boys don't really 'like' Hokkien. They just take it that it's this thing their mad Mother speaks to them and the world. Don't care; ng-air ng-air lai (just push ahead). Speak relentlessly to him in dialect for some part of the day. Pretty soon, he'll figure it out. He'll thank you for it when he goes to the army. I think that there are actually loads of Singaporean families that still use dialects to communicate.

Thanks for the encouragement hokkiengirl, I shall try starting today.

BTW I recall hearding some boys from DS's kinddy speaking some dialect \"bad words\" when I was at the school the other day, sigh, and even their mother didn't stop those boys. I sure hope my DS didn't pick these up.

[fightingmom]

hokkiengirl:

fightingmom:

Haha.. My DD can understand and speak teochew and hokkien - though not fluently but good enough to communicate with my parents and elderly relatives. My mum used to tease her when she was a toddler by asking,\" Li si teochew nang, ka si hokkien nang?\" [ Are you teochew or hokkien ?] and she replied,\"cham cham.\" [rojak, mixed]

Anything she is not sure of, she likes to reply ,\" wa em zai\" (yes, even now )

Ha ha I like!! Hey, how old is your DD, fightingmom? Maybe can match her with one of my three boys. We can build our little dialect empire. Seriously, though, I think it's terrific that she can communicate in two dialects!

Hi hokkiengirl,

My DD is already 12 years old this year ... Is a big jie jie to ur 2 boys
And I do agree with you in one of your posts... Children pick up language real fast especially if they are exposed to it daily. My dd picks up basic Malay in school and she practices it with my hubby. She uses it when she wants to share some \"secrets\" with her daddy instead of me. :roll:

Am in the midst of teaching her some basic Korean which I learn from watching kdramas

[Chenonceau]

Let us not dispute the notion of whether parents are kiasu. Let us acknowledge that parents are kiasu in the way the following 2 bloggers have acknowledged the phenomenon.

(1) http://hedgehogcomms.blogspot.sg/2012/06/education-stress-whose-fault.html

(2) http://8percentpa.blogspot.sg/search/label/Education

There remains systemic solutions to temper the kiasu-ism. Why is it that Humankind can dam up rivers, lay optical fibre into the ocean floor, FLY, search for a cancer cure... but so easily admit defeat in the face of Parent Kiasu-ism without even trying to brainstorm systemic solutions or listen to those proffered by fellow countrymen?

Ever seen scuffles over food rations dropped from the sky into a wartorn zone? There is kiasu-ism behind that surely? People are afraid that
(1) they won't get enough food OR
(2) that they'll get the stuff that is inferior if the don't

So what can systemically be done to put law and order into the process of food distribution? A strong central authority needs to...

(1) ensure the equitable distribution of food (or educational opportunities)
Transparent, reliable and consistent processes to determine the size of families (or the child's calibre) so that more or less food (or education) can be allocated. When the choicest opportunities go to the Fastest Grabber, then more and more people will learn to grab. Even people who have been brought up to eschew vulgar grabbing, will learn to grab. If the choicest opportunities are given to those with best&most tuition/enrichment, then more and more people will learn to be KiasuParents. Even people who did not believe in tuition will learn that tuition is necessary.

(2) ensure that food quality is consistent so that people won't fear that they'll get stuck with low quality stuff if they don't fight for themselves. Ensure all schools give consistent quality so that people won't feel that if they place their kids in the wrong school, they'll be stuck with Teachers who spell \"troopping\" or who ask children to contribute tuition materials to share with the class. This will go some way in tempering parent kiasu-ism.

Instead... the excuses are...
(1) It is not possible to ensure consistency
(2) It is not possible to hire enough teachers to make smaller classes
(3) It is not possible to retain teachers to get enough to make smaller classes
(4) It is not possible to micromanage schools to ensure that at least mainstream content taught and tested is consistent across all of mainstream
(5) It's no big deal... schools that overtest are only the top 30% of schools.

Think about it. 30% of 180 schools = 54 schools. 54 schools each with 400 students across 6 years = 54 X 400 X 6 = 129600.

129,600 students are being over-tested every year simply because the PSLE over-tests to account for the knowledge sold in enrichment classes, but not taught in schools. And people can sit back and say... that's no big deal? It's only 30%? Ever thought of the pain these 129,600 young lives (and their parents) are going through? This is what happens when people who have successful kids in the system (and a high quality educational experience) and money to throw into TLL and other erstwhile external enrichment plus time to coach at home... deny that poor quality education exists because they themselves did not experience it, or had their own ways to easily bridge the holes. This is what happens when policy makers have no talent for empathy... and only read numbers - 30%.

Certainly, parents are kiasu. What can we do about that? Nothing? Or something?

At least try and find systemic levers around that instead of simply repeating that Parents are to Blame. There is no shame when parents want the best for their children. If quality of schools remain different across the nation, then it is to be expected that parents will do everything and anything they can to get into the good schools - DSA, enrichment from Age 3 (or womb), volunteer, tuition, hire people to do homework.... blah blah blah...

The issue boils down to weak governance by MOE.

[limlim]

BeContented:

You see my example as ONE school, I see it as possibly the 'silent half'.
Of the many many who complain about difficult papers, what schools are those kids in? Top 30%?

If there is no GEP....only S paper.....you sure nobody will bother to have tuition for those? If school maths syllabus is sufficient, why all the training programmes for MO, UNSW etc etc?
It's the competitive streak/strive for the best/full potential.......mentality. No escape.

No.. I meant MOE standardizing the standard/papers across the board.. your \"silent half\" will disappear naturally.

Tt's not whether I'm sure or not.. at the A level, it is already a fact that NOT everyone scramble to take it when it is already offered as an option.. unless.. the situation for A level now is so much different from what I experienced in the past?

No sensible student (and probably parents) would want to spend extra time on S papers when it may cost them valuable time that could have been spend at core subjects giving a better shot at the university admission. And S paper is not factored in admission criteria.

competitive strive.. yes.. But What causes it? And is it beneficial?

Previously.. Singapore is well known to \"strive for excellence\".. that, is very good.

But now..? everywhere we see is \"strive for profits\".... and this is the product of \"strive for good grades\" education........ assuming most of the products of the local education system enters the local workforce..

if elitism is not beneficial.. isn't it better to do away with it?

try to minimize the competitive environment all together..

[limlim]

Imami:

When I first heard the \"teach less, learn more\", I was thinking simi lai eh? How can that happen? But I thought to myself,\"ai ya u duno lah... New technology\" but after reading this much, hey - I am not alone leh

teach less at national schools..

learn more at private schools..

[janet88]

limlim:

Imami:

When I first heard the \"teach less, learn more\", I was thinking simi lai eh? How can that happen? But I thought to myself,\"ai ya u duno lah... New technology\" but after reading this much, hey - I am not alone leh

teach less at national schools..

learn more at private schools..

:goodpost:

[wonderm]

When MOE reviews our public education system, besides reading KSP and other media/online forums, hope they also take a look at this:


\"Changing Education Paradigms\" by Sir Ken Robinson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Brilliant!

[janet88]

pinky:

teach less - in schools

learn more - from tuition :faint:

Schools teach less...no need to pay school fees mah, pay misc fees.
Tuition costs more. So, schools teach less, make parents pay tuition for kids to learn more and then this is conversion value...win-win for schools.

[Chenonceau]

wonderm:

When MOE reviews our public education system, besides reading KSP and other media/online forums, hope they also take a look at this:


\"Changing Education Paradigms\" by Sir Ken Robinson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Brilliant!

I love this too. Man, I love this. To do this, they'll need to move away from standardized testing. No more PSLE?

[Imami]

limlim:

Imami:

When I first heard the \"teach less, learn more\", I was thinking simi lai eh? How can that happen? But I thought to myself,\"ai ya u duno lah... New technology\" but after reading this much, hey - I am not alone leh

teach less at national schools..

learn more at private schools..

:rotflmao: yup, sounds right to make sense out of \"teach less, learn more\"