Basket.

Annual PSLE Post

Yes, it's that time of year again, and my august countrymen have not failed me. In fact, this year they've gone one better. You'll see.

It's a slightly different story this time, or so I interpreted it. No one explicitly said the paper was too hard; the complaints this time was about teachers only focusing on Sections A and B, and not C, of the Maths paper. As such, some parents felt that their children had been disadvantaged. They were also really concerned that their children had failed their preliminary examinations really badly.

The first query I have is, of course, why did you only begin panicking when your child failed his prelims? It's not like this is the only exam all year. One does not pass all year and then simply fail dismally overnight. There must have been warning signs. Apparently, you ignored them and then decided to blame the teacher, instead of yourself for, oh, I don't know, not being concerned about your child's education until it was far too fucking late?

But let's leave that aside first and consider how the school replied.

"Section C is an extension of both sections A and B. The first two sections will help weaker students apply the basic skills when tackling the more challenging sums in section C."

I think this is perfectly reasonable. What too many parents cannot understand is that learning is a step-by-step process, particularly if the student has no aptitude for the subject. You build from the basics up. You can't just zoom right to the hardest parts, drill students over and over in those parts and voila, come up with good results. Education is not magic, and teachers are not wizards. If your kid can't even do well in sections A and B of the PSLE (multiple choice and short answer questions, respectively), you cannot expect him to do well in problem sums. If he can't handle short answer questions, of course he will be "intimidated" (quote) by problem sums.

And if the kid could not handle multiple choice and short answer questions at the eleventh hour, the question arises again: what the fuck was he doing all year?

Or maybe: what the fuck were you doing all year?

A child's education is as much the responsibility of his parents as it is of his teachers, especially at the young age of twelve. If they want their children to do well, parents have to play their part; pay attention to their own children's education, make sure they do their homework, things like that. This is, of course, a long-term process. You don't just start becoming concerned with your child's grades after his prelims. That's ridiculously late - and then when you child can't perform well you look for someone else to blame beside your own shitty parenting. Teachers are, unfortunately, the most convenient scapegoat by some distance.

That isn't to say there aren't poor teachers around. I've been taught by plenty, personally. I don't rule out the possibility that this teacher wasn't too good. But I see it as unlikely, given Singaporean parents' track record of senseless complaints and the fact that the teacher had organised a considerable number of last-ditch revision lessons just before the PSLE paper itself. I take this as a sign of dedication. I also fully support what the teacher did: concentrating on the basic sections, and the fact that these parents only seemed to become concerned at the very last minute is proof to me that they were doing fuck-all the whole year round while their kids were getting crap grades.

When one is getting 40% or so for prelims, it's a pretty desperate situation. I know what the teacher was doing: he/she was simply trying to rescue as many marks as possible for the kid, because sections A and B are easier to score in. For this, the teacher gets unfairly blamed. It's really a thankless job. I'm glad the school is backing their teachers, at least publicly.

Ok, so that's not quite out of the ordinary. So how have they gone one better this time? Well, some parents have suggested that they have a right to dictate what is taught in the classroom.

That is the most completely, patently ridiculous thing I've ever heard, and I can assure you that in 21 years on this island of broken systems, I've heard plenty many ridiculous things.

Why do people here not seem to think before they speak? Let us consider what is being suggested here: untrained, blinkered, overly-demanding, sanctimonious folk without formal training in the field of education wish to tell professionals how to do their jobs. Let us then apply it to any other profession - as such, I can tommorrow walk right into this 48-year-old real estate agent's office (one of those who expressed the above opinion) and imperiously dictate to him which properties to purchase and sell. Because I know just about as much about real estate as he does about teaching - ie, nothing. Would he like that? Is he going to pay me any attention? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he isn't. And nor should teachers pay any attention when he tries to tell them what to teach his child.

When a child does not do well in school, it is always a cause for concern. But this should not lead to kneejerk reactions. There could be any number of reasons why a student is not doing well. Stress, personal problems, phobia(s)... it's quite a comprehensive list. It isn't always such a black-and-white situation - do this and the problem is solved. Blame the teacher, get him fired. No.

Additionally, children themselves must be willing to be educated, and parents must play their role in ensuring this. It's very difficult for a teacher to force a kid to learn. Parents have to look out for their own children, not hold wholly unrealistic expectations of educators and then blame them when their offspring suffer failures. Of course parenting is difficult, but that's the way it is. No one held a gun to your head and force you to have that kid. Even if someone did, your child's teachers have nothing to do with that.

In the same paper today, Santokh Singh proceeded to comment on how Singaporean parents and children must learn to cope with examinations, particularly the former. It was a good article and it made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, things that make a lot of sense are routinely ignored here.

So, parents, please be responsible for your kids. Don't expect someone else to do it for you.