Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Nadya's take on - the local education system
So I read this article an expat mom living in Singapore wrote in Weekend Today about the local education system - how it's rigid and inflexible and such (you know, the usual criticism)-and why she chose to take her kids out of it. And I was thinking today while waiting for the bus that hey yeah, The System (which will henceforth be referred to as TS) is pretty anal and full of flaws. I base this brilliant conclusion upon not only previous criticism and said expat mom's encounters, but also on personal experience, having just celebrated my 10th anniversary under the reign of TS. *throws confetti*
It's gotten a lot better since my initial years. As a innocent child of merely 7, I was subject to the anal system though its equally anal and blind followers also known as the school administration. The short, stout and scary then-Vice Principal of my primary school was one such Death Eater. He was a nice guy, I suppose, but a blind follower of the Dark Lord nonetheless.
Every once in a while, he would come to my class and call me out. Bear in mind that this in itself is a pretty scary experience - being called out in front of 39 other little kids who're similarly thinking what you did wrong, and consequently having to actually talk to a scary old man whose face reminds me of a spirit from Spirited Away. He would ask me why I was taking Malay as my Mother Tongue when I was officially recognised as Indian on my birth certificate, and that I should be taking Tamil instead. What was a 7-year-old little girl supposed to say to that? I just stared at my shoes, of course and later whined to my parents about it. Once, I tried to explain to him, repeating explanations my parents had told me (and had already told the admin previously, I'll bet) but he just replied defensively with an accusatory note in his voice - you know that tone teachers adopt when they just know they're always right and you don't have a chance no matter how logical your explanation is? The point here is that administrators carry out rules and structures to a fault without thinking about why they were put there in the first place. The whole point of the bilingual policy was to keep rooted to our cultural affiliations while being equipped to face the modern world. And though I'm Indian on my IC, I follow Malay adab or customs and rules (even though I claim otherwise, heh.) And hello, do I look Indian to you? Another idiot was the whit of a Principal. Back then, Muslim girls weren't allowed to wear track pants for PE like they are now. I remember the fierce female PE teacher (who, upon hindsight, looks suspiciously like a dyke) frowning at me in disdain everytime I went to PE in my longer pants. Part of the change, at least in my school, was thanks to my parents fighting for me not to wear shorts. Before you ask why other Muslim girls don't wear track pants, I'll explain that my family members and I are actually practising Muslims, so the idea of wearing shorts that exposed 80% of your legs was morally corrupt beyond words - it was already bad enough that I don't wear a tudung to school.
My parents fought long and hard, arranging numerous meetings with the Principal who kept on repeating how important shorts were to the teaching and administering of Physical Education lessons (are they really?). Each time their opinion of his professionalism and reception to change decreased. The inane man soon got transferred to a far flung primary school in the West, where good schools are frankly just hard to find. I sidetrack for a moment to say that the same is true for the North as well. All- well, most of- the better schools are either in the East or centrally-located. The brighter children of those who choose to (or had to due to a myriad of reasons like HDB quotas) live in places like Sembawang or Woodlands just have to make do with mediocrity or travel across the island to get to school. [I sidetrack again in my sidetrack to wonder why schools spend so much money on stupid things like about 100 000 colour banners declaring acheivements of the school. I am told that it is to use up existing funds so that more funds can be channelled into the school coffers.
Shouldn't it go to raising the standard of education in the school itself, since many of the schools who do this are neighbourhood schools?] I return to my point. What was it again? Oh yeah, that principal was a twit, and typical of the education system - rigid and unwilling to accept change no matter how good or sorely needed it may be.
In more recent developments, I've had the privilege of having an insider's take on the educational experiment that would valiantly attempt to break away from our Rigid System known inventively as the Integrated Programme (IP). While there have been attempts to have more independent learning and exploration, the fixation on grades is still apparent given that we still take the same papers, including, of course, the A levels eventually. As such, IP still prepares students for a paper instead of fully preparing them for life, which is, after all, the reason why we have education in the first place. So much of the paper chase we undertake as part of our education, while it builds character, never adequately equips us with either the social or interpersonal skills or the street smarts that are so essential in Real Life.
The breeding of elitism is, of course, another classic argument against TS. It stems primarily from the overemphasis on classifications and streams. The truth is that those from the higher achelons of the nationwide cohort (i.e. those who go from EM1 to Special stream to a top JC) are mostly really sheltered. Because most of us have supportive families and enjoy stability, we are unable to empathise with those not as fortunate whose grades, and indeed lives, suffer as a result. Instead, we blame them for being stupid, lazy etc. We mingle with the same people, and many find it hard to mix with those from so-called "lower" classes. My friend Ruffy* once mentioned that when she chose to mix with the Normal students in her secondary school, her fellow Special stream-ers were appalled, wondering how she could possibly bring herself to even go near the vermin. Apparently, being friends with Express stream-ers was fine, but Normal was just too low. It all sounds a little too Brave New World-ish, doesn't it? But elitism is rampant in Singapore. I see it amongst my friends, some of whom are really extreme elitists, snobs to a fault. I see it in myself, everytime I instinctively think ill of someone who dons the uniform of a neighbourhood school. I guess all of us suffer from superiority complexes as human beings - we all want to bask in the knowledge that there is someone inferior to you.
(Why is this here, you may ask? Well, just because. It's preeetty.)
Oh yes, and here's a laugh to end off on a light note. "We have a strong education system. Singapore students aim high and they achieve very good results. This is recognised around the world. We have good schools, with capable school leaders and teachers, and facilities that are amongst the best in the world." Ah, yes, a delusional government that chooses to ignore the fact that their system drives unfortunate kids who can't make the grade to commit suicide every year, decides the life path of a child at the age of 10 with streaming and only have 'facilities that are amongst the best in the world' in select schools (usually all-Chinese SAP schools, mainly so that minorities don't have as good a chance at better standards of education of course), I love it.