<![CDATA[why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese]]>Why is the school so discouraging ? First , the teacher talked to the students , telling them to consider either giving up totally, or take it as a non-exam subject , ie attend the lesson, but no exam.


Then , the school called my husband , asking him to consider letting my son give up. When my husband said no, she kept saying things like : should give up so that can spend more time on other subjects ?

Why , why ? Why ? Shouldnt the school be very happy that the parents and the students would like to learn ?

They only want the best students to take that subject.

already , my son has been talked into wanting to give up, and we have to try our best to undo the damage done by the school.

What is the purpose of education ? What is happening to the spirit of 有教无类


Oh, has it got something to do with … K!P!I! ?

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/topic/28103/why-is-the-school-discouraging-students-from-taking-hchineseRSS for NodeTue, 23 Jun 2026 01:28:05 GMTTue, 15 Nov 2011 13:14:13 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:59:04 GMT]]>

sall:
jtoh:



The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.

The parents refused to let them drop. There are 2 extreme types of parents. One who insisted their kids take HCL when they already do badly for normal CL and other subjects. The other type of parents is afraid that their kids will be stressed if they take HCL. dd had 2 classmates last yr who are very good in their studies, including CL, but their parents refused to let them take HCL. :siao:

If the child is not good in CL and struggling in other subjects, then there's really no point in taking HCL. Might as well take the time to focus on the other core 4 subjects. Don't understand parents who insist on making their kids take HCL. As for the other group of parents, well... maybe they see no point in burdening their kids esp if they're not planning to go to an SAP school. You can always pick up HCL in secondary school.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/641384https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/641384Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:59:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:33:49 GMT]]>

jtoh:


The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.
The parents refused to let them drop. There are 2 extreme types of parents. One who insisted their kids take HCL when they already do badly for normal CL and other subjects. The other type of parents is afraid that their kids will be stressed if they take HCL. dd had 2 classmates last yr who are very good in their studies, including CL, but their parents refused to let them take HCL. :siao:

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/641205https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/641205Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:33:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:01:08 GMT]]>

sall:
For dd's primary sch, the teachers did not discourage any students from taking HCL. But along the way, if they feel that any student are doing so badly, then they'll advise him to drop. There were 2 students who had very bad attitude and did v badly all along. They scored less then 20/100 for HCL exams. They are the ones who created problems and disrupted lessons. They were advised to drop but they refused. So in the end, they failed and the % pass was affected. In such cases, the teachers did the right thing by advising them to drop, problem is they refused.

The students refused to drop the subject or their parents refused to let them drop it? I can't imagine students who have no interest in the subject and who perform badly would want to continue with it.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/640714https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/640714Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:01:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:45:48 GMT]]>For dd’s primary sch, the teachers did not discourage any students from taking HCL. But along the way, if they feel that any student are doing so badly, then they’ll advise him to drop. There were 2 students who had very bad attitude and did v badly all along. They scored less then 20/100 for HCL exams. They are the ones who created problems and disrupted lessons. They were advised to drop but they refused. So in the end, they failed and the % pass was affected. In such cases, the teachers did the right thing by advising them to drop, problem is they refused.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/640191https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/640191Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:45:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:15:00 GMT]]>

daisyt:
znzyzyzx:

we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?


Hi hi znzyzyzx, go for it! Most important is develope the interest of Chinese in your son. I believe and always tell my dd, if one don't put effort to try, you won't know if the interest is there. If one has not tried, don't tell me you have no interest at it. Proficiency can be easily built up if the interest is there.

Morever it is a long learning process and i am sure with your chinese level, you can make your son like Chinese. Jia you!

hi, daisy,

Long time no chat.

thanks, thanks. We will go for it.
I hope to do some \"miracle\" with him over the holidays. 😄

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639423https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639423Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:15:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:11:10 GMT]]>

znzyzyzx:
we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

Hi hi znzyzyzx, go for it! Most important is develope the interest of Chinese in your son. I believe and always tell my dd, if one don't put effort to try, you won't know if the interest is there. If one has not tried, don't tell me you have no interest at it. Proficiency can be easily built up if the interest is there.

Morever it is a long learning process and i am sure with your chinese level, you can make your son like Chinese. Jia you!

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639389https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639389Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:11:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:20:55 GMT]]>

znzyzyzx:
we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

I understand how you feel, but it's always been MOE's policy that only students who can do well in a subject are allowed to take it at a higher level.

It seems reasonable, as the emphasis of primary education is on the compulsory subjects. HCL is optional. The purpose of HCL is to allow students who are good in CL to leverage on their strengths. Hence, it makes sense that there are some requirements to be met in terms of the student's performance. HCL is not supposed to be for anyone who wants to learn it.

I guess you still find it unfair that the school is discouraging learning, but that's the way the Singapore education system rolls. Grades are important in this system and all the schools want their students to score well. To give the school and teacher some credit, they may be concerned that the subject would give your DS more stress if he is not so proficient in CL.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639064https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/639064Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:20:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:12:21 GMT]]>just curious, what is the difference between chinese and higher chinese besides higher chinese being more difficult??

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638850https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638850Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:12:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:31:15 GMT]]>we are definitely letting my son continue taking HCL. just felt unfortunate that our education industry is looking at : can you score for this subject , if yes, ok, you may take it. cannot ? sorry , dont take. It has become 本未倒置. Are we in it to learn , or are we in it because we already know, can score ?

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638823https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638823Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:31:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:57:00 GMT]]>Hi znzyzyzx,


It will even be more sadder if parents are looking at such KPIs to select the school for P1 registration which is probably the reason the school is doing this.


Having said that, I actually think that most schools do not just look at 1 reason, they generally would also look at the other reasons - some of which may be unknown to us.

You know your child best, if you think he should take HCL, please talk to the school. My niece’s school try to cut down to only 1 HCL class for the P5 cohort last year. The parents went to speak to the school and in the end, they opened 2 classes.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638789https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/638789Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:57:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:18:38 GMT]]>Hi Usaik


We think the main reason is #3. Very sad right? The school is more interested in their KPI than focusing on encouraging kids to challenge themselves to take up hcl. They should be finding ways to bring up the std of the students so that more of them are eligible and not reducing the numbers to look good on overall score.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637402https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637402Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:18:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:00:04 GMT]]>

Pen88n:
DS sch is the opposite - encourage the top 3-4 classes to all take HCL. If kid does not want to take HCL, will have to drop from the top classes to join the subject banding classes (based on strengths and weakness of subjects). Of course kids want to be in the top classes, so no choice but to take HCL.

Let me guess, it is one of those schools which do not need to prove themselves or are already magnets of high ability students. 😄

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637336https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637336Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:00:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:50:19 GMT]]>DS sch is the opposite - encourage the top 3-4 classes to all take HCL. If kid does not want to take HCL, will have to drop from the top classes to join the subject banding classes (based on strengths and weakness of subjects). Of course kids want to be in the top classes, so no choice but to take HCL.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637325https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637325Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:50:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:59:50 GMT]]>Hi znzyzyzx,


I can think of a few reasons why the school is discouraging students from taking HCL.

Reason #1
HML doesn’t contribute to the T-score. A PSLE kiddo really doesn’t need to take HML in order to do well in their T-score. Instead, they can spend more time and stay focus on the MT paper and get a good T-score.

Reason #2
HMT bonus points will only be applicable if the kiddo is aiming for a SAP school and very importantly, he must also be among the top 30% of the entire PSLE cohort in order to be eligible for the HMT bonus point.

Reason #3
I notice that these days, schools presenting PSLE achievements based on percentage of passes is no longer good enough. More schools are publishing their PSLE achievements based on the percentage of quality passes. As such, if they are unsure if a child can obtain an A or a A*, it is better to stop the child from even attempting to sit for the exam. Any student who sit for the paper and can’t score an A or A*, will just pull the school’s PSLE achievement percentage down. As such, school probably will only recommend those students whom they think can obtain for sure at least an A to take HMT. The smaller the pool of base population, the better they can control the quality passes. In addition, it is relatively easy to just take another step further by only allowing those who can do extremely well to take the subject in the first place. For example, if the school only picks the top 5 kids take HCL, the chances getting 100% A* passes is definitely much higher than if the school allows top 10 kids to take the paper.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637297https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/637297Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:59:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:40:03 GMT]]>

znzyzyzx:
My son gets 99 for his math and 86 for his science (p5) , I think that is quite a decent score.


Anyway, for ourselves, we definitely want him to continue doing hcl, just wondering why is the school discouraging it so eagerly. I am sure a few of the other parents.students, when faced with this relentless effort by the school to discourage , will give up.
I think schools will recommend a student to take HCL based on their Chinese results, not other subjects. If your DS has been having consistently high results for Chinese (at least 85 & above), I really don't see why the school will discourage it

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636524https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636524Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:40:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:27:23 GMT]]>My son gets 99 for his math and 86 for his science (p5) , I think that is quite a decent score.


Anyway, for ourselves, we definitely want him to continue doing hcl, just wondering why is the school discouraging it so eagerly. I am sure a few of the other parents.students, when faced with this relentless effort by the school to discourage , will give up.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636495https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636495Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:27:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:29:18 GMT]]>

znzyzyzx:


Why , why ? Why ? Shouldnt the school be very happy that the parents and the students would like to learn ?

They only want the best students to take that subject.

already , my son has been talked into wanting to give up, and we have to try our best to undo the damage done by the school.

What is the purpose of education ? What is happening to the spirit of 有教无类


Oh, has it got something to do with .... K!P!I! ?
The idea behind offering HCL is to allow students to learn more, but only under certain conditions. The student must be able to do quite well in it and he or she must be doing well in the other subjects.

If your son is not performing to expectations, the school might be worried that taking HCL would affect his grades. It's a realistic consideration, because the syllabus for HCL is much more difficult than that of CL. Your son may be struggling with HCL, but he could be getting an \"A\" for CL.

The school can suggest, but the decision-making still lies with you. As for the spirit of 有教无类, the teacher did suggest letting your son take it as a non-examinable subject. That's worth considering. In my opinion, having an \"A\" for CL on the cert looks better than a mere \"Pass\" or C5 for HCL.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636328https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636328Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:29:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:30:06 GMT]]>curious to know which school is that ?


I know NYPS under Mdm Heng encourages everyone who meet the school’s criteria to take HCL, NOT to give up. Hence NYPS always have a large cohort taking HCL. They got 92 distinctions, 185 merit, and 115 passes in 2010 PSLE

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636322https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636322Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:30:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:32:08 GMT]]>Whether we can use the hcl marks to get extra 2 or 3 marks for entrance to SAP school is actually not important to us. Our purpose is to expose him to Chinese language as much as possible.

And we don’t want him to think that Hcl is a subject that he can give up easily.

We don’t want to take it as a non-exam subject because then there would be less motivation to do it well.

Doesnt government policy gearing towards having our kids to be bilingual ? But some people in the education industry, they are just looking at their own KPI.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636268https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636268Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:32:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to why is the school discouraging students from taking hChinese on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:10:48 GMT]]>hihi,


from what i heard, as HCL is an additional paper and unless the student is going to try for SAP sec schools, it will divert time commitment away from other subjects.
and HCL offers distinction 3 bonus points for entry into SAP sec schools, so bonus applicable if you are eyeing for SAP sch.
and even if one does not take HCL for psle, if can hit a certain score, still can take up HCL (if interested) at Sec 1 level.
what i was told is that some schools discourage students from taking Higher Chinese if the student is taking more than 1 tuition/enrichment/tutors just to manage HCL. it is going to be stressful to the kid unless the kid is already breezing through other subjects.

personally, i feel that if parents wish to let their kid take up HCL, just make that stand and talk to the kid (discuss which sch the kid is hoping to get into, eg SAP or non SAP etc). if not, at least the sch is not pressurising the students to take it. (i didn’t know can take as non-exam subject! is it or certain schs only?)
JMHO.

]]>https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636165https://forum.kiasuparents.com/post/636165Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:10:48 GMT