ChiefKiasu:Hi Chief,Dear James, in most industries, professional qualifications are much more important than academic qualifications. We choose top scholars from universities primarily because of the belief that academic excellence is a close approximation to professional excellence. While the correlation is high, oftentimes, I find myself getting more output and contribution from a poly grad than someone with a Phd.
There is no question about the importance of PSLE. It is the rite of passage to better Secondary schools, and ostensibly for better chance of doing well enough to get to the pinnacle of our education system. And despite the changes made to the system throughout the years, the role of the PSLE remains just that - one of the several gateways where candidates will be measured against each other and streamed according to the \"formula\" applied at that stage. While it is true that O-Levels have lost its appeal since a long time back due to the general acceptance that EVERYONE should at least pass the O-Levels to be a \"useful Singaporean adult\", this is primarily due to the fact that the college degree has itself become a commodity where most people will have at least one of.
Your statement that PSLE are now the new O-Levels may be true in the sense that the proportion of kids passing PSLE these days is much higher now than during our time, but we should not go so far as to say that a kid's life is determined by how well he does in PSLE. The glass ceilings that are imposed by our Singaporean society on our children by virtue of the endless streaming and classification processes only impress on our children that their potential is pre-determined by the system at fixed points of time. Make a wrong move at one point and the future becomes irreparably bad. Can we blame our children for being so stressed as to feel that life is meaningless if they do not do well for the PSLE? And at the age of 12, most kids do not even understand that the road is still long before them, and that the war is only won if they get good honors degrees which might give them a better chance of getting the jobs they want.
We should teach our children that regardless of whatever glass ceiling that others impose on them, the blue sky is still visible and open to anyone who has the heart to reach for it. The top scorer in PSLE will still have to compete with everyone else in the race for attaining good degrees, so the game is pretty much still on for the next 10 years for every graduating Primary school student.
I fully agree with everything you say and I'm so happy to meet enlightened being like you. Is great that you are trying to help parents see things in perspectives. People's mindset are hardest to change. The government can spend millions on teaching methodolgies, technologies, etc, etc. but one thing that they cannot change is the people's culture. In the context of Singapore: Kiasu, Kiasi. Parents bring up their kids with fear on the pretext of love. In the end, kids suffer, parents suffer, no one is happy. What's the point?
I know of a singing teacher who went through the usual academic path through all the glam. schools. After she draduated with a degree, she decided to follow her passion and do a second degree on singing. Now she's happy doing what she loves to do and making a living.
My sister was from RGS, a PSC scholar, then a Cambridge Scholar. She was in pharmacy. She ace in all levels in all schools, even in the Uni. After so many years in Pharmacy to get her bachelor, honours, masters and then Phd, she, in the end, left the whole profession entirely to pursue her passion in alternative healing.
She said this to me a few days ago:
\"In the end, everyone wants to be loved for who/what they are, not for what they do and if you do that, they will be happy. I know because I have excelled in the past but was never made happy by the achievements. They meant nothing since people were only interested in what I do, but never know/understand me as I am. I have kicked the habit of spending my life 'performing' for others; only want to spend what's left of it on things that I deeply care about.\"
Let's us all ask ourselves if we are loving our children in the right way. Do we care what they care about? They are not monkeys to perform and impress. They need to discover themselves and find their reason for being here, how they can contribute to this world in their own special way, even if they are not doctors, lawyers and what have you.
Sorry for being so long winded, just my 2-cents worth.
