Parents of some children in a well-known primary school have complained about the selection process for Higher Chinese, which starts from the get-go in Primary 1.
St Hilda's Primary pupils are routed into Higher Chinese classes in Primary 2 based on continual assessment test results in Primary 1.
What upset parents was that pupils who scored as high as 97 marks out of 100 in Chinese last year failed to make the cut.
A father, whose child was keen on taking up Higher Chinese, was told that even though his boy had scored 97 marks, he did not fall into the top 25 per cent of the cohort for the subject and hence did not qualify.
The school's Chinese department head said a number of students in Primary 1 scored 97 marks.
The upset parents, who asked not to be named, said that although they were told of the selection process in Primary 1, they did not expect the bar to be set so high.
The mother of another student who missed out said she was disappointed that the school would not take the pupil's interest into account.
"My child is interested in Chinese, that is why I was disappointed that despite her doing well, she was not selected," she said.
"(The Education Ministry) urging young people to follow their interests and aspirations just sounds hollow."
The father of the first student felt such practices run counter to policymakers urging parents to stop chasing that last mark.
"The ministers had been talking about how we need to move away from differentiating students more finely than necessary," he said.
"Changes are being made to the PSLE so that students focus on their own learning and not on competing with their peers. Surely such practices go against this thinking?"
He said that it would be better for schools to allow all children to take Higher Chinese from Primary 1, as is the practice in the 15 Special Assistance Plan (SAP) primary schools.
At all SAP primary schools, children take Higher Chinese from Primary 1. At the end of Primary 4, those who do well are encouraged to continue.
Another parent with a Primary 1 child at St Hilda's Primary said he was worried for his daughter, who wants to take Higher Chinese.
"How can 97 marks be not good enough?" he said.
"These are the kinds of practices that push parents to send their kids for high-end tuition that costs $1,000 a month."
St Hilda's Primary principal Kew Mee Ying told The Straits Times that the school introduced Higher Chinese at Primary 2 in 2014.
She said it continually reviews pupils to ensure they learn at a suitable pace and added that pupils have opportunities to take Higher Chinese beyond Primary 2 if they show the ability. Pupils who wish to opt out can also do so.
MOE said most schools offer Higher Chinese from Primary 5.
But as some pupils can go beyond the standard Chinese Language curriculum, and since the Higher Chinese curriculum is available to SAP primary schools, schools could offer it to stronger pupils. A pupil not offered Higher Chinese in lower primary can still take it later.
MOE said it was up to schools to decide on selection criteria: "There is flexibility... for a child to take up or drop Higher Chinese Language at different levels.
"Such differentiation in curriculum allows schools to more effectively engage students with varying language abilities."
It's ridiculous and outrageous that many such straight As JC students are able to get into SMC recognized Medical schools in more prestigious Universities in UK, USA, Australia, etc, after being rejected by NUS and NTU, simply because of lack of available places.
Every year, many loving parents sell their HDBs and get into serious debt, just to support their son or daughter's medical doctor ambitions and send them to overseas Medical schools, after being rejected by NUS and NTU, despite getting straight As.
At the same time, Singapore is being flooded by medical doctors from overseas (coz the Govt says Sg not enough doctors, so must import more foreign doctors), whose Medical schools are of lower admission standards than NUS and NTU, simply because of the larger number of available places in these foreign Unis.
This is unfair to Singapore JC students, whose scores indicate they're actually more qualified to study Medicine, than the many foreign medical doctors imported into Singapore every year.
NUS and NTU should continue to increase their Medical school intake every year, to be fair to Singapore JC students, and to meet the increasing demand for medical doctors for Singapore's aging population.
The thing is, it is only at primary 1. Do you think the majority of cohort will score more than 97 at pre-university level? I highly doubt that can happen, and it isnt happening in even the most prestigious JC in Singapore.
I once scored 100 marks for A-math in secondary school. Not because I was very smart, but because the paper was extremely easy. It is the school's fault that so many people can score more than 97 marks. The school should have set a much tougher paper to avoid grade inflation. It really boils down to supply/demand to explain why your kids dont qualify after scoring 97.
You heard of bell-curve and t-score? If your understand these concept, didn't be surpised why getting almost full marks might not worth the effort, especially if you are in the class where majority are average learners (or spend time wisely on handphone one) and there are only a few distinguished students!
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