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/