MOE to stop publishing names of top students?
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CayennePepper:
Agree with you KPI is a top stress for teachers to make them perform and gain promotion or better increment.
(a) DSA's objective is not to push parents to push their kids to pursue certain activities. That these misguided parents CHOOSE to make use of DSA in this manner is not the fault of the scheme! It was not designed to be thus exploited!david59:
DSA pushes some parents to make their kids join certain sports or activities with the unceasing hope that their kids can get into top schools despite their mediocre academic results. Pushing the kids to do things they may not like is unhealthy for family bonding. It's fine if the kid enjoys. However, the greatest stress comes when the kid finds himself struggling to perform in the elite school he would otherwise be unable to get into.
GEP robs the neighborhood schools of their top best students and give them to the elite schools who thus constantly perform excellingly above national average in PSLE. How then can these neighborhood schools ensure that they can continue to produce top scorers above 270 in the yearly PSLE?
(b) Actually, there appears to be many, many, many schools producing consistently good results year after year. Certainly far more than the few GE centres. And I would think if a school's objective is simply to produce top scorers, it has completely missed the point of education. If that is indeed the case, then I would blame it on 3 letters-- KPI!
Regard to pt a, you are right about the misguided parents. Nevertheless, why a need for DSA? Of course it is bound to be some good in DSA. However, why create a scheme that causes these students who are not on par with their peers in the elite school to suffer so much stress academically. Besides, isn't it obviously unfair advantage for the DSA schools to procure the cream of the crop into their respective CCAs teams who are like the pros when competing against other schools who do not have this advantage. I attribute no honor to such teams who win by such unfair advantage. It is like in a game, I choose all the skillful players and the other person is left with the leftovers. Should I feel great that my team win. :oops:
As for pt. b, yes, the neighborhood schools are still doing well. But nevertheless, this forming of elite classes is probably a recent phenomenon. Why are schools beginning to do this? Isn't it unfair that all the other classes have 40 students but this elite class has only 20 to 25? What is their objective? Ethically right to do so? Does MOE condone such strategy? Btw, in the past, schools' desire was to be able to display a big banner to show that their school has achieve 100% PSLE passes. That was a noble goal to strive and achieve.
But now, the schools' desire is to show off how many of their students score top marks in the same huge banner. It does not matter how many of their students fail their PSLE. -
metz:
That's really the extreme scenario. You mean every single overseas student - regardless if nationality - will drop at least one level?
For a rough estimate, try the difference btw no.of babies born in a particular year and no.of students who took PSLE 12 years later.FQW:
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all. -
sinoboy:
What in your opinion constitutes a high proportion?
Their overall numbers might be small in proportion to the whole cohort but i'm curious what is their composition in top schools like Hwa Chong, NYGS, RI, RGS, GEP programs or successful DSAs either by academic or Chinese instruments. If the proportion in top/IP schools are high then are there enough places for locals to join the top JCs like HCI or RI? Judging from the COP of 3 points from 6 subjects I think not easy.
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FQW:
That's really the extreme scenario. You mean every single overseas student - regardless if nationality - will drop at least one level?[/quote]As I have indicated, it's a rough estimate of how large the number might potentially be.
For a rough estimate, try the difference btw no.of babies born in a particular year and no.of students who took PSLE 12 years later.metz:
[quote=\"FQW\"]
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all.
For a more accurate estimate, one should exclude the number of Sg students who are on LOA, if the data is available.
Of course, the most accurate data would be directly from MOE. -
david59:
I just counted 91 schools in the list of secondary schools participating in the 2012 DSA Exercise, found on the MOE website. Didn't realise there's such a whopping number of schools offering DSA!
... Besides, isn't it obviously unfair advantage for the DSA schools to procure the cream of the crop into their respective CCAs teams who are like the pros when competing against other schools who do not have this advantage. I attribute no honor to such teams who win by such unfair advantage. It is like in a game, I choose all the skillful players and the other person is left with the leftovers. Should I feel great that my team win. :oops:
...
But now, the schools' desire is to show off how many of their students score top marks in the same huge banner. It does not matter how many of their students fail their PSLE.
How can the schools be said to have obtained an unfair advantage when it's the students/parents who make the choice to favour one school over another?
Using your game analogy, if all the teams open their doors to welcome players, and good players largely pick a few select teams to APPLY for trials (and they should be well aware there's no guarantee of membership), then should the other teams just sit and cry foul?
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Well, schools now appear wary of celebrating good scores :razz:
So there may be fewer self-congratulatory banners :evil:
I think it may be too sweeping a statement to declare that schools ignore the weaker students. Celebrating achievements also doesn't preclude taking care of them. -
CayennePepper:
Well, if all the teams open their doors to welcome them, at least this is an open,transparent invitation, is'nt it?david59:
... Besides, isn't it obviously unfair advantage for the DSA schools to procure the cream of the crop into their respective CCAs teams who are like the pros when competing against other schools who do not have this advantage. I attribute no honor to such teams who win by such unfair advantage. It is like in a game, I choose all the skillful players and the other person is left with the leftovers. Should I feel great that my team win. :oops:
...
But now, the schools' desire is to show off how many of their students score top marks in the same huge banner. It does not matter how many of their students fail their PSLE.
I just counted 91 schools in the list of secondary schools participating in the 2012 DSA Exercise, found on the MOE website. Didn't realise there's such a whopping number of schools offering DSA!
How can the schools be said to have obtained an unfair advantage when it's the students/parents who make the choice to favour one school over another?
Using your game analogy, if all the teams open their doors to welcome players, and good players largely pick a few select teams to APPLY for trials (and they should be well aware there's no guarantee of membership), then should the other teams just sit and cry foul?
--
Well, schools now appear wary of celebrating good scores :razz:
So there may be fewer self-congratulatory banners :evil:
I think it may be too sweeping a statement to declare that schools ignore the weaker students. Celebrating achievements also doesn't preclude taking care of them.
As for the sweeping statement, I may have been a little crude. I am not saying that they do not care about the weaker students. Using the comparison of the use of the banner in the past and present, we can see the main priority of the schools is more focused on achieving top scorers for display. And also that too much is focused on nuturing this elite class of 20 to 25 students at the expense of other classes of 40 who probably need even more help.
Anyway, these are my observations and my opinions only. God bless. :salute: -
slmkhoo:
Thanks for sharing. I would have thought so.wonderm:
Since we know that foreign students are allowed to start 1 or even 2 levels lower when joining our primary schools mid-way. How about returning Singaporean, are they given this option too? If so, anyone knows how many of returning Singaporean take up the chance to gain the \"over-age\" advantage?
Yes, RS do get this 'option', but based on a small sample of a handful of families I know, all are actually fearful of this 'option' and will do all they can to keep their kids in the same age cohort. Even those who don't do well in re-entry tests will beg for a chance to try to stay in the same age cohort. -
"My friends included the children of hawkers as well as of millionaires. Differences in wealth never bothered us. That I think is a good thing."
–Lee Wei Ling
Agree! -
slmkhoo:
Yes, I have a friend with two Kids returning Singapore from overseas posting. They have to take some test, then boy posted into RI and Girl into MGS. For another family, they chose to let their boy stay one year lower than his age for better copying.wonderm:
Since we know that foreign students are allowed to start 1 or even 2 levels lower when joining our primary schools mid-way. How about returning Singaporean, are they given this option too? If so, anyone knows how many of returning Singaporean take up the chance to gain the \"over-age\" advantage?
Yes, RS do get this 'option', but based on a small sample of a handful of families I know, all are actually fearful of this 'option' and will do all they can to keep their kids in the same age cohort. Even those who don't do well in re-entry tests will beg for a chance to try to stay in the same age cohort. -
BluryMom:
:hi5:Frankly, If you think your kid is good for DSA then go ahead and compete with the rest of applicants based on the academic to get a CO. The IP sch never stop any child from applying. No point complaining unfair this and that.
Ask yourself the following situation:
- If your mainstream kid got a CO in the IP sch and yet later score lower then the sch COP in PSLE, is he/she going to withdraw and give his/her seat to the kid who meet the COP?
Really endless to this green eyes mindset which got nothing to do with this thread topic.
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