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Amelia Tan
News reporter
A different pathway to success
November 12, 2008 Wednesday, 07:55 PM
Amelia Tan is glad that less bright students are getting a second chance.
I'VE ALWAYS counted my blessings for making it through to university. I wondered many times how I would have turned out if I were not suited to Singapore's education system. For the less studious, the pressure cooker is the bane of their lives. I had friends in primary school who struggled mightily to pass their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE). If only there was some way to avoid the plunge in self-confidence and diminishing of self-worth they suffered with each failed test. I am glad that now, less academically inclined students need not experience what my friends did. Assumption Pathway School will take in students aged 13 to 16 who have failed the Primary School Leaving Examination, next January (2009). It aims to give students a foundation in the basics and equip them with technical skills. Importantly, it is a place where students can discover talents beyond school books. Year one student Odilia Seraphina Soh, 14, said she twice failed her PSLE exams. She describes Assumption Pathway as the answer to her troubles. She said, "I tried hard to study but I could not pass Maths. It was so hard. I asked myself what can I do since I'm not good at studying? Now at the school, I learn job skills. I know I have a future and I've found that I am good at cooking." Mr Adam Lua, 40, said it is important that struggling children, like his son Fadrick, have other avenues to discover their talents. "I scolded and hit him when he failed his secondary one exams the first time. I stopped when he failed it the second time. I saw how he had lost his confidence. I think this school can be a place for him to regain his confidence as he finds out that he has other talents." While it is early to gauge the success of Assumption Pathway, its creation is a milestone for Singapore's education system. Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times. Tags: education, singapore 
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So in Singapore, if you don't pass government tests in your 2nd try, you'll be left behind for life?
I mean - yeah, learning how to cook is fun. But how about the opportunity to get a job like everyone else?
No wonder Singapore became the only country in the world where foreign maids are more educated than their employers.
It hurts. So how about educating kids until they learn and past the tests?
Scheduling PSLE exams once a year is elitistic, and failing once or twice is the sure fire way of putting a serious dent in the future of a young man or woman.
Singapore is known for its efficiency. It can ban bubble gum like no other. So I wonder why they can't be flexible enough to conduct PSLE exams more frequently?
I'm sure there is a beaurocratic reason why not to do it frequently, but are we really saying that administration costs is more important than the education of your kids?
Yeah - for those who fail once or twice, just throw them into pseudo-educational institutions where they will be labeled as failures for life. Many will definitely object to the term 'failure', so let me retract that and use the term 'special' as euphism.
But I'm sure too that a large majority acknowledge the stigma associated with studying at a school such as Assumption Pathway.
This system, in my opinion, is cruel.
In most 1st world countries I know, for example, entrance examinations to post elementary or secondary education is done regularly several times a year. With gaps of few months between examination sessions to give more than a 2nd chance to kids to re-study, re-take and prove their worth to society.
For starters, we should perhaps stop labeling these very ordinary kids like us as "less bright" or "less studious". God knows they aren't any "less bright" or "less studious". As a matter of fact, many of them put the "more studious" to shame.
There are many reasons why people do not perform well according to a certain yardstick, and instead of labeling them as deficient, we should first take a good, hard look at our own yardstick/attitudes. There's nothing so "bright" or "studious" about "us" vis-a-vis "them". We just happen to be part of the mainstream who, "very naturally" of course, have gained the power - in part given to us on a silver platter by (these) "others" - to perpetuate the injustice.
Alternatives will always be looked upon, at least at first, by mainstream society with a certain amount of suspicion, and perhaps awe or interest. It speaks more about "us" than about "them".
Dear Amelia Tan, I sympathise and pity our children-pupils from kindergardener 1 up to univertisies because the national education has lost the core purpose and real spirit of educating the citizens to be thinking and innovative thinking people . We sent our children to school to be educated , not tested.
People who share a sense of purpose and community can help one another get wgere they are going more easily because they are travelling on the trust of one another.
Our citizens-choldren should be educated on core values :-
integrity, value adding to other communities worldwide, courage, committment, and compassion for humanity. Outstanding performance results from quality humane honking! Just like the migrating wild geese flying in V formation taking advantage of the lift created synegistically, HONK! HONK! Keep inspiring us with your heartfelt blogging , Amelia Tan, thanks.
Fly on Dear Amelia Tan with \Hhealthy Wealth @
http://theinnozablog.blogspot.com