DSA Appeal 2011
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parentathome:
Dear parents, my notice to you regarding the dsa appealing. The core problem is not yes or no but the moe hasty decision. it has been practice for years and how can it be changed or terminate overnight? isn't it unfair to students and parents who all the while know that it can be appealled? this is a serious mistake indeed!!
I remember the MOE official telling us two years ago that the DSA acceptance was final and that as parents we should teach our children the responsibility of committing to a contract. So MOE and the schools have been reminding parents of it. A few weeks/months ago parents also posted that several IP schools were telling parents about this new clampdown *before* the submission deadline for exercising of the DSA CO. So it's nothing new. Even if it was, parents knew about the commitment but chose to ignore it. It's a risk they chose to take. And these are the consequences. -
MOE made a serious mistake by asking schools to prohibit the dsa appealing this yr only after we made our decision in oct 24. parents made their decisions according to the fact that happened in the previous years, ie schools will accept dsa appeal and there are students who made it success!! There is no documents given to parents that stating no appealing after DSA! Moreover, It SHOULD NOT be the case that a new policy be implied on the current batch of students. Now that our children who did well in PSLE have lost the chances of entering a more ideal school. they are really the sacrifice of moe’s stupid decision!!!
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Let me make an analogy. There’s a double yellow line drawn outside your home. You park there everyday despite knowing it’s against the law but the LTA has always closed one eye and has never booked you. One day, LTA decides to book you. Is it unfair? No. Because it’s against the law, just that they never enforced it.
Fundamentally what’s wrong is that we want our cake and eat it too. Chope a place in a school in case our PSLE scores aren’t fantastic, in the meantime denying someone else of a place in the school, someone who would be truly happy to study there. -
jtoh:
:goodpost:Let me make an analogy. There's a double yellow line drawn outside your home. You park there everyday despite knowing it's against the law but the LTA has always closed one eye and has never booked you. One day, LTA decides to book you. Is it unfair? No. Because it's against the law, just that they never enforced it.
Fundamentally what's wrong is that we want our cake and eat it too. Chope a place in a school in case our PSLE scores aren't fantastic, in the meantime denying someone else of a place in the school, someone who would be truly happy to study there. -
I cannot help but agreed with statements like: 1. As parents, we want the best for our kids. 2. We strive to fufill the desire of our kids to enter their dream schools.
In this instance, we are debating whether the acceptance of cos must be honoured. Let us take an example you trade shares using internet or call thru yr broker. Unfortunately, the trade went against u, must u honor it even though the mistake was an inadvertently made? The answer is obvious. On this occassion, both parents n kids had more than ample time to arrive at a decision. Such decision was not taken at haste because of the cooling period. That’s where the wisdom of we as parents must be given to advice the kids of the pro n cons in accepting the cos.
The kids hve generally been given what they applied for n all these schs are known to educate them well, in short, able to bring out the potential of yr kids. The dsa system fufills its role n meets parental expectations. Whether or not the system has allowed lateral transfer in the past should not be a point in this debate because its simply cannot stand.
As for parents who think that its alright as there’s no right or wrong answer in such situation, my take is that u are actually sowing ground to breed compromises n manupulation of the system. Such values are taught to yr kids without u realising it as yr intention to ensure the best education for yr kids are clouded with passion n ignorance. At this juncture, just give a thought to the negative influence u hve exerted on yr child.
All IP schools are very good including all top banded non-IP schools. MOE does not short-change u. Yr thinking that yr kids’ dream schools are the best may or may not be right yrs down the road.
Who’s to say that the co on hand is not the best choice? -
phankao:
phankao,
We never discussed at length with our boy about this issue. But he himself was asked during his DSA interview about this particular issue, and he promised to put the school as 1st preference. When I asked him about it later if he would want to consider another school if he did very well, he said \"cannot - I promised already\". In a way, I am proud of him for that. On the other hand, he actually is not in the situation to choose in the end. *haha*
you've got a fine young man there! :rahrah: And u do hv reason to be proud of his moral integrity. It doesn't matter if he was in a situation to choose finally. -
I decided, together with dd, not to dsa to Cedar IP and chope a place first, as Jtoh said, because it probably will not be her 1st choice school should she do as expected from her usual school results. The thing is, we found out later that Cedar IP accepted students based on their P6 mid year results (not outstanding acedemics or olympiad etc) who later scored lower 250++ in PSLE. Cedar’s S1 COP went up to 258, maybe as a result of this, since half the places were taken up already.
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Just trying to understand the DSA process better. For DSA via academic, during the process, is one of the aims to find out if the kid is a good fit with the school?
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Parentathome, I understand your frustration as you are doing all this for the benefit of your kid. As a parent, we all want the best for our child, and I have always support doing it for the benefit of your kid.
But to be fair, I have to say that I heard of this no school transfer after DSA CO acceptance during the DSA period this year. The primary schools have been informing parents / kids applying DSA of this, and I heard from frens from many schools (St Hilda, NYPS, Tao Nan, Rosyth). That’s why they have been careful in deciding which sch to DSA and to / not to accept DSA CO. I even know of a case of a gal giving up her DSA CO from her 2nd choice, cos she believed she did well enough for the PSLE to qualify for her 1st choice (after the PSLE papers).
Previously, the number has been low so I think MOE closed an eye and schools all do the transfer. Last year’s appeal cases and this year’s DSA applications have increased tremendously, resulting in huge load of unnecessay admin work at the school end. Imagine, instead of applying DSA for 1-2 schools, parent end up applying DSA for 5-6 schools just to secure a place as a safety net. Schools has hundreds more of DSA application to process. When the DSA CO came along, they have to reject a few schools. Now the PSLE results are out, they submit appeals for 1-2 schools and the schools have to process transfers + fill in vacancies. It is not only your child. Multipy that by a few thousand unnecessary DSA applications and appeals, you will see the impact. It is no wonder MOE has decided to step in and put a stop to this.
I truly empathise with you on your situation, and your frustration of being in this situation. Maybe if you explore your DSA choice school, you may find it is not a bad choice afterall (if it is that bad, you will not choose it for DSA either). Maybe it is also fated - and maybe it will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for your kid. Wishing your kid a happy secondary school journey! -
Anybody wonder why it is called confirmation offer?
The school confirmed that it is accepting the student and the student confirmed that he is accepting the offer.
You confirm something with people and then you want to break that confirmation. What does it says?
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