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Friday, July 3, 2009

A post of views on Singapore's Education.

Primary school’s PSLE was seriously the oh-so-wonderful kind of examination, where one, didn’t need to study, and could have done (averagely) well in it. I for one, was one of these students, where, during the examination period, went out to play soccer (yes, I do play soccer, before). And reach home, sleep, or revise a little.

Secondary school was then filled with banding, where no band was equivalent to having no life to do anything. And during the O level examinations, banding was still a part of my life, and I remembered studying cause of a ‘Family Day’ performance at the Singapore Expo. However, O level was still manageable, with last minute studying from the night before.From the results slip ranging from a limited source of alphabets of A-F during primary school, PSLE was all As with one oh-so-cute ‘*’ beside an A, making it look all so wonderful, but still, I was an average student.

These alphabets then got themselves a numerical partner in secondary school, from A1 – F9. I believe that I have scored at least 1 of each grade before. And there was the time, when certain qualities in some students showed, from the people saying ‘oh-i-will-fail’ after the paper, but passed with high flying results, to the ‘i-have-failed’ cause he has lost one point. Those were the seriously amusing times.
How unforgettable.

Now, a new level of education, and new way to grade the results, numerical partners have been thrown aside, and failing is now S, and U. Like, Super and Ultra, encouraging yes? And each alphabet will now correspond to a certain amount of points for university admission.However, what actually does that result slip show?

Literally speaking, it only shows ‘Words, Alphabets and Numbers’. But in this present society, where everything is getting so materialistic, these ‘Words, Alphabets and Numbers’, seem to mean a lot, and people would use them to judge a person. How nice.But practically, ‘Words, Alphabets and Numbers’ could only show how well a person has performed in an examination. The hidden backstage work that was put in for the examination by people would not be known by others, and if there is failure to produce results, these efforts would be literally useless.

Presently, memory work seems to be catching up by being the way-to-go, with school producing photocopying machines, where students would copy (memorized), then regurgitate (print). However, the education system seems to be taking a turn by using testing more on application based question, where only with a strong concept, would one be able to do those questions.

Extracted from Pohyih's blogpost dated 31st May 2009

Hi, my name is alina. NYJC 1032 currently. NYCO Percussionist. Singapore Can Speak Top 16. I LOVE the colour lime green. Wishes to be a lawyer! :) ... more