Education Experience
The past few days have been an interesting ‘education’ experience for me. Pardon me for the pun, but I really learnt a lot about the current education system in Singapore.
I went back to Dunman on Thursday, and I was shocked with the fact that I actually saw Lower Secondary students playing soccer during recess in school uniform. Or rather, I was really stunned to see GIRLS playing soccer in skirts! The best part is the girls seem to be rather good at soccer, even tackling the boys. Waaah, I was really impressed with how the school has changed (seriously, basketball was more prevalent during my time) and how the discipline level seems to have changed too (Mr Kiw used to have a good time catching students in uniform playing basketball).
The security at the gate was expected, but it was much more smooth sailing than previous times when they even questioned the purpose and even wanted the teacher to escort us. Well, found Mrs Shu with ease (she’s now HOD of GEP!), and we had a good chat with her. OH, I discovered that the current sec 1 intake has like only 25% boys (really little emperors!), and that the GEP intake is 7. All these thanks to the through train system that’s the current craze. Met Mrs Lim too (she’s back from maternity leave), as well as talked to Mr Ng. Hmm, chatting with the teachers do make me feel young again (ha, they felt old!), and it was interesting to hear about Dunman’s future plans (like a new 6-storey building on the present grounds), as well as how the education system has evolved from my era. Looks like when I come back from studies, I will need quite some time to adapt.
I hopped over to Nanyang Poly today to meet Kenny they all for lunch. That place was packed today as they were having an open house, so we had a difficult time trying to find seats to eat. After lunch, I joined them for their course and I was almost bored to sleep. Ok, actually I consider myself amazing for not sleeping, as others like Warrant Loke (my SI course commander) and quite a few of the course participants were all dozing and doodling. Hmm, seriously speaking, I was thankful that I never took up computer engineering or anything along those lines for those technical details almost bored me to death. But then, I was also having ideas of whether I could survive university with all the long lectures and technical terms. Seriously, I’m thankful that I’m going Cambridge, cause at least the tutorials there are more interactive (hopefully). Anyway, I ended up spending most of my time observing how the lecturer conducted his lesson, and I was picking up pointers and making mental notes not to commit some mistakes of his in future.
Well, I heard there was going to be a test so I disappeared right after tea break. Ha, I started exploring the school and I truly felt young again. It was really both demoralizing and happy that people actually asked me whether I’m now waiting for my O’levels results. At least it means I look young! Oooh, I ended up entertaining the students (and telling a lot of lies too), as well as hopping about collecting free gifts. Quite interesting I must say, and I was impressed with their DOTA facilities. Come to think of it, does VJ’s Defense Science Club have DOTA now? Oh, I also had a good time entertaining the air force personnel (their collar pin was nice and I wanted it!), but sadly, I never said the magical 3 letters in their face just before leaving. Imagine if they heard about it! Ha. Well, I don’t know whether the NYP students had a good time ‘fooling’ me, but looks like I played the bigger joke on them. Haha.
I was really impressed with the courses that the Polytechnics now offer. Resort management, facility management are some courses which are indeed special and did caught my eye. On top of that, I was amazed at some of the projects done by the students. Certainly, they are highly impressive and worthy to be patented. Comparing Polytechnics and junior colleges, I must say the poly life is much more vibrant, relax and free, and they offer plenty of hands-on opportunities for students to explore with new things. On the other hand, junior colleges are much more constrained, and it is really more of mugging.
Hmm, I should be going back to college on Monday (depends on MOE’s letter!), but it seems to me that maybe then I shall check out to see what the present college life has to offer. For all I know, it might be less books and theories and instead more experience and real-life? Ha, indeed it has been a good exploration of the current education system in Singapore now.
I went back to Dunman on Thursday, and I was shocked with the fact that I actually saw Lower Secondary students playing soccer during recess in school uniform. Or rather, I was really stunned to see GIRLS playing soccer in skirts! The best part is the girls seem to be rather good at soccer, even tackling the boys. Waaah, I was really impressed with how the school has changed (seriously, basketball was more prevalent during my time) and how the discipline level seems to have changed too (Mr Kiw used to have a good time catching students in uniform playing basketball).
The security at the gate was expected, but it was much more smooth sailing than previous times when they even questioned the purpose and even wanted the teacher to escort us. Well, found Mrs Shu with ease (she’s now HOD of GEP!), and we had a good chat with her. OH, I discovered that the current sec 1 intake has like only 25% boys (really little emperors!), and that the GEP intake is 7. All these thanks to the through train system that’s the current craze. Met Mrs Lim too (she’s back from maternity leave), as well as talked to Mr Ng. Hmm, chatting with the teachers do make me feel young again (ha, they felt old!), and it was interesting to hear about Dunman’s future plans (like a new 6-storey building on the present grounds), as well as how the education system has evolved from my era. Looks like when I come back from studies, I will need quite some time to adapt.
I hopped over to Nanyang Poly today to meet Kenny they all for lunch. That place was packed today as they were having an open house, so we had a difficult time trying to find seats to eat. After lunch, I joined them for their course and I was almost bored to sleep. Ok, actually I consider myself amazing for not sleeping, as others like Warrant Loke (my SI course commander) and quite a few of the course participants were all dozing and doodling. Hmm, seriously speaking, I was thankful that I never took up computer engineering or anything along those lines for those technical details almost bored me to death. But then, I was also having ideas of whether I could survive university with all the long lectures and technical terms. Seriously, I’m thankful that I’m going Cambridge, cause at least the tutorials there are more interactive (hopefully). Anyway, I ended up spending most of my time observing how the lecturer conducted his lesson, and I was picking up pointers and making mental notes not to commit some mistakes of his in future.
Well, I heard there was going to be a test so I disappeared right after tea break. Ha, I started exploring the school and I truly felt young again. It was really both demoralizing and happy that people actually asked me whether I’m now waiting for my O’levels results. At least it means I look young! Oooh, I ended up entertaining the students (and telling a lot of lies too), as well as hopping about collecting free gifts. Quite interesting I must say, and I was impressed with their DOTA facilities. Come to think of it, does VJ’s Defense Science Club have DOTA now? Oh, I also had a good time entertaining the air force personnel (their collar pin was nice and I wanted it!), but sadly, I never said the magical 3 letters in their face just before leaving. Imagine if they heard about it! Ha. Well, I don’t know whether the NYP students had a good time ‘fooling’ me, but looks like I played the bigger joke on them. Haha.
I was really impressed with the courses that the Polytechnics now offer. Resort management, facility management are some courses which are indeed special and did caught my eye. On top of that, I was amazed at some of the projects done by the students. Certainly, they are highly impressive and worthy to be patented. Comparing Polytechnics and junior colleges, I must say the poly life is much more vibrant, relax and free, and they offer plenty of hands-on opportunities for students to explore with new things. On the other hand, junior colleges are much more constrained, and it is really more of mugging.
Hmm, I should be going back to college on Monday (depends on MOE’s letter!), but it seems to me that maybe then I shall check out to see what the present college life has to offer. For all I know, it might be less books and theories and instead more experience and real-life? Ha, indeed it has been a good exploration of the current education system in Singapore now.
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