Oh My Gosh:

phtthp:

[quote=\"Oh My Gosh\"]Checking with parents who may have experiences... if fren DD is given CO for \"O\" level in St Nicks, is there a chance that she can convert to IP if she did well academically in her PSLE?

According to Moe official over phone call today, below is her reply.
(You may call up moe yourself at tel 68722220, to clarify too)

In October (24) this year -
There is a date to submit dsa reply back to Moe : whether to accept or reject the DSA offer

Once your friend Dd accept the 4 year O level DSA offer in October, even if in Nov her psle results are better, can meet the cut off point for IP, qualify her to goto IP program, she is not allowed to, because already accepted the DSA offer. Your friend Dd will still have to go to that Secondary school which she had accepted the offer, and study there for next 4 years, until she finish her O level exam.

Moe official said that even if after she enter the dual track school (eg : chij st Nicholas girls sec) -
Even if your friend Dd were to do very well at end of sec 2, want to transfer to IP program within the same Secondary school, it is also not allowed, because she had already signed the DSA offer. You need to honour the commitment

Read the commitment to be honoured, from MOE website :-
https://www.moe.gov.sg/admissions/direct-admissions/dsa-sec/overview


Hence, do consider seriously the consequences, if you or friend are only half hearted, in accepting the dsa offer. Once you sign to accept the offer, you are signing your commitment, for the next 4 years to O level, even if her psle results in nov turn out to be much better, than expected.

Do not any how sign the dsa offer, if u only half hearted, or you have strong conviction that she is going to do well in her forthcoming psle.

Or, if your friend's daughter is currently an existing chij St Nick primary school student, if she have confidence to achieve minimum T-score 230 for this year batch, she can go back to her affliated Secondary school, for O level. From her past 3 years report card SA2 results in P4, P5, P6 : one can tell whether she has been able to meet minimum T-score 230 consistently, or not.

Now only Sep, it is still sometime to 24 Oct. You may also call up Chij St Nicholas Girls Secondary school Admission Officer, confirm with officer : whether the school's reply is the same as the one given here according to the Moe official. Telephone of St Nick Secondary school section : 6354-1839

Alternately, your friend may drop an email to the Admission committee (from now until 24 Oct decision making) :-
Clarify : if her Dd had dsa via Sports (cca), & if her Dd happen to do very well academically at end of Sec 2- is she able to transfer from O level to the IP track, within the same Sec school, if she is a DSA student ?

The Head of IP curriculum program (St Nick Secondary), within the Committee, will reply you.

phtthp, :thankyou:
Very comprehensive.
Not able to change to IP upon receipt of PSLE results, I can still accept.
But I am really surprised that MOE and school does not allow the girl to switch even when she did well subsequently.
Afterall, the girl will then be with the school for 6 years, hence fulfilling her obligations of 4 years.[/quote]Hi oh my gosh, just a curious question - why did your friend not try DSA for St Nicks IP ? Especially since there is now an enhanced admission using sports for the DSA (IP). I am assuming her DD got a CO from St Nicks for the O level track using sports.

Chief KS


Thank you for your considered reply.

Our conversation above has been civil and it is not a quarrel. Whatever might have happened offline did not involve me, you, or my group of silent-reading kakis so it is not our concern. I appreciate your assurance that you are open to feedback. You don't have an easy job!

It seems there is a \"positive vigilante group\" that will be watching movements across your site closely. If I hear anything worthwhile through the grapevine, I'll PM you.

Have a good weekend.

ChiefKiasu:

awdubs88:

...
You could perhaps defend your top contributor by saying this user is most diligent and helpful to other busy parents as the info is collated offline from contacts in those schools. But therein lies the problem: if the posts were not contributed firsthand but by the self-appointed \"chief interpreter/collater\", isn't it possible there are misinterpretations based on the perspective and agenda of this one party only? The beauty of your site is that it is powered by crowdsourcing. It is not like a reality competitive TV programme where the agenda is pre-determined with the aim to drive traffic/viewership by spreading stress and anxiety. For example, think \"Survivor\" where paid actors are marooned onto deserted islands week after week and viewers attracted to extreme survival tactics are hooked.
...

Dear awdubs88,

Thank you for your post and recommendations. We will take them into account.

I have to categorically state that moderators do not \"defend\" \"top contributors\" and they are subject to the same treatment as any other members on our site. If they are found to contravene our policies, we will ban and close their accounts accordingly.

As moderators, we are often forced to arbitrate heated quarrels between members and oftentimes, we were somehow expected to take sides by members. But moderators are not judges, and we do not judge or take sides. In most cases, we simply lack the information that allows us to formally declare who is lying or who is telling the truth. In the rare cases where we see some obvious misinformation, we will step in state our views as individuals, and not as moderators.

As such, we will simply move the posts to the Rants subforum so that they don't come into the way of the normal flow of information for the thread. The threads in the Rants subforum remain available for registered members to read and post if they wish to carry on the arguments.

We will be reviewing this thread and moving the posts related to the arguments that started this particular quarrel into the Rants folder. If you are aware of any other specific posts that needs to be removed, please send the links to me via PM. That will help us a lot!

Thank you.

Hi there, Chief KS


Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I have been visiting this site for years as a silent reader. Many of my friends do the same. Your open platform allows easy access with or without an account. You don’t need an account unless you wish to post something. I started this account to reach out to you.

I do not post across different school forums using different accounts. There is no need.

My post was triggered by the long-time observation among many of us that one particular username has been providing detailed info and counsel across many threads and topics for different schools. You see, my old friends and I have children in different schools (ACS, RGPS, SCGS, CHS, RI and of course SNGS) and we share this observation. Some of the info posted are wrong as we are parents with firsthand info but we have remained silent. Our bad.

After some focused checking last night, I realized the same person comments in detail on other schools such as Canossa Convent and other central and eastern schools!

It is obvious even when this certain prolific contributor uses different account names to post across different forums as the writing styles are similar. In fact, it came to light during our offline chats that this certain prolific contributor’s child has already transferred to SNGS primary yet she still maintained strong presence in the old school chat as if she’s still there! Even more astonishing – our friends who are parents in SNGS secondary are also onto her. She gives counsel when her child is only in primary school and she has only been a parent with us for less than 2 months! Amazing or not?

You could perhaps defend your top contributor by saying this user is most diligent and helpful to other busy parents as the info is collated offline from contacts in those schools. But therein lies the problem: if the posts were not contributed firsthand but by the self-appointed "chief interpreter/collater", isn’t it possible there are misinterpretations based on the perspective and agenda of this one party only? The beauty of your site is that it is powered by crowdsourcing. It is not like a reality competitive TV programme where the agenda is pre-determined with the aim to drive traffic/viewership by spreading stress and anxiety. For example, think "Survivor" where paid actors are marooned onto deserted islands week after week and viewers attracted to extreme survival tactics are hooked.

I can appreciate it is challenging to be a site moderator when active top contributors can post beyond 10,000 posts – many of which are repetitive and long entries – across forums on different schools. Despite my discourse above, I am quick to admit I’m no forum moderation expert. I must leave it in your good hands to better rate and manage your "top" contributors. Readers like me do my part by (finally) calling out irregularities and it is up to the site owner how you wish to create a credible and useful community site with minimum externalities.

On the topic of externalities: Just over the past 24 hours, it has been circulating offline that a top contributor has been hounding people to obtain information and this "KS parent" has been removed by an admin from another info-sharing group for causing distress to others. When I heard the news, I realized it was probably linked to the post I saw yesterday – the one you later removed – which triggered my question to you. The news continues to spread so more people are aware of what is happening now and are watching closely.

You asked for specific ideas on how to better moderate. Well, perhaps consider this:

Right now your site reserves the rights to embargo the views posted by users "of less than 50 useful posts in your Forums or the Portal". You may wish to consider setting an upper limit as well. If our observations are correct, having the same contributor dominate the site across many forums mean that you have created a parallel self-appointed "minister of education" who crafts KiasuParents’ reality. What a scary thought indeed.

Chief, I think you started this portal with good intentions. Kudos to you for building up the infrastructure all these years. May I suggest you view this as a sincere reminder to do some housekeeping to maintain the integrity of your site.

Thank you. for your attention.

Question for Chief Kiasu


I thought I saw a posting here earlier today about a certain forum contributor with many nicknames ?

Anyway I have a question for Chief KS -

How can we trust the info on your site when it is the same person providing info on every forum? It is hardly crowdsourcing. It is a single person creating her own reality and your platform has helped to propagate half-truths. Is this what you wanted to do when you started the site?

Hope you can enlighten us. Thank you.