tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195413962024-03-13T20:08:36.839-07:00Education in SingaporeChildren is the future. Love them, protect them, nurture them and educate them.
My email is redbeansg@yahoo.com.Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-42306626656120740262022-03-22T17:19:00.005-07:002022-05-19T01:12:16.652-07:00Expatriates relocating from Hong Kong seeking school places in SingaporeExpatriates leaving HK are struggling to secure places for their children at Singapore’s top private schools. International schools across Singapore reported that they had received multiple times more inquiries than normal but were unable to meet the unprecedented demand.<br />Many international businesses are making plans to move staff from Hong Kong, where schools were closed again in January as the territory tightened restrictions. Companies including JPMorgan and Bank of America have considered relocations as border closures and tough quarantine measures make travelling from the city to meet clients almost impossible.<br /><br />But growing waiting lists at Singapore’s schools are complicating those plans. “It is very, very tough. The market is incredibly hot,” said Daniel Beatty, Asia general manager for nutrition group Glanbia, who relocated from Hong Kong in September and is trying to secure a secondary school place for his son.<br /><br />Singapore-based Tanglin Trust School, a non-profit with 2,800 students and annual fees of up to S$46,965 (US$34,600), received as many applications in January and February as during the whole of last year, according to Craig Considine, the chief executive.<br /><br />For every one place at the junior school there were about 15 families interested, he said.<br /><br />“Gaining a place in a good school is a big driver” for those considering whether to relocate, said Considine, adding parents may move somewhere elsewhere if they could not get their child into the right school.<br /><br />The Canadian International School, which has about 3,200 pupils across two Singapore campuses and charges fees of up to S$41,700 a year, has already received about seven times more inquiries in 2022 than in the previous six months, according to head of communications Michelle Sharp. As many as 10 families are after every one place in the most oversubscribed year groups.<br /><br />The Perse School Singapore is receiving as many as 30 inquiries a day, said Benyna Richards, the principal. But she said there was no waiting list after many expats left the city-state last year before it loosened its Covid-19 restrictions.<div><br /></div><div>Anonymous</div>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-81822618242791466682022-03-03T18:17:00.001-08:002022-03-03T18:17:02.123-08:00 COE for degrees? A university degree may expire after 5 years?<p> PAP MP Ang Wei Neng proposed in Parliament today that a “time stamp” be put on local university degrees which can be renewed by graduates as they attend upgrading courses every 5 years or so. And if they don’t, the degrees will ‘fade over time’.</p><p>Have you heard of anything more preposterous than this suggestion????</p><p>Is this supposed to be an advanced version of skillsfuture which the PAP are so desperate to promote??????</p><p>Now why should local graduates be discriminated against???? So a University Of Mumbai graduate does not have to go for upgrading courses but an NUS, NTU, SMU, SUSS graduate etc has to? What is the logic in that????</p><p>Does he mean that if the local graduate does not go for the upgrading course, he will no longer be considered a graduate in due course????? So the degree becomes ‘bo pa kei’ ?????....</p><p>Lim Tean </p><p>Above is part of a post by Lim Tean in TRE. I was kind of ah, ah, what is this? Refresher courses to keep the skill or knowledge or expertise up to date. They did this in some industries and if one does not attend refresher courses, the licence would not be renewed. If the knowledge and skills in some industries are turning topsy turvy, in some fields it makes sense. But in many fields, the knowledge and skills are basically the same, some may be for life. The only people benefiting from such upgrading or refresher courses would be the trainers. Other than that, most of the time it would be a waste of time, doing the same thing all over again as if it is something new.</p><p>What about university degrees getting expired after every 5 years, like COEs? Some technical courses may change quite a bit, but some courses that taught thinking skills don't vary much. New concepts may evolved but to demand compulsory refresher courses? And to pay for it again and again? KNN.</p><p>What about refresher courses for politicians?</p><p>As Lim Tean pointed out, is this only applicable to the handful of world class universities in Singapore, or only for Singaporeans or foreigners working in Singapore? If it is just for our world class university graduates, or for Singaporeans only, how would this impact their careers and job prospect? Get sacked or retrenched if no refresher courses, and foreigners happily taking over their jobs?</p><p>Even if the idea could be relevant in some fields, it has to be applied internationally or else Singaporeans mesti mati when made to compete with foreigners that did not have to go through this uniquely Singapore wise crack.</p><p>What do you think?</p><p>All doctors, lawyers, engineers etc etc must take refresher courses every 5 years or else degrees tak pa kai? Brilliant, simply brilliant.</p><p>Chicken rice stall, wantan mee, nasi lemak, satay stalls, all must go for refresher courses or else licence cannot renew?</p><p>This would be a very good topic for the Ah Peks in the kopitiams to talk cock and sing song when they have nothing better to do.<br /></p><p>PS. How much would the refresher courses cost? If like COE, bee tang, huat ah! The poor graduates would have to pay and pay again. Another new normal from our super talent. See bay khiang. Deserves to be paid a few more millions in bonus. How many hundred thousands of graduates out there to pay for refresher courses?</p><p>Cannot called such idea as senseless or even stupid. It creates a lot of jobs and revenue. Very good for the economy, especially a captured or controlled economy. </p><p>And the universities in the whole world would also think this is a great idea and would adopt it for uniformity with Singapore so that Singaporeans would not lose out or look like a soh chai. </p><p>Hhahahahahahahahah....oops, oops, why am I laughing?</p><p>I think this is all a joke. Or Lim Tean must have misquoted him. I cannot believe this is for real.<br /></p><p>PS. In today's paper, Ang Wei Neng has apologised for this proposal.</p>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-65362455899991654532022-02-12T03:46:00.003-08:002022-02-12T03:46:42.442-08:00Tree of Life NFT<p> <img alt="rar Tree of Life 1/20" class="Image--image" height="293" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vvX_8WROm6voEDh4cvnFpiho55HMOWZps_DaMHs5xoAnvyu846WHK_5JJJ-27jPZIllHxEO1XzUJXmKmU4rMPkNcx4LQhWG2je3D=w211-h293" style="border-radius: 0px; height: auto; max-height: 100%; max-width: 100%; object-fit: contain; width: auto;" width="211" /></p><p>The mysterious image of the Tree of Life revealed by Mother Nature as it
is. This was captured by the camera for a brief moment in time and now
can be seen with the naked eyes by the Art of RAR technique of
photopainting.
It is a very important image, and extremely rare. Never seen before by
humankind.
A very precious token for churches, priests, pastors, evangelists,
believers, museums, scholars and collectors.
Important: Only 20 limited copies would be minted. </p><p>Tree of Life,
has been painted many times for centuries by human beans based on their
imagination and interpretation. This is the first time Mother Nature has
painted this naturally, without the biases of human beans. Scholars and
believers may want to contemplate and study the meaning and
significance of this image. The images are very vivid. The lower images
were less well formed as they emerged but got better as they moved up
the tree. How could these happened naturally? The more you look at the
painting the more you will discover the complexities in it.<br /></p><p>This
is also the first image that appeared to me that launched me into this
journey of photopainting using the Art of RAR technique.The first
painting of monumental importance, like the face that launched a
thousand ships, this painting launches thousands of paintings.</p>3
similar pieces are on offer at
<b>https://opensea.io/collection/rar-tree-of-life</b>. This is a limited
edition of 20 copies only. Not enough to satisfy the demands for such a
mysterious and important painting. <b>This is a gift from Mother Nature.</b>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-37981506439379408392021-11-02T16:54:00.004-07:002021-11-02T16:54:28.434-07:00Singapore Education - Chasing after meaningless glory at what price?<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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<p>An update to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University
Rankings for 2021 ranked the National University of Singapore (NUS) as
the <b>6th most international university in the world</b>, while Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) comes in at 9th.</p> <p>What does this mean?</p> <p>Well,
according to the THE website, the ranking of the most international
universities takes into account a <b>university’s proportions of
international students, international staff</b>, journal publications with
at least one international co-authors, and a university’s international
reputation. All these pillars are given equal weight in the calculation
of rankings.</p> <p>For
clarification, <b>a university’s international reputation is the measure
of “the proportion of votes from outside the home country</b> that the
institution achieved in THE’s annual invitation-only Academic Reputation
Survey”, according to the website.</p> <p>Back in 2019, TOC raised a
concern about the ratio of international to local students in autonomous
universities—like NUS and NTU. Based on figures from the Quacquarelli
Symonds (QS) website—a different yet equally respected global ranking—it
seemed that about 25 percent of NUS’ spots went to international
students. A similar ratio was recorded by QS for NTU.</p> <p>This year,
based on data from THE for 2021, about 26 percent of students at NUS are
international students. THE records the number of full-time equivalent
students enrolled in NUS at 30,493.</p><p> </p><p>Above is quoted from
singaporenewslive.com. Singapore now has the bragging right to be number
6 and number 9 in the world as international universities. So, what is
so great about being ranked highly as an international university? Is it
the same as useless piece of degree that cannot be eaten? As reported
about, the ranking is based on number of international students and
international staff. These two criteria means more university places for
foreigners instead of Singaporeans, more international academic staff
instead of Singaporeans.</p><p>We have often heard of the grievances of
parents having to empty their life savings to send their childre
overseas because they could not get into local universities, ie being
deprived of the precious place by foreign students. And many local
academics have lost their jobs to foreign academics. In the first case,
who pays for the foreign students to study here, the foreign students or
Singapore, how much it costs to bring in so many foreign students to
steal the place that should rightly be reserved for Singaporeans, the
children of tax payers?</p><p>Secondly, how many Singaporean academics
have lost their jobs to foreign academics and ended up unemployed or
underemployed? Why create good paying jobs for foreigners and places for
foreign students just to have a fictitious and practically useless
reputation of being a top rank international universities? Worth it? How
much it cost to Singapore, to parents, how many jobs lost to
Singaporeans that needed the jobs?</p><p>What is so good or so valuable
or so financially rewarding to win such ranks? Is the cost worth it for
such superficial glory? Can be eaten or not?</p><p>The cost over the
years are in hundreds of billions and the pyschological and financial
impact of this pro foreigner policy, at the expense of Singaporean
students and good jobs for Singaporeans is another Uniquely Singapore
Stupidity has no cure policy. Educating foreigners to steal our lunch,
providing good jobs to foreigners instead of Singaporeans just for a
stupid, meaningless ranking.</p>What do you think? Should billions of
public money be spent on this stupid and useless title of being a top
international university at the expense of university places for our tax
paying Singaporeans and the loss of good jobs for our own academics?Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-16360516132847563192021-09-27T18:14:00.004-07:002021-09-27T18:14:25.717-07:00Why Singapore's Education System Has Failed The People And Country<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><br /></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2185511735506339000" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 310px;"><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Why Singapore's Education System Has Failed The People And Country</b><br /><br />If India's fake degrees are readily available and acceptable, and so cheap and easy to obtain, why need we send out children through the Singapore's cannot-get-good-jobs education system? Moreover, it is so stringent, tedious, rigorous and stressful, and cost lots of precious time and hard-earned money!<br /><br />From Primary 1 to Primary 6 is six years.<br /><br />From Secondary 1 to Secondary 5 is five years.<br /><br />Polytechnic is three years.<br /><br />University is another four years.<br /><br />Adding play-school 2 years and kindergarten years 2 years, the total time spent for each child is 22 years.<br /><br />What about the total amount of money to be spent?<br /><br />Go make a calculation and see if the amount to be spent comes up to at least $150,000 for the 22 years of education, not counting food and lodgings.<br /><br />How much does it cost to get a fake basic degree plus a masters degree, PLUS a PHD? Less than SG$10,000! Some fake universities can even offer you all three degrees for only SG$5,000.<br /><br />And you can easily get six IT certificates in just one week, with someone sitting for the exams for you. All you need is to pay your ghost writers and bribe the invigilators (or the ones who supervises the exams) through the specialised exams-taking agencies that are flourishing in India.<br /><br />Another aspect, for Singaporean boys, is that two more years of Fulltime National Service have to be added. That brings to a grand total of 24 years of time spent in pursuit of a piece of paper that cannot even get you an interview for a good-paying and promising job.<br /><br />On the other hand, foreigners do not need to do National Service nor be called up for reserve liabilities every year. Therefore, they do not need to disrupt their employment. As such, employers will naturally shun those who need to go for in-camp training every year, causing not only disruptions but also loss of money and time to their organisations. So they will openly say, "Singaporeans do not have the necessary qualifications", instead of saying that Singaporeans have to be disrupted to do in-camp training every year!<br /><br />Singapore's education system is a failure because of several factors, not attributable to the Ministry of Education alone. They are:<br /><br />1. Failure of the education system to cater for the job markets by grooming the students to be street-smart wilh and with the necessary skills that the jobs required.<br /><br />2. The compulsory National Service liabilities are a pain in the ass for both the employees and employers because of their disruptive nature. This discourages all employers from hiring Singaporeans, preferring foreigners instead.<br /><br />3. Foreigners are made readily available by the government's open arms and open legs policy and have a very vast and extensive pool of choices from 193 countries in the world.<br /><br />4. Foreigners are cheaper to hire and, for various reasons, they are more willing to work longer hours, often going against Singapore and International labour laws, to satisfy the employer's demands and profit motives.<br /><br />5. Fake qualifications are now acceptable in Singapore, either legally or illegally. The MOM's feeble attempts to curb this malpractice is way too little too late. The disease has already infested the entire employment environment of Singapore, since the beginning of the CECA explorations, exploitations and infestations.<br /><br />Since the critical problem is at the national level, remedial actions have to be coordinated by a special task force comprising the Permanent Secretaries of MOE, MOM, MHF, MTI and NTUC, closely supervised by the PMO.<br /><br /><br />Conclusion:<br /><br />Unless, a coordinated, integrated, vigorous and determined counter-measure campaign is launched to revamp the whole education system, the National Service policy and the open legs foreign talents policy, to right the wrongs, this slippery road of further deterioration and destruction for Singaporeans is there to stay and Singaporeans will have to bite the bullets and cringe the pains.<br /><br /><br />LIPS, At Your Service.</span></p></div>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-81196094311317615902021-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:002021-09-25T17:27:01.117-07:00Singapore Education - What price to pay for a piece of paper that cannot be eaten?<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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<div class="post-header">ST 25 Sep had an article titled 'Lack of local talent a big
challenge for Singapore business'. What is pertinent in the survey is
this, the respondents said the lack of local talent was the biggest
challenge, but this was not the case in Taiwan, India, Hong Kong, New
Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia. And what are these talents they are
referring to? Sales professionals, people skilled in technology business
development, digital marketing and e-commerce.</div><p>Who or which
organisation should be responsible to churn up such talents for the
industries? The talents must be trained or educated and feed the market.
The demands from the industries are ready talents, not talents that the
industries would be producing or trained.The industries did not see it
taking up the responsibility train talents for their own needs.
Practically every organisation expects to fill their positions from
trained and experienced people from the open market or from the rest of
the world.</p><p>With this kind of mindset, the burden of providing
educated and in some way trained talents must come from the institutions
of higher learning, the polytechnics and universities. The irony here
is that Singapore often boasts about its world class and very expensive
universities, high fees because they are the best, at least better than
the countries mentioned above. The why is it that these countries, with
universities that mostly ranked at the tail end of surveys, are able to
provide the talents but not Singapore?</p><p>A survey like this, and all
craps coming out from employment agencies, even from third world
countries, are as good as a dressing down on Singaporean talents,
Singapore's institutions of higher learning. Useless universities, but
very expensive, unable to provide talents for the industries. Are these
real? Such smearing of local universities and their products is kind of
being spread and supported even by the who's who in Singapore. Not only
they did not dispute such disgusting smears, they also supported them by
their actions, by employing foreigners to fill top management positions
and often seen engaging foreign head hunters to hunt around the world
for top management positions. And such disgraceful thoughts and comments
are repeated quite often by the local media as if this is the truth,
this is the fact, Singapore has no talents. Why are local media
celebrating such lies, backing up such lies, like the survey mentioned
above?<br /></p><p>As long as the stupidity has no cure idiots keep
allowing this narrative to go on and on, who would want to employ local
graduates? On the other hand, the third world countries are praising
their own graduates from their funny universities as better than
Singapore graduates. And the Singapore;s idiotic who's who accept this
without protest, without question, and happily filled even govt
positions with funny foreign graduates from funny universities,
including fakes and cheats.</p><p>What do all these mean to our
institutions of higher learnings and Singapore education as a whole?
Would it be cheaper and more productive to close them all down and send
all our young to the funny universities around us, cheaper and better?</p><p>What do you think? What pay so much for a piece of a paper that cannot be eaten, and cannot get a good job?</p>PS.
There are many Singaporean talents overseas but unable to return,
unable to find equivalent positions in Singapore, simply because the
imbeciles allowed the foreigners to set the narrative, to control the
employment industry, to decide who is talent, who to be employed. This
is a crime committed by the imbeciles against our very own talents, with
many local PMETs now retrenched, unemployed, underemployed or forced to
retire prematurely.Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-12544422264778810122021-09-22T17:36:00.004-07:002021-09-22T17:36:57.033-07:00General heading Childhood Education<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><br /></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2932017737771340257" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 310px;">“Early childhood leadership certification is needed for preschool teachers to be qualified to be a principal. Even with a degree of early childhood and numerous ten years of experience does not qualify,” said a netizen. “So may I ask what kind of qualifications and pre-experience this general has in regards to early childhood? We are talking of education of your young children…not the army.” <div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, Facebook user Catherine Dee asked if “retired generals could stop being allowed to lead ministries,” particularly those they have no experience in. “If the government really has to do this, please start them from the bottom to gain experience and work their way up first rather than dropping them from a helicopter,” she added in a comment liked by over 200 netizens. </div><div><br /></div><div>“Why doesn’t the ministry look at promoting someone with understanding, experience and track record in the sector instead of parachuting someone without the relevant experience or knowledge of the ground despite his impressive military credentials?” asked Facebook user Shermin Chen. </div><div><br /></div><div>“A military guy in early childhood education…and none of the existing early childhood education personal can take up…seriously…,” added a netizen. theindependent.sg</div><div><br /></div><div>BG Tan Chee Wee to be CEO of early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA). And this has raised eyebrows in the education industry and parents for obvious reasons. The objections were understandable. Ask a foreign recruitment agency, they will throw out his application for lack of relevant experience and qualification. The general is so lucky that the govt did not contract the search agencies to go hunting for a foreign talent overseas. It was purely a parachute drop from the sky. Retired generals need not apply for jobs. Jobs would be offered to them, as CEOs here and there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Look at the positive side, they are lucky that they did not appoint a third world funny graduate with funny experience from a funny university to take over this job, aka fake or cheat. If they did, the children would turn out funny as well, if not illiterate. Be grateful.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another good thing that may come out from this is that the children will be well prepared for NS, with a good foundation in military jargons and way of life. The children are likely to be tougher than otherwise with boot camps modified as child play.</div><div><br /></div><div>If one is prepared to look at the good side, there are many. If one is looking from the negative side, there will also be many, just like CECA. You can bet, just like CECA, the govt would have all the good things to say about this appointment.</div></div>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-74538860045720850712021-06-16T18:28:00.007-07:002021-06-16T18:28:51.839-07:00Education statistics - Shall we be concerned? <p> Indranee Rajah presented the latest Singapore population statistics
in a media briefing yesterday. The ethnic population distribution of <b>residents</b>,
not Singaporeans, 74.3 per cent Chinese, 13.5 per cent Malays, 9 per
cent Indians. What is the distribution of Singaporeans? Why this is not
provided or not reported? What is the distribution of Singaporeans?<br /></p><p>What
I see as alarming is the data on university graduates last year. 34.7
per cent Chinese, 10.8 per cent Malays and 41.3 per cent Indians. Where
have all the Chinese students gone? With a 74.3 per cent population,
only 34.7 per cent of the graduates. Indians make up 9 per cent of the
population and with 41.3 per cent of the graduates. Is this something to
be concerned about? The Malays are just about right, could have more
graduates.<br /></p><p>Is the data saying that the Chinese have given up
on tertiary education, taking the advice from some politicians that it
is a piece of paper that cannot be eaten, so don't waste time and money?
To make a career in hawking or taxi drivers no need to be graduates? Or
is it that the Chinese are getting duller, not interested in education
any more, while the Indians getting smarter and deserved all the
increase in university places?</p>What is going on?<br />Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-25619609770760341772021-04-29T17:32:00.000-07:002021-04-29T17:32:06.695-07:00PSLE - Another change in grading system<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another big exercise involving a lot of expertise from the education
industry has just been completed. This musical chair or merry go round
exercise has been going on for years and it seems that it would never be
satisfactory as far as the parents are concerned. The results only
helped to meet some of the needs and expectations of the parents but
would never be enough as the demands would keep on changing as the moods
and expectations of clever and rich parents keep changing.</span></span></h3><p>By now
the education ministry and ministers and experts must have known what
the parents really want. If they are still guessing or not wanting to
face the truth, or knowing the truth but trying to meet the parents half
way or a quarter way but still wanting to maintain certain educational
objectives and standards, then the cycle will go on and on and every new
minister would have his hands full when new sets of parents would have
new demands and new axe to grind.</p><p>What the parents really want are
very simple. Less stress ie less work, less study, and good results and
easy to get into branded schools. Actually all three demands are very
easy to meet. Less work and less study can be QED. Just tell the
teachers to go slow and teach less and just pretend that the children
will then learn more. As for good results for all students, this is even
easier. Grades should just be good and excellent and all students would
be marked Merit or Excellent. Children will be happy, parents would be
happier.</p><p>The next big demand is good schools. This is also easily
done by a little restructuring and renaming of schools. Pick the best 10
schools that are most desirable by the parents and children. All the
schools should be renamed under these 10 schools. As an example, there
can be 50 Raffles Institutions and 50 Hwa Chong Institutions to choose
from. Raffles Institution, Bishan, Raffles Institution, Radin Mas,
Raffles Institution, Tanglin, Raffles Institution, Ang Mo Kio, Raffles
Institution Bedok etc etc The same would apply to Hwa Chong Institution
and the other top 8 branded schools.</p><p>Now, would that make all the
parents and children happy? Oh, school placement would be very much
easier. Can still give preference to citizens and location of homes and
the top 6 choices in order of preference.</p><p> Now what is so
difficult about this? It took me 5 minutes to solve all the angst of
parents. There will be no more stress for parents and students. No more
needs for expensive tuition and spending so much time studying. Go to school and play and enjoy. Many
great countries are producing great talents by just giving their
students distinctions in all subjects even if they failed. This is only a
piece of paper. What is important in life is whether the student
eventually can work or can bluff their way through in life.</p><p>No
need to sweat the small stuff. No need to put so much pressure on the
Education Minister and the teachers and principles. Singapore will be a
very happy place to bring up children and with good grades in good
schools without having to study and mug.<br /></p>I rest my case. It is very hard work to formulate such a big change in the education grading system to please everyone.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-74898432431296434332020-05-27T17:01:00.003-07:002020-05-27T17:01:29.204-07:00Singapore Education - How to punish AWOL students<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<br />
</h3>
'According to recent reports, Mr Ong’s (Ye Kung) announcement of the resumption of
classes has raised concerns. Despite the new system that will be
implemented, wherein students take turns switching from HBL to
face-to-face classes and safety measures are enhanced, parents have
found issues with certain aspects of the “new normal” of education. <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/singapore/we-cannot-make-attending-school-voluntary-ong-ye-kung-to-parents/ar-BB14uxLZ?ocid=ob-fb-ensg-400">Some of these issues include the length of time children will have to don a mask and the risk of infection.</a> Other
parents also asked the Minister if they could opt to stick to HBL as
they were concerned for the safety of their children. Though Mr Ong
addressed some concerns, his statement regarding the HBL option was, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/singapore/we-cannot-make-attending-school-voluntary-ong-ye-kung-to-parents/ar-BB14uxLZ?ocid=ob-fb-ensg-400">“We cannot make attending school voluntary.”</a>....<br />
<br />
“We understand that to date, 10 pre-school staff have tested positive
for coronavirus. And the testing is not complete yet and will only be
completed by the end of the month,” wrote Mr Lim (Tean), arguing that the
number of cases are expected to rise. He then questioned why Mr Ong did
not seem to consider this as an increased risk for young children....<br />
<br />
“Parents have every right to ensure the safety of their children and if
they do not feel comfortable in sending their children to school at this
point in time, what right has Ong Ye Kung to force them to do so?” said
Mr Lim....'<br />
<br />
Above are a few paragraphs in theindependent.sg that raised concerns
about school opening in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic. Attending
school is compulsory, not voluntary, according to Ong Ye Kung. On the
other hand, Lim Tean was saying that given the risk of Covid19, this
should not be and parents have the right to protect their children.<br />
<br />
Assuming that the govt, in this case the Minister of Education, would
have the final say and the law is behind him, school attendance is
compulsory and not attending would lead to some penalty or punishment,
how should this be dealt with.<br />
<br />
In the armed forces, NS is compulsory by law and absence or AWOL means
jail terms or minor cases mean detention barracks. Going to school is
compulsory but not really in the same category. Can't imagine children
sent to detention barrack, but not entirely true. Remember detention
classes or being retained back in school as a form of punishment?<br />
<br />
How is the MOE going punish school children that went AWOL? The consent
of parents to keep their children away from school is no excuse. AWOL
is AWOL. There must be cases when children were not sent to school due
to poverty, or parents having financial difficulties and unable to
afford to do so. Providing financial assistance in a way would help in
such cases.<br />
<br />
In the context of safety from the virus, would the parents be punished
and what kind of punishment should they decide not to send their
children to school? Does the Minister have authority to punish the
parents for making such a decision?<br />
<br />
Or should the AWOL children be punished instead and how? The Minister
has made it very clear that school attendance is compulsory and not up
to the choice of the parents and children. What if they just vote with
their feet, ignored this compulsory requirement and backed by law? The
Minister cannot say nothing can be done and move on. If this is so, then
what is all the hooha about compulsory attendance? A policy like this
and backed by law must also be matched with the ability and will to
enforce.<br />
<br />
There must be penalties or punishment to the parents or to the school
children. It would be interesting to know what MOE or the Minister has
in mind in dealing with delinquent children with parental support or how
to deal with such parents. Ong Ye Kung has made his position very
clear, it is not an option. So what is he going to do about it when this
edict is violated?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-35209804987261397192020-03-14T17:47:00.003-07:002020-03-14T17:47:18.146-07:00The myth of quality education<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<br />
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
To be ranked as world best university by western organisations seemed to
be a highly desired accolade for many universities. To be ranked among
the top 10, the top 100, confers the graduates from these universities
as among the best in the world, top talents. In general this looks like
the case and of course there are exceptions. Some universities are
ranked very high but produced duds, useless graduates that are good only
at mid executive levels at most and many could not even find gainful
employment and have to resort to part time jobs, some even have to drive
for Grab.<br />
<br />
Then there this outstanding exception that has stunned the world. India,
without any university in the top 100, maybe not even in the top 500
best, is producing the most top executives for MNCs in the whole wide
world. The Indian graduates are beating the Europeans and Americans in
their home ground, taking over their companies not just as middle
executives or senior executives but as the top dogs, the CEOs. There are
thousands of Indian CEOs heading western MNCs, even Japanese MNCs and
of course Singaporean MNCs.<br />
<br />
Surprising, shocking, not true? Yes, the Indians have got their
education system right. Many may still think the Indian education system
is half baked, primitive, and basic. Think again, and look at the names
of all the top CEOs in western MNCs, the big and reputable ones, the
Fortune 500 companies, they are mostly Indians. They must be teaching
the right stuff, and not the unnecessary and frivolous. And Singapore is
salivating at the prospect of bringing in more Indians to fill the top
posts in business and in govt. The Indians are the best in the world, in
business and in govt. Ok, the latter still needs more proof.<br />
<br />
The irony, very few foreigners would want to send their children to
India to benefit from what they are doing right and to become future
CEOs of big MNCs. And more surprising, some Indians are sending their
students to study in Singapore's world class universities that could
hardly produce a MNC CEO other than in local companies in tiny
Singapore. Increasingly Singapore companies, the bigger and more
established ones, are going to be helmed by Indians from India.<br />
<br />
What is the moral of the story? Go to India to get a good education, an
education that would turn graduates into future CEOs if that is what you
want. And Indian education is relatively cheap. Do not send your
children to super expensive highly ranked universities that are good on
paper only, good to look at, good to brag about but turning out
unemployeable graduates or graduates at best be good enough to work for
MacDonalds or Grab.<br />
<br />
Get the idea? See the myth? What is good and real is in the pudding.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-26236849292945224852020-03-05T16:43:00.003-08:002020-03-05T16:43:19.711-08:00When teachers are unintelligent and policy makers confusing the purpose of education<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<br />
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
An exam paper of a primary school girl has been circulating around
exposing the unintelligence of teachers, maybe one teacher setting the
question and one marking, or one teacher doing both, and how a poor
child that was so confused by the questions because of her exceptional
intelligence ended being marked wrong for her exceptionally clear
answers.</div>
<br />
One question showed 3 pairs of ducks facing each other and the question
asking how many ducks were there. What was confusing was that at the
answer column, after a space for the answer was a picture of a duck
facing one side. Without this picture, the answer was obvious, 6 ducks.
But with the picture of a duck added, and facing one side, a child could
read the question as asking how many ducks were facing the same
direction as the picture next to the answer. The child put down 3 and
was marked wrong.<br />
<br />
Another question was a picture of 9 dogs in various positions and the
question asked how many dogs were there. Same problem, answer should be
9. But at the answer column, after the space to put the answer was a
picture of a dog lying in a particular position. And only one of the 9
dogs was lying in that position. The child's answer was 1 and was marked
wrong.<br />
<br />
Who was right and who was wrong? An average child would have given the
answers that an average teacher wanted, 6 ducks and 9 dogs. An above
average child would give the wrong answers as the child above, to an
average thinking teacher. Whose fault is this? The painful thing is that
the child would have gone bonkers trying to figure out why her answers
were wrong, all because of unintelligent teachers and unintelligent
questions.<br />
<br />
Is this the reason why our education system is producing duds that
cannot think outside the exam questions and could only produce
unintelligent answers and thus found wanting when applying for jobs or
for top positions in an organisation? We pay millions and millions for
good teachers and good education system but the above situation is
appalling. Something is very seriously wrong in this robotic fashion of
teaching.<br />
<br />
And I read in the papers that the school system is going to teach the
child mental health and in the same breath acknowledging that teachers
that have proper training on mental health would not be qualified to
offer professional support to troubled children. If teachers after being
properly trained may be found wanting, how much would the children
learn from such classes? There are so many things that our children are
expected to learn from their school curriculum that wanted to turn them
into superman and superwoman but ended turning out duds and people
knowing a bit of nothing in everything.<br />
<br />
If this is the way the schools are being made to do, I would suggest a
few more important topics to prepare the children other than mental
illness, disappointments and accepting failures as part of their life
after going through our very expensive and confusing education system.
Let them know that they are not supposed to be the best in their studies
as that would hurt the feelings of less academically inclined children.
Let them know that being good academically is nothing to be proud off.
If they are good academically they must hide in the closets and not to
talk about it. Academically smart children are frown upon by society as
they made others looked bad.<br />
<br />
And prepare them to accept low paying jobs, to be underemployed, to
willingly take on part time jobs, and not to feel bad that they cannot
get a job and not to be angry with foreigners that went through half
baked education system that did not teach them all the good things in
our education system but taking all the good jobs. <br />
<br />
The schools must tell the children that despite being taught so many
things and paying so much for it, even travelling overseas to understand
other people, they would not get the good jobs and may end up jobless.
The good jobs would go to foreigners that paid a pittance for their
makeshift education, did not go on exchange programme, but just teaching
them the 3 Rs and what a basic school education is meant to teach.<br />
<br />
Yes, the school can teach everything, from brushing the teeth, how to
take a shower, how to go dating, how to use condoms etc etc. The
question is what are schools meant for in the first place. With every
change of minister for education, the roles of the schools have changing
and deviating from its original mission. Let's get back to first
principles and let the schools do what they should be doing and not all
the nonsense that are good to have, that are desired by a few parents or
policy makers, things that parents should be teaching them.<br />
<br />
What do you think? Is it the problem of our education system or confused
policy makers trying to do things beyond their field of expertise, not
trained in education and telling the teachers what to do? Oh, the above
teacher or teachers setting and marking those questions are exceptions
to the rule despite being paid top dollars as the best teachers money
can buy. We have many good teachers, just let them teach what the
schools should be teaching. Non teaching professionals should meddle
less with the teaching professions.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-5853589855415628272020-01-27T16:27:00.004-08:002020-01-27T16:27:32.448-08:00Silent Cultural Revolution in Singapore<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">What was the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1966?</span></h3>
In 1966, China was engulfed with the fire of revolution with young Red
Guards running wild all over the country attacking and arresting people,
humiliating and punishing people branded as revisionists. The crime of
the victims was mainly due to their intellect, the educated and worse
foreign educated elites, the professors, engineers, academics,
administrators, scientists, anyone with higher education was a target.
It was destruction of everything related to knowledge, science and
technology. It was the Road to Mediocrity when farmers and peasants were
glorified. It was good to be poor. And China went back to Year Zero by
the time the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 with the death of Mao
and the arrest of the Gang of Four.<br />
<br />
Is Singapore also on the Road to Mediocrity? Is there a silent Cultural
Revolution to frown upon excellence, to promote mediocrity, to encourage
every student to be mediocre, be average is glory, top schools and top
students should become unknown and unheard off? Do not mention about top
schools and top students getting straight As. Popularise and glorify
the average students as the good stuff, the way to be, be proud to be
average and be ashamed if one is top of the class!<br />
<br />
How long have the name Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution been
blanco from the media like it is a crime to mention them? When O level
and A level results were released, not a whisper of the top students
from the top schools? Why? Should these top talents be arrested,
humiliated and send to work in the farms? Oops we don't have enough farm
land to house them, maybe send them to neighbour countries? Send them
for reeducation camps to tell them that to be good in their studies, to
be top students, to be highly qualified graduates from the best schools
and universities are bad, not to be seen, not to be heard. Oh, we can
send all our top graduates to become cab drivers and security guards as
part of their reeducation stint like the intelligentsia of China during
the Cultural Revolution. Can also become hawkers to learn what it is
like to do manual work and to be poor.<br />
<br />
Singapore does not need Singaporeans as top talents. We cannot offend
the parents of the average students and the pride of the average
students. We must make the average students happy, their parents happy
by glorifying them and shun the top students. We can import all the top
talents from third world countries to fill the top positions in the
industries and govt ministries. Like that all the average Singaporeans
would be very happy. See, no arrogant top students and their happy
parents on the main media to make the average students and their parents
unhappy.<br />
<br />
Now when did I get this idea? I came across this article in thenewpaper
on 22 Jan titled, 'MOE launches pilot study to drop selection trials
for CCAs'. In the article there were a couple of phrases that prompted
me to think again. The first paragraph of the article reads, 'In its
latest push to encourage children to pursue their interests and <b>focus less on performance</b>,
the Ministry of Education(MOE) will look at dropping selection trials
for co-curricular activities(CCAs). Another comment about the National
School Games for young children, 'Last year, it tweaked the National
School Games(NSG) junior division (for pupils aged nine to 11) <b>to give children, even the less skilled, a chance to compete</b>. Among the changes were removing individual events in some sports and <b>rewarding participation instead of finishing first. </b>The bold emphasis were mine.<br />
<br />
To reward mediocrity, reward communal activities, punish individual
excellence are exactly what the Cultural Revolution of China was all
about. Instead of in search of excellence, this is promoting mediocrity,
levelling down to please the mediocres. Is this the road forward for
Singapore? Why is the MOE peddling to the cries of the parents of the
average and in a way sidelining the talented and individual pursuits for
excellence? Is this what we get from the millionaires, brilliant ideas
that millionaires could come up with?<br />
<br />
What is wrong with excellence? What is wrong with wanting to be the
best? Is it shameful to be top students, top talents? Should not then
that the media stop glorifying our universities as world top
universities, stop crowing how good we are and hide under the cloaks of
mediocrity?<br />
<br />
What do you think?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-22437087548297188142020-01-26T17:29:00.003-08:002020-01-26T17:29:24.809-08:00Singapore's education conundrum- something is fake<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">
<div class="post-header-line-1">
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3160026500522454261" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 310px;">
Language aside, the general school facilities and resources in Indian government schools are not comparable to Singapore government schools, and Indian teachers and students often work and study under adverse conditions.<br /><br />I have often wondered how Indian government schools, despite their inadequate and commonly antiquated education facilities and resources, can produce talents in demand by a first world country like Singapore. There must be something unique (almost magical) about the Indian government schools, their education administration and education Ministry, Ministers and their officials....<br /><br />How much of the Indian talents are “real” talents that Singapore cannot survive without them? How can India produce the first world talent when Singapore cannot despite our good education facilities and model?....<br /><br />Lastly, if a Third World country like India can produce First World talents which Singapore must have to survive, why can’t First World Singapore produce the talent investors require (though not in the same numbers)?<br />It is only when the PAP government is really taking serious actions (rather than their ‘fanciful talks’) to control the inflow of foreign talents especially from India can our well-skilled and educated Singaporeans remain in employment without fear of unfair competition.<br /><br />Kok Ming Cheang<br /><br />The above statements from Kok Ming Cheang's article in the TRE are something that I have been musing about and perplexing to many Singaporean PMETs that have lost their high paying jobs to foreigners especially those from India. Amusing to me is one thing, but pain and suffering to the affected PMETs and their families is another. And to those that paid lip service to the suffering of this group of Singaporeans and claiming that they understood their pains and empathise with them,with their lives while they live their lives of aplenty because of their million dollar salaries, is another.<br /><br />This is very serious matter and should not be taken lightly. The reason 'wayang' as some in the social media have said about the sudden interest in MOM to right the decades long wrong to the Singaporean PMETs and their families hopefully is not really just another wayang because election is around the corner.<br /><br />Is there anything wrong with this education conundrum or something is wrong with the facts? Is it true that third world Indian education is producing all the talents that first world Singapore education is unable to produce? Or is it true that Singapore's first world education is not producing the talents that first world Singapore needs, ie failure in the Singapore education system? Something is very wrong. Something is fake, cannot be both. Either Indian education is really good and producing good talents for Singapore or it is not. Or Singapore's education is really producing duds despite its claim of being world class or it is not.<br /><br />What is fake, which part is fake? Can Singapore, after spending so much money to have a world class education system is not really what it is, everything is fake, fake world class education therefore unable to produce the talents it needs? Or India's third world education is producing fake talents that the stupids in Singapore cannot tell the difference and took them in as talents? Which is which?<strong><br /></strong><br /><br />What is real and what is fake? </div>
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-60678345070688418812019-10-06T17:21:00.004-07:002019-10-06T17:21:54.515-07:00Education, solving one problem but creating more problems<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</h3>
'I said that the underlying problem is that the education system aims
to pick the top students for the top secondary school and later for
scholarships to prestigious overseas universities.<br />
<br />
If the reward is set at a high level, parents will continue to do the
best that they can to make sure that their children become top
students. The children from wealthy families will continue to get the
advantage. Those from poorer families will be disadvantaged.<br />
<br />
To get rid of this competition, we have to stop identifying the top
students. We should only look for students who passed and those who
failed. In each cohort, about 90% should pass in each year.'<br />
<br />
The above quotes are from Tan Kin Lian in his article posted in TRE
offering his solution to what he saw as Ong Ye Kung's inability to solve
any problem with his new changes. According to Tan Kin Lian, the
problem with Singapore's education is the focus to pick top students to
be offered scholarships to the best universities in the world. I differ.
Anyway this is what Tan Kin Lian wanted to avoid. So, Ong Ye Kung's new
solution did not do away with identifying and selecting the best
students.<br />
<br />
Tan Kin Lian's solution, make schools produced students with pass or
fail grades, get rid of competition. If this is introduced, parents and
students do not need to compete with each other and would lead to less
stress and maybe everyone passed. I think all of you would have a lot to
say about Tan Kin Lian's proposal to solve the education angst of
Singapore parents and students.<br />
<br />
I just want to point out one fake reality. Many countries are churning
out perfect score students just for their students to look better and
can compete better with other countries' students. Also many half baked
students and half baked universities are getting first class grades by
hook or by crook, fake or real never mind, especially when they come to
Singapore. Singapore would accept anything as real on printed paper as
they have no means or intelligence to check their validity. Singapore
has degraded to the point that they did not even bother about having a
degree to qualify for a job as long as the fake can do the job.<br />
<br />
So how are our students with only pass grades going to compete with the
real and the fakes with A grades? I am sure Tan Kin Lian did not
consider this yet. We already have millions of fakes descending here and
taking away good jobs from our Singaporeans. The situation can only get
worse if our students merely have a pass grade or average grades from
the schools, polys or unis. But this may not be a problem as the most
desirable jobs for Singaporeans today are hawkers, Grab drivers and part
time jobs, all does not require a degree.<br />
<br />
What do you think?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-67417562595853699892019-09-04T17:22:00.001-07:002019-09-04T17:22:17.648-07:00What is $238m to educate foreigners? <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The amount that our MOE spent on foreign students, as mentioned by
OYK in Parliament, was $238 million annually. (or was it $340m or was it $680m, after reduced b 50%?). By any standard, that is
alot of money especially when this comes from our precious hard-earned
tax dollars and are not from some lottery windfall or inheritance
wealth.</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span>
</span>
<br />
<span>We should play our part as a responsible member of the international
community by taking in and sponsoring some international students. But
this PAP government must forever be mindful that Singaporeans are not
suckers and the government is not a Santa Claus.</span><br />
<span>
</span>
<br />
<span>I suggest that our budget for foreign student’s scholarships and
tuition grants be capped at S$100 million annually and adjusted for
inflation. The leftover balance can be used comfortably to help our
struggling families lighten their financial burdens and give their
children a better shot at life, instead of their children starting out
in life with educational debts to pay.</span><br />
<span>
</span>
<br />
<span>My daughter is an undergraduate at NTU, and I know the sad reality in
Singapore is that many working class families got themselves into big
debts even as OYK so eloquently put it that “all Singaporean students
who meet the standards have been admitted” and that “no Singaporean is
ever displaced from institute of higher learning because of an
international student” etc....</span><br />
<br />
<span>Posted by Simon Lim in TRE </span><br />
<br />
<span>All I can say is to ape some of the
super rich here by uttering, What is $238m? Or shall I say it is
peanuts. Remember the $200m overspent on the Youth Olympics and the
hundreds of million spent annually on the F1? After all spending OPM
does not hurt one's own pocket. Spend lah, what is the problem? </span><br />
<br />
<span>Today Hsien Loong said they are thinking
of reducing fees for part time students to reduce education cost for
working adults. What mercy! How long have working adults and our
students been suffering for paying high fees while foreigners' children
were and are still having a whale of a time with our free money to enjoy
our world class education without a sweat?</span><br />
<br />
<span>Maybe we need to have GE every year and more such goodies would be made available to benefit out tax paying citizens. </span></span>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-81915555876467729322019-07-18T07:34:00.000-07:002019-07-18T07:34:47.868-07:00This ignorant teacher must be sacked and...<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Below is a post in mothership.sg about an ignorant and full of herself
teacher bullying a 9 year old boy in her class and accusing the boy of
being misguided and a source of ethnic violence. She is abusing her
position as a teacher to attack young children with her twisted views of
what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable. She is so ignorant
that she did not even know that there is such a thing called beef curry
just because her little mind knew that Hindu did not eat beef, so it
is offensive to mention beef curry to a Hindu. If this kind of silly and
warp thinking and logic are allowed in our schools and society, then
many things cannot be said.</span></span></h3>
<br />
This swine of a teacher must be sacked before she does more damage to the
children. Her English is half past six at best. She is aggressive and
uncultured and inciting violence, telling a child that saying things
like beef curry can get him killed. Which backward country would kill a
child for saying such a thing?<br />
<br />
And if she is a foreigner, send her back to where she came from. MOE
please do the necessary and don't sleep on the job. MHA also must act on
this before more and more of such rubbish are allowed to create more
rubbish and tension in our schools and in our society. The poor boy has
been attacked and butchered by this swine teacher in front of her class.
The parents of the boy must take up the case with the school and the
police for intimidation and verbal assault of a child. A teacher, an
adult, bullying a 9 year old child! And some silly cunts with the same
kind of mentality said the child's conversation was microaggression on
the part of the child. Can you believe that?<br />
<br />
Here is the post and tweets from mothership.sg.<br />
<br />
A drama teacher in Singapore has taken to Twitter to complain about a
nine-year-old student she encountered in one of her classes — only to
remove her tweets and account after receiving backlash for her views.<br />
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What was she upset about?
</div>
Her beef? <br />
A child she was teaching in her drama class had behaved in a manner
that was not woke enough and she told the boy off on the spot that it
was his type of misguided views that is the cause of ethnic violence.<br />
<h4>
What did she tweet?</h4>
The series of six tweets on July 17 by the drama teacher also
referred to the child as an “uncultured swine” and that she “wanted to
strangle the kid”.<br />
These were the tweets and the circumstances that led to her calling out the boy’s answers and behaviour:<br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362533" height="164" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-1a.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362528" height="149" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-2.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362537" height="194" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-3a.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362536" height="179" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-4a.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362525" height="180" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-5.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362523" height="201" src="https://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/primary-3-boy-response-to-drama-teacher-6.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<h4>
Praised for correcting child</h4>
Over on Twitter, the drama teacher’s tweets received support and
empathy from some quarters who could relate to her having to deal with
such <a href="https://mothership.sg/2019/04/woman-singapore-mistaken-google-employee-canteen-staff/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">microaggressions</a>:<br />
The issue was also couched as a result of “<a href="https://mothership.sg/2019/07/racist-hair-stylist-casual-racism/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Chinese privilege</a>“:<br />
<div class="fb-post fb_iframe_widget" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/feedbackMUIS.SG/photos/a.492566894473349/776937059369663/" data-width="450px">
<span style="height: 589px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 450px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-21219925774129817762019-05-23T17:24:00.004-07:002019-05-23T17:24:43.297-07:00Education to serve social/political or educational goals<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
SINGAPORE: Education Minister Ong Ye Kung <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/streaming-secondary-schools-o-n-levels-ong-ye-kung-11312252" target="_blank">announced</a> the momentous move to end streaming in secondary schools by 2024 in March.</h3>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
<br />
Schools
are now encouraged to do away with the practice of grouping students
into form classes by academic ability and instead experiment with
innovative ways to group students.<br />
<br />
The idea is that this will encourage children from different
backgrounds to interact with each other. In the long run, this would
lead to better social mixing and greater societal cohesion – or so is
thought.<br />
<b>CHALLENGES WITH DOING AWAY WITH ABILITY-BASED CLASS GROUPING</b><br />
Doing
away with ability-based grouping necessarily implies that each form
class will comprise a more heterogeneous mix of students than before. A
pertinent consideration is whether teachers are well prepared to teach
such classes.<br />
<br />Read more at
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/streaming-subject-based-banding-group-class-cca-secondary-school-11531090</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
This is the latest change in our education system, dismantling the past
objectives of churning out the best in our students in their respective
fields of excellence. Now looks like this is not in the interest of the
state, that students excelling in academic subjects should be secondary
to the goal of social integration, mixing the able with the less able,
the rich and the poor, and all races into a melting pot is more
important than producing academic excellence. Is this the way to go
forward, is this what parents want of their children or what politicians
want of our children?</div>
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</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
What do parents spent so much time and money for, to produce children
that can mix with everyone at all social levels, intellect and
backgrounds instead of being top scientists, engineers, doctors etc and
etc? Look at what is happening to China, sending its best students
overseas not to study soft subjects but hard sciences to compete in high
technology of the future and turning China into the most advanced state
in science and technology surpassing the Americans in many fields.
Would we want to be like China or like some suka suka half past six
countries, good for nothing but happy go lucky young of the future?As it
is now, our young could not even compete with third world graduates in
getting jobs in our own country. How would this turn out if our young of
the future turn out to be mediocre good for nothing graduates?</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
One outcome mentioned in this CNA article is the difficulty in teaching a
class of bright and less bright students to the teachers. Going too
fast will affect the slower students, going too slow will hold back the
faster students. So you will end up with a class of mediocres.</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
An analogy in the mixing of paints in art classes would suffice to
explain the outcome of this social/political policy. If one is to add
white paint with white paint or black ink with black ink, the result
will be whiter paint or blacker ink. If one is to mix white paint with
black ink, you will end up with a spread of grey, from less white to
less black, never white or black.</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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The thinking and objectives of an educationist and that of a politician
would be world's apart. Never shall the twains meet. If we have a
soldier or whatever to meddle with our education policies, the
likelihood is that the system will produce an army of soldiers or
whatever, for a soldier would be thinking of producing more soldiers or
whatever.</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="pw-hidden-cp">
I am wondering what the parents would choose. Definitely they would not
want soldiers to determine the education policies of their children.
Would our parents choose the social/political results of a politician
over the goals of academic excellence for their children? A degree is
not important, cannot be eaten? Or would this new change lead to better
academic performance of our children? Would the system end up producing
more potential politicians? This may not be bad as it is the surest and
fastest way to become immediate millionaires.<br />
<br />
What do you think? </div>
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-50976832459628634042019-05-14T17:26:00.004-07:002019-05-14T17:26:58.491-07:00Education – Why are we so cruel to our children? <span class="postbody"><br />
The demands on our children are so out of this world. No children in the
world are subject to what our children are exposed to, expected to, in
our education system and social norms. They are not only expected to
score straight As in schools, but to excel in sports, in ECAs, even in
trying to make money, to think like business people and entrepreneurs,
to be able to dance, to sing and to appreciate the arts, in sports. What
else do we need our children to do to be a better person and to compete
against the world?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">And the poor parents are not spared either. They need not only to spend
the time and money, yes, some are really poor to pay for all the extra
costs needed to bring up our children as the most well educated people
on earth. They need to spend time to monitor the progress of their
children personally. Leaving them to third world maids would not do
unless they want all their effort and sacrifices go the third world
ways.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">But these are not all that our children are faced with. After coming out
from the ‘best’ education system with a string of ECAs, they would need
to compete with children that do not need to know or appreciate arts,
no need to be an all round super kid, just passed their village
examinations, real or by cheating, in order to be hired by the
foreigners now in our local companies doing the recruitment with unfair
biases for their own kinds, or be assisted by foreign recruitment agents
and placed for jobs in our local companies, including ministries and
GLCs, neglecting our super kids from our very expensive education
system. Some even have to spend money going overseas to experience what
is being overseas thinking that it would be an advantage.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">The foreign kids need not be super kids, need not be worldly wise, just
street wise, to beat our expensively schooled kids and get the jobs,
stole the jobs from our kids, deprived our kids from the good jobs that
they paid a small fortune in our education system and hoping to land in
one.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Why are we so unfair to our kids? Oh, wait a minute, our poor kids still
need to ‘waste’ one and a half to two years running up hills and
bashing through jungle terrain before they can start to look for a job
that the foreign kids need not have to. Why are we doing this to our
poor children, and smugly telling them that they have to compete with
the rest of the fucking world?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">You do not need the devils if you have such wicked morons ruling and
ruining our lives and the lives and future of our children. Maybe some
of these morons are thinking that our children should not be working as
their parents are all millionaires, and their lives are meant to live
and play, education is just for fun, to be a well rounded person, not to
look for jobs.</span>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-76684605479974166492019-04-15T07:35:00.003-07:002019-04-15T07:35:48.660-07:00Graduated to Unemployement...and disappointment<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<br />
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yDzF9y36SN4/XLKbaEfhh7I/AAAAAAAAMFk/JXpvgq5QW74HTp4cw_cUIWfSn2VppVQCgCLcBGAs/s1600/graduated%2Bto%2Bunemployment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="369" height="227" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yDzF9y36SN4/XLKbaEfhh7I/AAAAAAAAMFk/JXpvgq5QW74HTp4cw_cUIWfSn2VppVQCgCLcBGAs/s320/graduated%2Bto%2Bunemployment.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
'It is such a crying shame if many of our PEI graduates eventually end
up as another private car driver or “protection officers” who are
really just security guards. These is a grim situation against a
backdrop of thousands of foreigners who are holding Employment Passes
and S-passes in Singapore<br />
Singaporeans must pay dearly in different ways when they elect an
incompetent government that is unable to create any more opportunities
for its people. Our citizens must by now realised that there are heavy
prices that they must pay for electing a useless PAP government who
cannot fly any higher or any further anymore.'<br />
<br />
The above pic and comments were in an article posted by Simon Lim in TRE. <br />
<br />
<br />
The Graduation Ceremony used to be the pride of parents and their
children, the event to ended a regime of self sacrifices, regimentation
and financial expenses and the beginning of hope of a better future.<br />
<br />
Is this true today? How many of the graduates are walking into the
adult's world armed with their degrees and diploma and hope of a good
job and better future and to doing their parents proud?<br />
<br />
How many would be wallowing in self pity, loss of confidence and in
financial straits, unable to repay their loans or their parents for
paying for their expensive tertiary education when funny graduates from
cheap funny universities overseas are beating them to the valued jobs
and leaving them jobless? Who is to be blamed for their plight, the
highly disturbing CECA, or the people that signed the CECA or allowed it
to happen to seal the fate of our young people?<br />
<br />
What do you think? Do our young deserve this bleak future, when
Graduation Day is the day they graduated to join the ranks of the
unemployed? How pathetic can our young be? Who cares, who did they vote
for to deserve this?Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-12422059417867749042019-02-02T17:12:00.001-08:002019-02-02T17:12:27.942-08:00Education - A view from someone that has gone through the system<dl class="avatar-comment-indent" id="comments-block">
<dt class="comment-author " id="c256410756180417071">Below are some comments from an Anonymous bloggers in mysingaporenews about how the people felt about the education system in Singapore.</dt>
<dt class="comment-author " id="c256410756180417071"> </dt>
<dt class="comment-author " id="c256410756180417071">Anonymous
said...
</dt>
<dd class="comment-body" id="Blog1_cmt-256410756180417071">
In some JCs, before each child starts the journey, it is a foregone
conclusion up to almost 20% of the JC1 students will not make the cut at
the EOY (end of yr) examination and up to another 60% scrapped through
by a margin thinner than the hair strand and will NOT make it to the uni
too?<br /><br />Thats why parents are so relaxed and dun need worry
anything at all despite spending all the resources to bring up their
child till 16+ yo (only to be "wasted" in "ruthless experimentation" and
cannot make it teaching)<br /><br />One parent in 2016 whose son studied in
a sch in the middle of sinkieland almost VOMITTED blood after the MYE
parent meeting session talking to his son's chers he broke his (PA)Piggy
bank spending almost $3,000 a month hiring tutors for almost every
subject for his son to circumvent the problem his child was facing in
the sch teaching "system".<br /><br />So if a parent really is a "nut case" and does nothing but sit back and relax, then the child "could be doomed"?<br /><br />Empirically,
the more than $1,000,000,000 tuition industry may have been grossly
underestimated bc there is no systematic statistic/ data collection to
account for all the spending incurred by parents. If can really sit back
and relax, why parents are mad ah and spend many billions of dollars
collectively to circumvent the problems their child are facing in the
sch?<br /><br />MOE entire budget are also billions of dollars per year and
parents need to spend another billions on tuition to make up for the
short fall?<br /><br />Typically the tuition demand steadily builds up each
year starting from Jan. Every sch engagement exercise or meet parent
session caused many parents to go away feeling ever more depressed and
more worried than ever like the parent in 2016 mentioned above and for
the sake of their child reluctantly do (HUGE) DAMAGE to their (PA)Piggy
bank account by coughing out thousands each month on their child's
tuition<br /><br />The more parents engaged the chers, the more worried they
are? What have they heard that caused them to go away feeling so
worried sick and depressed? The conclusion they have after each talking
session with chers? If they have confidence in them, why the parents
want to break and damage their(PA)Piggy bank accounts severely after
each meet the parent session?<br /><br />This is the future that sinkies are facing?<br /><br />Brighter than the SUN (and brightest FULL MOON combined)?<br /><br />(Ai rest mind case.)<br /><br />PS:
The chers are the real stupid pple if they think parents dunno how fark
up the way that their child has to go through and endure in sch? <br /><br />If not parents are nuts ah to spend another billions on tuition on top of the billions already spend by MOE each year?<br /><br />If
parents really stupid and think are shitty propaganda and not deeper
meaning than their child's future as bright as the darkness in the cold
winter nights liao (in the Artic Circle)?<br /><br />The fact that each year parents are coughing out billions on tuition speak otherwise?<br /><br />Now those who read it as shitty propaganda realised how STUPID or not they are?<br /><br />RB legendary quote: "STUPIDITY HAS NO CURE!!!"
<br />
</dd><dd class="comment-footer">
<span class="comment-timestamp">
<a href="https://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/2019/02/securing-data-important.html?showComment=1549146523788#c256410756180417071" title="comment permalink">
February 03, 2019 6:28 am</a></span></dd></dl>
Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-70467872244431006192018-10-11T17:32:00.003-07:002018-10-11T17:32:29.432-07:00Training to become hawkers <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="postbody">I read in the main media of this great opportunity to become hawkers in
Singapore’s famous hawker culture business. ITE has started a new
hawker course to teach and train aspiring young people, very likely
armed with degrees or diplomas to become hawkers. This new profession is
about the best thing that has happened in Singapore for the young and
entrepreneurial Singaporeans since getting a permanent job is quite
difficult as most of the jobs were taken up by the 2 million foreign
talents working here, and with more coming in to become locals and
Singaporeans. New Singaporean graduates are finding it tough competing
with these new talents, or is it that employers for some reasons, prefer
to hire foreigners instead of Singaporeans, and other than becoming
taxi drivers, it is better to become hawkers.
</span></span></span></span></h3>
<div class="post-header">
<span class="postbody"></span></div>
<span class="postbody"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="postbody">The ITE course, Introduction to Managing a Hawker Business, has
attracted 25 aspiring young people to learn this new trade. Among the
things that they would learn other than managing a hawker stall would be
things like how to source for suppliers and yes, how to formulate a
business plan. This is serious business.
<br />
I am calling my grandfather to apply to be a lecturer for this course.
His experience as a hawker for 50 years, from the time he arrived in
this island, with out a penny, with no education, would be very useful
to the new trainees that have no clues about running a hawker stall. My
grandfather would be able to teach them all the tricks of the trade,
including sourcing for suppliers, how to cut operating cost, how to work
from 6am to 12 mid night, how to stand frying char kway teow for long
hours without going to the toilet.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">But there is a caveat. My grandfather would not know how to teach them
how to write business plan. Also he would have to conduct his course in
Hokien. He had never been to school. He learnt his trade the hard way or
what they called, OJT. There was no one to teach him how to be a hawker
then, and no hawker courses to learn how to be a hawker.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Hope if he got the job, the highly educated trainee aspiring hawkers
would bear with him and be willing to learn from him. Hawker business is
not so easy and they don’t teach them in schools or the universities.
So my grandfather and his peers would be the best lecturers/trainers for
such a course. They had been there and done it, no pure reading by the
books.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">This poses a new query in my mind. Who are they getting to train these
aspiring hawkers, people with experience in being hawkers or text books
academics? I am still puzzled by the availability of such experts in the
hawker business. Would a Mat Salleh help?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Ok, ok, I am kidding. My grandfather must be 150 years if he is still
alive. But hawker business is going to be a new profession for our young
people since they no longer can become IT professionals or other
professionals in Singapore. This is their best hope to earn a decent
living and have a permanent job or profession. Otherwise they would
likely be unemployed or underemployed.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">The caring govt has come forward to give them a helping hand by
initiating such a great course to train them to be hawkers. If not they
would not have a clue how to become a hawker. Singaporeans must be
taught or they would not be able to do anything on their own. This is
like they said, no initiative, cannot think, cannot find out on their
own, a product of Singapore’s tuition culture.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">My grandfather did not need any tuition or training to become a
successful hawker. He would faint if he knows that his class would have
highly educated young people with no ideas about how to be a hawker. He
would like say, seow.</span></span>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-49714335792390460142018-07-19T19:07:00.004-07:002018-07-24T22:39:43.772-07:00A bestest solution to the perceived flaws in our education system <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span class="postbody">I say the flaws are perceived because not everyone will agree that the
education is flaw. If it is, how could Singapore be bragging to the
world that we have one of the best education system in the world with
world class top universities ranking at par with the best in the USA and
UK? If our education is so loathsome, how could our students be tops in
many tests conducted by international agencies, not ranking agencies?
</span></h3>
<div class="post-header">
<span class="postbody"></span></div>
<br />
<span class="postbody">Before anyone could attempt to come out with a solution to the perceived
flawed education system, let’s look at the perceived problems raised as
these would help those who are trying to work out a solution. The
solution must address the perceived flaws or else it would be like
chicken and duck talking.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">From what I could gather, the perceived flaws can be narrowed down to a
few points. 1. The education system is too stressful because of the
great emphasis on test and grades. 2. The children are not happy because
of the stress placed on them because of test and grades. 3. As a result
many could not go to the top schools that they wanted, or the parents
wanted them to be there.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">If only that education could be less stressful, no test, and the
children could end up in the top schools, everyone would be happy, the
children and their parents. See, the solution is surfacing once the
sources or causes of the perceived problems are highlighted.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Here is my brilliant solution
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Actually ACS has in a way solved this problem by having 3 kinds of ACS
schools, ie ACS Independent, ACS International and just ACS Normal or
Ordinary or Traditional. What do all these meant?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Simply it means that all the parents and children would be happy if the
children could be admitted into the tops schools like RI, Hwa Chong,
ACS, Victoria etc etc. And when the children are in these top schools,
how to make them happy, without test and the stigma of poor grades and
still do very well on graduation? This is an idealistic type of
education system that everyone wins, the ministry, teachers, parents and
children will all be very happy, and no stress to worry about. So how
to do it? Generally only a small number of parents and children are
unhappy with the present education system. On one end are the parents
that aspired for their children to be in the tops schools, to get good
grades, without test and be happy children. On the other end there are
parents and children are are realistic and understand the nature of
things and are willing to accept that their children will go to the
appropriate schools according to their performance in schools. This
group is not crying or protesting about the present education system.
Similarly, for parents and children that are doing well academically,
they are also not complaining either but only in praises for the present
system. So, there is only the first group of parents and children that
needs to be appeased with some changes to the perceived flawed education
system. There is no need to shake and rock the whole system just to
cater to this group, maybe 10% or 20% of the cohorts.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Change the names of some schools to RI Special School, Hwa Chong Special
School, ACS, Victoria etc. These special schools would be staffed with
the best teachers money can buy, best to recruit teachers from US or
Europe and pay them the highest salary possible. Not to worry about the
cost of these teachers. The cost can be passed to the parents who can
afford to and want their children to enroll in these bestest special
schools, ie the fees would be high. Good quality schools must have the
right to charge high fees.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">The curriculum of these schools should be very relax to make the
students happy, no pressure, a lot of play, study less, learn more. And
all will graduate with a certificates issued from the respective
schools, with straight As. No need to take PSLE, no need to take O or A
level examinations. Just take inhouse examinations and be awarded with
inhouse certificates from Singapore’s top schools.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">One caveat, there is no guarantee if universities or polytechnics would
accept these certificates, or if employers would want to employ such
happy and stress free graduates. For those who don’t have to work for a
living, this is the best school system for them. Happy happy and no need
to be stressed out, a lot of free time to enjoy life, no homeworks and
guaranteed good grades.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Hope the ministers in education would adopt this novel and marvelous education system of Special Schools.</span>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-52268418844158705642018-07-13T18:14:00.001-07:002018-07-13T18:14:49.077-07:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="https://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/2018/07/dialectics-on-education-idealism-versus.html">Dialectics on Education – idealism versus pragmatism, reality versus aspiration </a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<span class="postbody">Many pages of the media, many efforts and valuable manhours, and many
heads have been put together to untie the Gordian knot of the Singapore
education system. The reason for the change, the wanting to change,
comes not because the education is flaw, foul or ineffective, but
because of stress factor, because of the complaints by parents that
their children are unable to cope. What are the statistics on the
complaints, type of complaints, relevant or irrelevant, real or just
fear, are not given.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">So a massive exercise has been taken, by the people that may not know
much about education, by people that may not know much about what life
and living is all about, by people who knows not but pretending or
thinking they know a lot.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Here are some takeaways from the things said and printed in the media
and the contradictions or fictions that have been generated. The most
important point raised, and out of a sense of wanting to provide a child
with an all round education, to be a knows all of everything but
knowing nothing, is this, to develop a whole child, whatever that means.
And the present wisdom, a future of uncertainties and it is better to
develop a child that can cope with future changes. Let me quote
Indranee, a lawyer, not an educationist, not a parent bringing up
children. “We now put a lot more emphasis on developing the whole child –
not just their academic achievements….The ability to learn, unlearn and
relearn will be the key.” And this motherhood statement, ‘Book
knowledge alone is not enough, and the change caused by technology and
other disruptive factors means that learning, has to continue well into
adult life.’
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">I have several questions. How many children require all round
development? How many children needs to be educated in the arts and
sciences to become a knows all? How useful is a child with a well
rounded education that he can use all these knowledge in his job? How
many children are capable, with the intellect, to acquire a full rounded
education other than being superficial and ended up becoming a good for
nothing? In the real world, when everyone needs to get a job to feed
himself, other than the super rich, is a general all round education
going to be more useful than a specific education with specific skills,
but very narrow in nature?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Why are Singaporeans, especially the PMETs losing out in the job market,
unemployable, because they did not have specific skills needed in the
job market? Why are foreigners, who did not benefit from our super
all round education, coming from very basic education system, are
beating our super talented Singaporeans, with super grades, in the job
market? Why are ministers saying that there is no need for university
education, all one needs is a skill in demand?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Are there contradictions between idealism and reality, between
aspirations and the hard truth in life? While talking about educating
children to become more flexible and adaptable, would these compromise
the children in acquiring specific skills in demand? Funny, if every
child is going to become a superman that can do everything, a wholly
developed person, are they not going to become one stereo typed, wholly
developed person? Assuming of course every child is a genius by nature
and could benefit from such a complex and varied education, and without stress.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">I am not an educationist or expert in education. These are some of my
thoughts as a layman, someone who has no deep knowledge about education
and I do not pretend to know the answers to how a child should be
educated to the best of his ability, his gifted or not gifted talent. A
child is not the same as every other child, each with his own special
talents and non talents. Should it not be to develop a child according
to the best of his natural endowment and according to what society and
the new world expects from him? Not what the parents want them to be?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">It will be a different matter if every child is born a genius and a sports talent and is gifted to do and excel in everything.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">From comments in Parliament and the direction they are pointing it
appears that they are being mislead by a small group of noisy and
vociferous parents dictating how the education should be like for their
not too bright or even dull children to be admitted to the best schools,
play and be happy, without any pressure, no need exams, learn more
study less, and end up with super grades in the end. Such things can
only happen in third world countries and degree mills.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">The children come in all shapes and sizes and not everyone is a perfect
circle. One way to push them through perfect circles is to enlarge the
circles. But they would come out in their original shapes and sizes. The
only method to turn odd shapes into perfect circles, or cast iron into
steel is through the crucible of fire.
<br />
A buffet of schools
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">What Singapore needs is a tough minister to offer to the parents a
buffet of schools, from happy schools to tough competitive schools, to
specialized schools that would turn out children according to the demand
of the schools and their specialization. Play schools would turn out
playboys and playgirls. Rich parents can afford these playboys and
playgirls as they grow up to party their whole lives without worries,
without stress, without having to work for a day.
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Those who want their children to be engineers, scientists, doctors, and
the hard disciplines have no choice but to work for it. There is no
other way to master these tough disciplines except through degree mills
and pariah school systems in third world countries. Is that what we
want?
<br /> </span><br />
<span class="postbody">Stop fooling around with our education system and the lives of our
young. No pain no gain. Oops, maybe we have magicians in Parliament that
could really produce an Einstein who is also a great artist, a great
football player without having to work for it. Just pull him out from
the hat and viola, you have your superman!</span>Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19541396.post-87025923117894632302018-07-01T17:25:00.002-07:002018-07-01T17:25:18.097-07:00Singapore universities - Stop wasting funds and resources on dubious international rankings<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
"SINGAPORE: An international panel of academic experts and industry
leaders has recommended that Singapore should develop a holistic
evaluation framework for its universities instead of being fixated on
international rankings.</h3>
The three-day International Academic
Advisory Panel (IAAP), which started on Wednesday (Jun 27), was
themed The Role of Universities in Defining Singapore’s Future....<br />
<br />
Education Minister Ong Ye Kung, who
attended the discussions, shared with the media on Friday that a new
assessment model was needed, considering the differentiated university
landscape in Singapore.<br />
"At the minimum, it has to reflect our
three major emphases. One, the value of education; two, how we are doing
in terms of lifelong learning; and three, research, and not just
research in terms of publications and patents but how it translates into
impact - whether it's in improving lives or creating jobs.<br />
"I think we need a much more holistic view of a very complex function
that universities are now performing," he said...." Channel News Asia<br />
<br />
After wasting so many years of resources and pubic funds to provide more
jobs for foreigners and university places and scholarships to
foreigners to score in controversial western designed ranking systems,
it is high time that the unthinking be kicked in the butt and think
about the fundamental reasons for university education. Our university
should not, never, be a job provider for foreigners and neither should
it be using public funds to educate other countries' young at the
expense of our very own academics and the children of our citizens.<br />
<br />
The craze for high rankings in dubious international ranking systems at
best is to provide lucrative jobs to foreigners against our national
interests in developing our very own academic talent. We become job
providers for the unemployed academics of other countries. We also
provide university education to foreigners instead of our children. This
is another way of selling out the country to foreigners.<br />
<br />
Just take a look at the universities and see the number of foreign
academics replacing our own academics and the number of foreign students
on paid scholarship, taking the places that should go to our own
children is disgusting. This is a betrayal of our own people. Period.<br />
<br />
So what if you are ranked highly when it does not benefit our own
citizens, when the universities look like some foreign land, invaded,
occupied and colonised by foreigners.Chua Chin Leng aka redbeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11743716923635835397noreply@blogger.com0