was about to blog about my shopping spree at birch run yesterday, but i guess i will talk about some more important issue first.
Can't say i noe the exact details, but seems tat HCJC and TCHS students will get to take Uni courses in NUS starting as early as next year. Well, it is suppose to give students a taste of wat uni is all about and let them finish uni faster with the AP credit model. I really dun like this idea. It sounds really cool tat JC and even sec school students can now have a taste of wat uni classes are. however, is this really gonna be healthy for the education system tat singapore has? i dun think so.
Already, ppl in the education business in singapore, namely the ppl working at the frontline like teachers, are raising concerns about the kind of education tat students nowadays are getting. I am not sure how other students in singapore are feeling, or perhaps those so call highflyers in tat system feel. But i really feel tat singapore's eduction is too goddam result oriented already. not just tat. Students become so good with studies and school, that they become suckers when it comes to life and other things. Being here in UofM, i really got a chance to compare the kind of students singapore has produced and the kind other countries, other societies, other systems produced. Sadly, singaporean students are often said to be brilliant students, but other than that? the general opinions ain't very good. Seeing the way some of these so-call elites from the singaporean education system really disgust me and i really wonder if all these new ideas and "reforms" are pointing at the correct directions. Sure, all those benefits tat these new schemes are coming up sounds brilliant and fabulous. But like i said, are these what we really need or are there better things that we need to focus our attentions on?!?
I really feel priviledged to be able to grow up in the environment that RI had provided me. I was the low-achiever during my RI days. I was the model bad student of the system. My grade were below average. My teachers think i have attitude problem, i have problem with authority and i just aint doing well academically. My sister was just like me in a sense. But she was not in a system like RI. I would say that she really had a taste of what singaporean's elitism society is all about. She is in a govt school, unlike RI which is a private school. She was not doing well academically and she oso had discipline problems in school. Let's do a comparison of what happened to us.
Academic:
Me --> My teachers gave me remedias after remedias. Made me stayed back after school for extra lessons, did their own extra assignments for me to practise. When i dun hand in my work, they hunt me down like crazy, punish me like shit all because i did not hand in one miserable assignment. They punished me, embarrassed me and screamed at me for the smallest mistake i made. All these everytime without fail...
My sis --> Called my mom everytime something happened. Asking my mom to shape up my sister. Homework neva passup, throw my sis outside the class, call my mom. At the end of the day, nothing gets done. WHY? coz my sis neva learn her lessons, my mom can neva perform her role since the teacher neva tell her exactly what homework my sister did not passed up and her teachers neva bother to hunt her down until she pass up the homework.
Discipline:
Me --> detentions lor. But more than that, i always get pulled aside by teachers for small talks as they try to find out what is going on. Why am i giving so much trouble to other teachers. Ask me to change my temper. I could feel their sincerity even though i feel like they are a nag most of the time. My poor performance in and my inability to follow orders neva make them give up on me and they allow me to pursue my interest in other areas such as Bayley house work and all sorts of other nonsense.
My sis --> detentions. detentions. detentions. My sis again neva was able to learn her lessons coz no one try to talk sense into her. Her formteacher did a little of that. But unlike me who had almost every other teacher to tok to me every now and then, my sis onli had one teacher who oso gave up after awhile.
School and Family's relationship:
Me --> Like all good teenagers, family is trash during times of puberty and parents are enemy no. 1. I shout at my mom (since my dad was in taiwan most of the time back then), she trash me up like mad. I defy her everytime. blah blah blah. Of course judging from the way i am treating my teachers in school with tat kind of i-think-you-are-an-asshole kinda attitude, my teachers could of course imaging the way i am behaving at home. Still remember my sec 1 formteacher Mr Alan Soo. Time and again will drag me to one side and ask how my mom is doing and am i quarrelling with her again. He always remind me it is not easy for my mom to look after me and my sis all by herself and tell me tat as an older kid, i should behave more and let her feel tat what she is doing is all worth it blah blah blah. The thing is, my discipline problem in RI was mostly during my lower sec period. Or rather, the more serious discipline cases i mean. I was the first one from my batch to go for detention. Dunnoe get called up by my fromteacher dunnoe how many times and always seems to get into trouble with teachers. But still, Mr Soo was such forgiving and keep me on track on the time. And dammit, he even bother to nag at me about being a good son at home. As if i am not giving him enuff problems in school already. sigh... i am just so blardy grateful for wat he had done tat i think i really cleared up my acts after that.
My sis --> teacher initally always call up my mom to complain about my sis. My mom was a teacher in taiwan. so she tried her best to try to work with my sis's teachers since they called her to complain. But sadly, all that those teachers knew how to do was to call up parents and fullstop. They told my mom my sis neva pass up work, then neva bother to tell my mom wat exactly did my sis not do so there was no way my mom could have help them chase my sis for those work and they themselves could not bother with my sis. Well, of course my sis was very disrespectful to those teachers and really a pain in the ass. But still, those teachers could neva bother with my sis from the very beginning. They could not bother to spend time with such low-achiever like my sis. Neva bother to chase her down for every single assignment. Neva bother to force her back onto the right track. If grown up adults like my sis's teachers could not show a goddam care about my sister's behavior and her work, why should my sis? and of course if even the teachers dun give a shit about her work, why then should my mom be such an ass to keep chasing after her for those work? look, we are tokking about a 13 yr old girl who is already not having fun in school coz she is not doing well academically, the teachers hate her, can't be bother with her and got a mom who has nothing better to do but keep chasing after her for works tat even her teachers dun bother her about. WHAT KIND OF FUCKING RESULT DO YOU EXPECT TO COME FROM THIS KIND OF EDUCATION SYSTEM?!?!?!
My sis's experience, my own experience and my family's experience really make me give up on the singapore's education system. Sure, my sis's teachers gave remedia to those front end classes... all at the expenses of those lagging at the back. My sis was let to rot and survive on herself. If she made it then, good for her. but she didn't. She dropped out of school and neva really got back again. I managed to clean up my acts even though i hated those teachers to my bones at tat time. Well, you can probably say tat my sis was hopeless and there is no way she could have become good. But i always wonder if she will have suffered the same fate if she had someone like Mr Soo keep chasing after her and keep disciplining her no matter wat. I feel the education system in singapore focus too much on academic work and performance. A person's status is based purely on his performance academically. I had a taste of tat first hand while i was in NJC. I hated it. I was treated like a scum and was pinned down on my freedom to move just coz i was not doing well academically.
I guess the students in singapore realised tat they can get away with anything as long as they are doing fine academically. I saw some really scum bags in NJC that are total assholes but led they life the way they want just coz they are performing well academically. Well, this is the sad truth in the society i must admit. Assholes are able to get away with their shits just because they are rich or in positions that others can't attained. But is this the kind of message that we wanna give to our kids while they are still in school? that it is ok to lead the the life of a jerk as long as they are doing a decent work in the day?? i say this is nonsense. The singaporean society has gone too far in its persue of excellence that by placing excellence in the no. 1 position, all other factos in life takes second seat. the aim of no.1 came into first position, so in the name of economy need, social welfare can be compromised anytime. In the name of academic excellence, other areas of human development can be pushed aside to create time for studies (when i made use of the extra free periods to work out in the gym after i dropped bio. A chem teacher in NJ always scold me. she said "working out in the gym is not going to get you that grade you need do you noe that?!?!" wat BS...)
So sure, i am confident that with this new scheme, the bright and the smart students in singapore JC and sec school will reach yet another high level of academic performance. so what about the kind of jerks that this education system is producing currently? out of the many faces i recognised in the PSC scholarship news on straitstimes video, at least 2-3 of them have horrible moral characters and dun have the respect of their peers. Sure, i noe all of them are brilliant in their work but other than tat? nth more but morons. So while these bright and brilliant students are forking out extra time on top of their already taxing curriculum to learn even more informations and knowledges, I can only pray that they are changing into a better person in the mean time and that they dun be come a moron just like their seniors.
btw, the plan may be brilliant. but how it is performed in actual situation may be very different. Do you know that in many cases, the SRP students left most of their work for their professors to finish towards the end and in the end they still come up with all sorts of nonsense abt the kind of resilience they put up, the magnificiant job they pulled to balance their work. Yup, they are the chosen few, the elite, the creme le creme of the singaporean JC eduction.
posted by David at 7/31/2003 12:11:00 AM