Competition inside a Well

My daughter came home crying one evening recently. She is twelve. At this age, there are no longer that many things that can make a girl cry. So I asked the usual questions. Was she unwell? Was it her friends? Did her brother do something to upset her? When she finally calmed down, I learnt that it was her school homework that had caused the tears. She felt very stressed from all that homework and consequently, this lead to a sense of fear that she would not be able to do well for her Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

Now, I would have liked to put this down as part of the adolescent “growing up pains” that all children go through. After all, stress is part of our lives and we have to eventually learn how to cope with it. However, what I learnt in my continuing conversation with her disturbed me. She told me that earlier that day, her school principal had instructed the teachers to ensure all the pupils from the top classes in her school score straight A*s. In the larger sense of things, the source of my daughter’s essentially the outcome of the elitism that has been brewed in our society.

Elitism in the education system triggers competition at all levels – among pupils, classes, teachers, principals, schools and parents. Elitism identifies and picks the best. However, not everyone can be the best. For some to be the best, others would have to settle for second, third or even fourth place. This quest to be the best inevitably results in an over emphasis on ranking. Instead of teaching and learning, schools are focused on comparing and competing. Just look at the number of banners and signs festooned gaudily on school fences. Schools now loudly proclaim their PSLE and O level distinction rates. Even co-curricular activities (CCA) have not been spared. Many schools never miss an opportunity to publically state their achievements in various CCAs. Subjects that are deemed “A1 adverse” have been dropped from the students’ curriculum. CCAs that are deemed to have no medal or award potential have been closed down.

Elitism breeds elitism. A good PSLE score is needed to get into a top secondary school. Good “O” Level examination scores are needed to get it a top Junior College or popular courses in the polytechnics. Excellent “A” Level or diploma results are needed to get into the local universities. Everyone wants only top results. Many in this society only narrowly focus on getting these results at the expense of learning. This is competition in a well.

The fundamental issue here started when our government started to "price" our schools with special programmes like the Gifted Education Programme (GEP), English Mother Tongue 1 (EM1), Integrated Programme (IP), and when the system of school ranking was started. These provided the onset of a series of competitive and behavioural responses among the principals of schools to ensure that the schools are ranked best in all ranking criteria, both in academics and CCAs. Teachers are under pressure, not just with teaching, but also school projects to ensure that schools are "competitively" positioned. Teachers are focused on performance at the expense of other equally important aspects of education, like character development. It can deteriorate into a scenario where by anything can be excusable, so long as the “A”s keep rolling in.

In elitism, no one gains. Even the “brightest” will eventually be sacrificed. First, the “weaker” students suffer during the “preliminary rounds”. Next, the “brighter” ones will undergo the competitive pressure felt by those they have “defeated” in the "quarter and semi finals". This goes on until eventually, there are only a few remaining. Our education system programmes our pupils to focus to stay competitive to win the "prize". Under such a system, our pupils will eventually break under this competitive pressure the school and, later, in the rat race when they move on into adulthood and the workforce. Having invested so much on such a narrow focus, our pupils are not to able withstand failures positively. This brings to mind the Nanyang Technological University undergraduate who committed suicide last month. Having won a scholarship to pursue a Civil Engineering degree, she was one of those we would consider being “on top”. Why did she choose to end her life despite having everything going for her? In my opinion, this is the result of our elitism education system.

http://www.sg-roc.com/showthread.php?p=242134

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/archive/index.php/t-2636417.html

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/03/another-death-at-ntu/

精英教育体制下 - 丧失思考与发问的能力

可否记得数年前李资政在南大论坛上的一次讲话？
报章报道，在李资政演讲结束后的问答环节，提问的皆是来自中国，印度和越南的学生。没有一位发问的学生是新加坡人。我相信这对新加坡人来说是具有讽刺意味的。李资政停下询问是否有本地学生题问。我相信这是因为我们的社会和教育制度所导致的。我最大的担忧，在我们的精英教育体制下，老师和学校只追求排名。我们的家长和学生竭尽全力的确保孩子在考试和分流中不落人后。我们孩子们的学习热情由此渐渐消退，很快新加坡人的独立思维能力将会丧失，不再懂得如何思考与发问。

即使是我们的政治系统内，我常常感觉到除了三名反对党议员外的人民行动党议员就好像裕廊飞禽公园里被剪了翅膀的鹦鹉，只会随着主人随声附和。我不确定这是不是由于本例媒体这些年渲染一个团结政府和不希望人民行动党党内内讧所造成的误解。

很多外国人，尤其是来自中国的学生,到新加坡求学的原因不是我们有卓越的教育体系而是因为：

- 新加坡是华人为主的社会，很容易融入当地生活;

- 陪读妈妈可以工作，作家庭补习老师或者中医按摩;

- 靠近中国;

- 邓小平高度赞扬新加坡的发展模式（1992年讲话）;

- 学习英文的良好环境;

- 到世界其他国家的跳板，新加坡护照在西方众多国家享受免签证待遇;

- 我们的大学与西方大学有很多联系与融合，提供去西方大学深造的机会;

我们本地精英学生中，他们的未来理想就是在新加坡有安逸的生活，但是却从未想过影响世界。如果我们有幸产生诺贝尔奖的得主，那荣誉也不会真正属于新加坡，得奖者一定是外国人，尤其是来来自中国的学生。新加坡诺贝尔奖的得主应该不是从本地小学修读到大学的精英。我们的政治体系和我们的分流，名校以及排名制度是墓煞土生新加坡未来诺贝尔奖的罪魁祸首。

拒绝分流,拒绝精英教育体制！

Singapore Inc & Elitism in our Education System

Applying 80/20 rule for the allocation & deployment of scarce resources is only relevant for strategic management by business enterprises, but not applicable to our education system. Our education policy should provide pupils with equal opportunities to pursue & fulfill their dreams & aspirations at all stages of their growth & development. Human talents should be regarded as strategic assets to be developed. The system is overly focused on performance ranking, academic achievement and the acquisition of skills to prepare students for the rat race and paper chase. Moral education and character developments seem lacking, if the increasing reports on teenage suicide and sex are anything to go by. Have we done enough to get to the root causes of these social problems? The current system of school ranking and teacher performance appraisals need to be reviewed. Is there a mistake by MOE here - practice of elitism in our educaton system: aggressive streaming, ranking and branding of our schools? Streaming starts too young for our pupils here,小六定终身，真可怕！Say no to "Singapore Inc" approach to our pupils, 拒绝分流！"Singapore Inc" approach is irrelevant here and outdated.
天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来。

MM Lee urges Singaporeans to “bear” with competition with foreigners

Here is my view on MM Lee's comment reported on The Straits Times 19th Feb, 2010.
I am not against growth. I believe our economy will eventually reach a saturation point like most western countries and Japan. I am not being complacent here. Realistically our long term objective is to strife towards a sustainable, more balanced and moderated growth – not just property prices and productivity growths. I like to share the ancient Chinese philosophical wisdom – “Zhong Yung”,that is the “Doctrine of the Mean”. It means to work towards a more balanced growth, so as to avoid the social ills that are sufacing in Singapore today. I don’t think Singaporeans are just "Complain Kings". Many of our middle and lower income Singaporeans, amongst our friends and relatives, belonging to this social group, are suffering quietly, struggling to cope with our high cost of living here in Singapore. Singapore is undergoing an overheated state of growth in some markets, eg our real estate market. Overheated growth can be very dangerous like what China was experiencing in the early 80s’. We should aim at growth not just property prices, competitiveness and productivity and development of infrastructures. Mental, spiritual, moral priciples and a more caring society are just as equally important to us Singaporeans. Perhaps, there’s alot of wisdom in the China Premiers like Zhu Rongji and Wen Jia Bao, they always send reminders to cap the realistic economic growth targets for the country.

Remembrance of our Beloved ex-President Mr Ong Teng Cheong 8th Feb 2002

Time flies, this coming Monday 8th February marks six years since the passing of our beloved ex-president, Mr Ong Teng Cheong. He died on February 8, 2002, at the age of 66 from lymphoma in his home at about 8:14 pm. Forever in our hearts.
Mr Ong, you have done a great deal for Singapore as Cabinet Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and President of our Nation!

Mad Race Competition in our Education System

I often hear of many complaints from fellow Singaporeans that the overwhelming influx of foreign talents, snatching away our jobs. Foreign students are also taking up places in our "better schools" at the expense of the Singaporeans. Recently, from personal experience, I begin to concur with these people. My son got his GCE "O" Level results last month. The education system & schools here is so competitive. My son scored 7"A1"s including CCA and distinction for chinese, still rejected by NJC, got posted to his 2nd choice Anderson JC. He scored B4 for his humanity, guess this is the reason for being rejected. Not sure if scoring straight "A"s these days is very common. His grades of 7"A1"s, include English, three pure Sciences, two Maths subjects, CCA(he took part in NCC and kayaking) as well as a distinction in Chinese. Although he did not do very well for his Combined Humanity subject (B4) as he was ill on the day of the paper and was not able to perform his best, he did score an A1 for this subject during his school preliminary exam. We went ahead to apply for Science course at NJC (National Junior College) and was rejected. We didn't even consider applying for Hwa Chong JC as we heard that a number of his China scholar schoolmates with 8-9 A1s are applying for Hwa Chong JC - we decided to avoid competing with these China scholars. We were utterly surprised and disappointed that we were rejected by NJC despite appealing to the vice principal. Failing to get his first choice, we then went to appeal for a place at St. Andrew JC. The staff at SAJC told me to wait (there are several hundreds of appeal cases in the queue), said that my son's result is very common among the appeal cases. Our appeal was not only rejected by St Andrew JC, we tried Nanyang JC, application was not successful - reason being no more vancancy left in this JC. I think the relevant authorities (MOE as well as the St Andrew JC) owe us an answer on the JC selection citeria so as to help other Singaporeans avoid the agony we faced recently. Are the top JCs places all taken up by IP (PSLE intake of the MOE Integrated Programme) or foreign students? What is most puzzling even there is vacancy issue with tier-2 JC like SAJC, presumably to be less competitive. What concern me most is that my son feels very de-moralised after the series of appeal rejections by these JCs. I remember during my time getting into Hwa Chong JC (1979) was not too difficult. We really hope that our children could complete their GCE "A" Level education in Singapore. Certainly, Singapore will forever be my home. With some many new and serious heartland issues in our country, the next GE is the time to express our unhappiness with the way our country is run. We need more opposition political party MPs in our parliament!