EduCation ChanGEs
I'm quited impressed, stunned, excited, and amazed with all the recent announcements by the Education Ministry, and yet at the same time I'm not that surprised because that time when I got a chance to talk to Mr Thanman, he did hinted that a series of sweeping changed will be made in Education and will be announced soon, and boy was he right. It is indeed appropriate and necessary in my opinion that the Ministry has finally started to implement for the majority of students and not just stick with what some people claims to be "elitist" principles.
I'm kind of irate after a heated discussion with my friend over the introduction of through train. He was arguing that through train is elitist (and also implied that I'm elitist), and he argues that it will deprive some people of a second chance to make it to RJC or HCJC since this 2 schools will more or less just accept people from their own affiliated schools. And because of this he claims its unfair as some people from RI and TCHS might not get into their respective affiliated schools if they were to take the O levels. And he doesn't think that the schools will actually dare to kick out students from the through train program. Finally, he argues that to some people going to RJC might be what they have been pinning for all their lives, hence through train is unfair to them by making their paths so much more difficult.
With this argument, I am seriously perturbed!!!! I have faith that all through train schools will all maintain a high performance level from their students, and that it is very likely that students who do not make the grades will be kicked out(he claims that since it is the first year, no one knows, but since GEP does this too, so I know...). What is even more disturbing is that he seems to overlook the point of education which is not to help people to get to RJC (is that the real aim?) but instead it is really more of instilling in people an inquistive mind to learn as well as adapt in the real world of today! Furthermore, through train has added so much more diversity to the system as well as provide more opportunities to a greater group of students, unlike the past when the GEP are the only ones (a pathetically small 1%) to get the kind of specialised training.
We were also talking about education in the Normal Stream and he thinks that the Ministry is not doing enough, and he seems to think that making into the Express stream is all there is in Education. I'm amused cause that day Mr Thanman announced all those sweeping changes. Anyway, the Normal stream aims is not to produce people to go into Express, but to help each and every individual carve their own niche. It is really disappointing to me that people actually sort of condemn Normal Students... I mean, education is certainly not to create a uniform pool of people with the same skills. And uniformity might be fairer (in what sense actually? In fact it can be unfair as it does not caters to people's needs) as all people go through the same system, but the results might not be desirable on the whole.
Of course, this inevitably let me to think about poly students vs. JC students. There is definitely a lot of misunderstanding on both parties as to what we are like, and I do think that when making friends, it is really the individual that matters. I mean, when I first interacted with some people, I found them nice even though they were from schools which I abhor. So I'm trying to say that it is more of some crap group mentality that people tend to create stereotypes, which are not always true. HAha. I'm having a great time interacting with my platoon mates from poly, and I do think that there ain't any barrier between us. Hmm, maybe there is and that is our command of English. Guess that could be because of the fact that we need to write so much more crap that inevitably we expanded our vocab and hence there is some disparity between the jc student and poly student. But their mastery of technical knowledge is truly amazing, and they are seriously not muggers!!! Haha.
Talking about this, I was talking to a friend about the possibility that I might need to go ROC in 06, which is totally horrid as I'm supposed to be clearing!!!!!! Well, its not that he sounded nonchalent or what, but I realised that when you are with a group of people who ORDs at the same time as ya, you don't exactly feel much about ORD dates and stuff. But in a place where ORD dates differs, you can seriously feel the impact and significance that changes to the work plans, changes to your environment and system have on you. And you will then discover that different ORD dates people have such an extremely different attitude. Hmm, I'm not sure if you can understand but trust me, it is something you need to experience to know.
Anyway, with the changes in the education landscape, I'm really keen to know what is install with me. Suddenly, joining MOE seems like a tremendous challenge. But I am still a pragmatic person who will be looking for a high-paying job. Haha. But joining MOE might really change my life. I'm also wondering what exactly is my role in future? Is it really to teach only? Life is indeed begining to look real challenging and interesting....
Got guard duty tomorrow. SUCKS!
P>S> I wanna go singing one of these days.....but don't know when I will ever have the time..........
I'm kind of irate after a heated discussion with my friend over the introduction of through train. He was arguing that through train is elitist (and also implied that I'm elitist), and he argues that it will deprive some people of a second chance to make it to RJC or HCJC since this 2 schools will more or less just accept people from their own affiliated schools. And because of this he claims its unfair as some people from RI and TCHS might not get into their respective affiliated schools if they were to take the O levels. And he doesn't think that the schools will actually dare to kick out students from the through train program. Finally, he argues that to some people going to RJC might be what they have been pinning for all their lives, hence through train is unfair to them by making their paths so much more difficult.
With this argument, I am seriously perturbed!!!! I have faith that all through train schools will all maintain a high performance level from their students, and that it is very likely that students who do not make the grades will be kicked out(he claims that since it is the first year, no one knows, but since GEP does this too, so I know...). What is even more disturbing is that he seems to overlook the point of education which is not to help people to get to RJC (is that the real aim?) but instead it is really more of instilling in people an inquistive mind to learn as well as adapt in the real world of today! Furthermore, through train has added so much more diversity to the system as well as provide more opportunities to a greater group of students, unlike the past when the GEP are the only ones (a pathetically small 1%) to get the kind of specialised training.
We were also talking about education in the Normal Stream and he thinks that the Ministry is not doing enough, and he seems to think that making into the Express stream is all there is in Education. I'm amused cause that day Mr Thanman announced all those sweeping changes. Anyway, the Normal stream aims is not to produce people to go into Express, but to help each and every individual carve their own niche. It is really disappointing to me that people actually sort of condemn Normal Students... I mean, education is certainly not to create a uniform pool of people with the same skills. And uniformity might be fairer (in what sense actually? In fact it can be unfair as it does not caters to people's needs) as all people go through the same system, but the results might not be desirable on the whole.
Of course, this inevitably let me to think about poly students vs. JC students. There is definitely a lot of misunderstanding on both parties as to what we are like, and I do think that when making friends, it is really the individual that matters. I mean, when I first interacted with some people, I found them nice even though they were from schools which I abhor. So I'm trying to say that it is more of some crap group mentality that people tend to create stereotypes, which are not always true. HAha. I'm having a great time interacting with my platoon mates from poly, and I do think that there ain't any barrier between us. Hmm, maybe there is and that is our command of English. Guess that could be because of the fact that we need to write so much more crap that inevitably we expanded our vocab and hence there is some disparity between the jc student and poly student. But their mastery of technical knowledge is truly amazing, and they are seriously not muggers!!! Haha.
Talking about this, I was talking to a friend about the possibility that I might need to go ROC in 06, which is totally horrid as I'm supposed to be clearing!!!!!! Well, its not that he sounded nonchalent or what, but I realised that when you are with a group of people who ORDs at the same time as ya, you don't exactly feel much about ORD dates and stuff. But in a place where ORD dates differs, you can seriously feel the impact and significance that changes to the work plans, changes to your environment and system have on you. And you will then discover that different ORD dates people have such an extremely different attitude. Hmm, I'm not sure if you can understand but trust me, it is something you need to experience to know.
Anyway, with the changes in the education landscape, I'm really keen to know what is install with me. Suddenly, joining MOE seems like a tremendous challenge. But I am still a pragmatic person who will be looking for a high-paying job. Haha. But joining MOE might really change my life. I'm also wondering what exactly is my role in future? Is it really to teach only? Life is indeed begining to look real challenging and interesting....
Got guard duty tomorrow. SUCKS!
P>S> I wanna go singing one of these days.....but don't know when I will ever have the time..........
1 Comments:
At 11:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
well, what is fair? giving everyone the same thing is not necessarily being fair to the students.
-ap
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