"shocked and horrified at how bad many [state schools] were"

[janet88]

Why are we parents so hyped up on grades ? It’s not bcos of 5Cs…but for survival. A bowl of noodles today at coffee shops costs $3.50…$4 onwards at food courts. When our kids grow up, that bowl of noodles may cost $7 or $9. That is just for one person. Can he afford to pay for his girlfriend and subsequently his family. What about HDB ? Without good grades, can he afford to buy ? This is basic necessity.

[verykiasumummy]

janet_lee88:

Why are we parents so hyped up on grades ? It's not bcos of 5Cs...but for survival. A bowl of noodles today at coffee shops costs $3.50...$4 onwards at food courts. When our kids grow up, that bowl of noodles may cost $7 or $9. That is just for one person. Can he afford to pay for his girlfriend and subsequently his family. What about HDB ? Without good grades, can he afford to buy ? This is basic necessity.

yes definitely.. with the inflation rate and competition from FT, who knows what will happen to our next generation right?

we are just training our kids to be better survivors when they grow up... so exams are the challenges ahead to mold them thru...

[janet88]

It’s all about survival when they grow up. Yes, exams are required, but again I am saying this, there is no need to raise the stakes so high. PSLE is the first major exam at the end of 6 years. There are more to come.


There are several sticky issues. MOE really has to get to the root of urgent issues we parents are facing.

[august24]

Dd has a teacher who gave the entire class model ans to copy for their CL activity book homework, a week prior to CA2 exam. Reason, some students are slower, not able to follow up (look more like easier marking to do & no corrections needed). The same teacher did not give 听写 for a whole term & let the class copy a whole list of ‘books read, time, author’ for their reading records. During lesson time, she edit PowerPoint slides of the students, supposedly for some competition, while the whole class looks on. No lesson for that whole week.

I’m keeping my fingers cross this teacher won’t take her for MT again next year. Good or bad teacher is really a hit & miss. My kids have their fair share of very dedicated teachers too.

[optimistforum]

verykiasumummy:

Lynn2010:

[quote=\"phtthp\"]

i heard in some schools, British students speak poor English.

I know of quite a few who can't spell. Worse, thinking they are superior just because they are from the UK

they speak poorer eng and spelling is weak cos their parents not as ks as us... hahaha...[/quote]Tut, Tut, Tut! Lynn2010, verykiasumummy :censored:

We are a 60M population. Based on ratios we will have more illiteracy and innumeracy levels.

On a different note, you may find we English become Kiasu soon; down to a pushy middle-class. Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Education) has had an epiphany and the country is slowly reverting to a 50's style education whilst retaining a 21st Century outlook; as a corrollary this will result in our regaining our historical pre-eminent educational standing (the same is happening in the USA too). Singapore be warned that your focus on rote-learning instead of cogntive development will see you behind us, within a generation.

Our Primary curriculum is comparable to yours up to P5 (your P6 is our Y7). However, in secondary (starting in Y7) we start it all over again. I have not quite worked out why that is. There is now more emphasis on grammar - wow!

Additionally,, our GCSEs will return back to the rigour of 40 years ago, and so will comparable to your O'Levels (after all they are written in England). The same will occur with A 'Levels too. Pre-U's are being taken up at a quick rate - as there is a pent-up demand for more rigour.

Singapore is cited as a good example, and your assessment books are superbly wonderful - but a lot of your success is down to copious out-of-school tuition; not sure what it says about your state schools. Our state school spending has tripled, stupidly, with more emphasis on new buildings spend and consultants but nothing on raising salaries of teachers and certainly not (in the last 20 years) on raising international-level benchmarked attainment.

[Gizbabe]

What about nurturing their interests and creativity?


By the time our kids graduate, most of the things they learnt would probably be obsolete.

Parents in China is far more ks than any of us here. Many kids are academically excellent but they lack EQs, are risk adverse and not creative because they have been drilled since young and can’t think out of the box.

[Lynn2010]

august24:

Dd has a teacher who gave the entire class model ans to copy for their CL activity book homework, a week prior to CA2 exam. Reason, some students are slower, not able to follow up (look more like easier marking to do & no corrections needed). The same teacher did not give 听写 for a whole term & let the class copy a whole list of 'books read, time, author' for their reading records. During lesson time, she edit PowerPoint slides of the students, supposedly for some competition, while the whole class looks on. No lesson for that whole week.

I'm keeping my fingers cross this teacher won't take her for MT again next year. Good or bad teacher is really a hit & miss. My kids have their fair share of very dedicated teachers too.

Hahaha.... i heard of many such teachers.

Model ans to copy - easy to mark, just close eyes.
Spelling - no need, just copy book, \"chao xie\"

[janet88]

The attitude of some teachers in our schools are atrocious.

Yesterday, a popular SAP school gave students 2012 prelim papers to do !!!
A teacher at another school told students not to sit for PSLE. Wow, it's amazing to have such teachers in our popular schools.
Bringing books to classroom to mark during curriculum time.
Sorry if I repeated, but seriously this is no joking matter.

[Nebbermind]

janet_lee88:

My friend just called me.

Her son was told this by his teacher, 'If you believe so much in tutors, no need to attend school. No need to attend PSLE'.
The boy is studying in a popular school.

It's this kinda teachers that I'm really pissed!!

I ever revised tingxie with my girl. Last time we not so particular abt which stroke is longer/shorter unlike now...so I highlighted to her that one of the stroke is longer according to the printed listed.

Think my girl must have unintentionally said that the stroke is longer in class...and then the teacher remarked \"Am I your teacher or your father is the teacher!\"
:siao:

[janet88]

Nebbermind:

janet_lee88:

My friend just called me.

Her son was told this by his teacher, 'If you believe so much in tutors, no need to attend school. No need to attend PSLE'.

It's this kinda teachers that I'm really pissed!!

I ever revised tingxie with my girl. Last time we not so particular abt which stroke is longer/shorter unlike now...so I highlighted to her that one of the stroke is longer according to the printed listed.

Think my girl must have unintentionally said that the stroke is longer in class...and then the teacher remarked \"Am I your teacher or your father is the teacher!\"
:siao:

This is not siao. This is very rude.
If we teach our kids to show respect to teachers, it should be vice versa.