Education IX

I do believe that parents these days are paranoid over their kids. A friend of mine went to a talk organised by the primary school for parents regarding the Direct Admission program. If your kid has some talent or skill in some sport like swimming or badminton, he can gain direct admission to a Secondary school in Singapore which is strong in that particular sport. According to my friend, the number of secondary schools with this Direct Admission program has increased from 40+ to 50+. Apparently, there were a lot of parents who attended the talk.

Frankly, I think such talks are a waste of time. First, it is common knowledge that even with average grades, if a child has a talent in sports or arts or music, he would be able to gain special admission to any Secondary school, even if the Secondary school is not strong in that particular sport or art or music. Schools wish to gain reputation and such students will help the school boast of its "highly talented students".

Second, if a child has average grades and does not have any talents, rich parents can offer to make donations to the secondary school. I've heard of someone who donated an entire computer lab to a secondary school. Yes, make the school indebted to you and your child will be able to get in.

If a child has average grades and no talents and the parents are not rich, it's okay. There's still a chance. Parents can always volunteer their time at the school.

All the above measures are real and taken by parents to give their child a good place in Singapore's education system. Parents go to great lengths so that their child can get into one of the top secondary schools in Singapore. Of course, it's something to be proud of and which parents can boast to other parents/relatives about, especially at family gatherings like Chinese New Year.

As I mentioned earlier, the primary school talks about the Direct Admission program or measures to gain indirect admission to top secondary schools are a waste of time. Such talks do not provide new information on what has been done. It's not as if it's a talk about the reform of the Singapore education system. I'll be the first to support a talk like that. The Singapore education system needs to be overhauled! Talks such as the Direct Admission and "Indirect Admission" only serve to perpetuate one of the flaws in the Singapore education system-that our students should only be concerned about getting into top schools. Also, how many parents have kids who have a talent or have been able to develop their talent in the particular sport/art/music after the number of hours they spent in school and on after school tuition classes? Yet, according to my friend, there were many parents who attended the school talk.

I didn't get into a top school and I'm not rich and I've no talent in the sports or the arts or music. I came from a neighbourhood primary school which has since merged with another neighbourhood primary school and I was happy studying in my primary school because the culture was conducive for studying even though it was a neighbourhood school. The students worked hard and the teachers gave free supplementary classes to weaker students and even welcomed students who were not doing badly in school to join the classes. I didn't go to a top secondary school. As it is, I didn't even choose to go the JC way because it's just an extension of the rote-learning, exam-based primary and secondary school system. I've had enough of mugging for exams at the end of Sec. 4. I don't believe in getting into top schools nor schools with too low rankings unless the school culture is a friendly and learning-conducive one. Top schools produce students under tremendous stress such that some of them steal. Schools at the tail-end tend to have more playful students who are not concerned with their studies. However, if a top school or a tail-end one has a good studying culture and do not have too much stress for the students, that is one school which your child will be happy learning in.

Recently, a scheme was started to subsidize students from low-income homes for tuition at CCs and RCs for up to 90% of their tuition fees. During my primary and secondary school time, tuition wasn't so necessary. Unless I couldn't understand a subject, I wouldn't have tuition for that subject. Now, I think we have a tuition country because there are even subsidies for tuition fee. That is a result of too many kids going for tuition such that tuition has become something that's necessary, rather than a supplement to helping the kids to understanding a subject. I never heard of tuition fee subsidies. If I'd, I'd have applied for them! How ridiculous this country is. In future, we're going to have subsidies for Mozart classes for babies when they are born and parents will start making sure their babies have a place in a top school through the "Indirect Admission" scheme.