Monday, June 30, 2008
The world is boring and entertaining at the same time.
I see little sense in many IP school systems in Singapore.
You bombard students with projects (mostly meaningless and unhelpful) and make them reflect via 300-word essays. Enlightening.
Then you make every single assignment influence your final score at the end of the term, so every worksheet they hand in has about the same weightage as a quiz or test. ("Every day! Whee!")
Then you let them stay in school for more hours than they do at home. Plus transport hours? One day has 24 hours. School starts at about 7.30am for Tuesdays to Fridays. Many students stay in school till 6 or 6.30pm every day. That's about 11 hours. Plus an average of 2 hours of transport (to and fro, considering traffic jams) it's 13 hours. Let's say they're HEALTHY and sleep 8 hours.
24 - 13 - 8 = 3.
They have 3 hours to shower, have dinner, spend time with their family, do homework and complete projects. Every day.
Finally, you "enrich" your students with enrichment lessons which benefit about 2% of the entire cohort. Yes, extra knowledge is always good. The world is competitive! Students simply cannot afford to have good lives! Prepare them for the harsh, cruel word of the work force! (Also, source-based questions are extremely helpful to everyone.)
Stir together and voila! You have yourself an IP student. (Almost reminiscent of Chemical X and the Powerpuff Girls, no?)
I can pretty much predict the response of those who disagree.
"No! It trains/nurtures us! It puts us at a higher level!"
"I feel more relaxed because there are no exams, and I am graded based on my performance throughout the whole year."
Guess what, latter-response? Ever wondered why COMMON/BLOCK TESTS are so coincidentally placed at the end of each term? Hmmmmmmm, I wonder...
ALSO coincidentally, students from other countries lead a much happier school life and make it to Harvard/Cambridge/Oxford/John Hopkins/NUS/insert-prestigious-university-here anyway. Hmm. Hmmmmm.
"Migration rates go up in Singapore." Hmmmmm.
You bombard students with projects (mostly meaningless and unhelpful) and make them reflect via 300-word essays. Enlightening.
Then you make every single assignment influence your final score at the end of the term, so every worksheet they hand in has about the same weightage as a quiz or test. ("Every day! Whee!")
Then you let them stay in school for more hours than they do at home. Plus transport hours? One day has 24 hours. School starts at about 7.30am for Tuesdays to Fridays. Many students stay in school till 6 or 6.30pm every day. That's about 11 hours. Plus an average of 2 hours of transport (to and fro, considering traffic jams) it's 13 hours. Let's say they're HEALTHY and sleep 8 hours.
24 - 13 - 8 = 3.
They have 3 hours to shower, have dinner, spend time with their family, do homework and complete projects. Every day.
Finally, you "enrich" your students with enrichment lessons which benefit about 2% of the entire cohort. Yes, extra knowledge is always good. The world is competitive! Students simply cannot afford to have good lives! Prepare them for the harsh, cruel word of the work force! (Also, source-based questions are extremely helpful to everyone.)
Stir together and voila! You have yourself an IP student. (Almost reminiscent of Chemical X and the Powerpuff Girls, no?)
I can pretty much predict the response of those who disagree.
"No! It trains/nurtures us! It puts us at a higher level!"
"I feel more relaxed because there are no exams, and I am graded based on my performance throughout the whole year."
Guess what, latter-response? Ever wondered why COMMON/BLOCK TESTS are so coincidentally placed at the end of each term? Hmmmmmmm, I wonder...
ALSO coincidentally, students from other countries lead a much happier school life and make it to Harvard/Cambridge/Oxford/John Hopkins/NUS/insert-prestigious-university-here anyway. Hmm. Hmmmmm.
"Migration rates go up in Singapore." Hmmmmm.
# posted at 12:29 AM
