back to camp.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
after a good one week break, it's back to camp. i've done everything that i wanted to do (except for reading), and sorted out my thoughts. of course there are certain things which i probably won't figure out till i grow much older...but still, it's better than nothing.i hope next week will be a good one...it's office politics at it's max. it's not that i'm involved in it, but i guess i will suffer the repurcussions.
whatever it is, i'm only nsf. all these shouldn't concern me.
Singapore's Bilingual Policy - a success?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
PM Lee announced yesterday that there will not be a cut in the weightage of mother tongue in PSLE. However, he indicated that there will be a change in teaching methods and the format of examinations.
I am glad that MOE has decided against any tweak in their policy. For one, any decrease in weightage of mother tongue in the PSLE, whether or not with good intentions, will send out a wrong message, leading to an impact that may be irreversible.
The recent comments by Minister of Education Dr Ng Eng Hen sparked a heated debate among various groups, with a fine divide between the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking families. Another group worth taking note of consists of foreigners or Eurasians who have picked up Chinese as their mother tongue for numerous reasons. I think this debate is a good reflection upon ourselves - the divide that has and will always exist between the English and Chinese speaking families, the purpose of learning mother tongue, and most importantly the purpose of education.
Many years ago, when the Singapore government decided to use English as the main medium for communication and teaching, the Chinese speaking, who were the majority, suffered. The switch was a painful one for the Chinese speaking, failures were aplenty but they dealt with it and they moved on. Today, the number of English speaking families has increased significantly. With the rise of China, many deem the learning of the Chinese language as important, if not necessary. This time round it is the English speaking who suffer; they have not been exposed to the language before, and so learning it from scratch in school is a difficult process. Being the educated and vocal lot, they have made feedback through various channels. The MOE, seeing their point, has made several changes to the teaching of mother tongue, which included the introduction of MTL B. With the comments by Dr Ng, some of them even suggested that the weightage of MTL be cut in PSLE, giving the below arguments: many of those who do well in other subjects but don't do well in MTL (Chinese especially) end up in the normal stream and eventually lose their place in local universities. Those who are able to afford will study overseas, which results in a loss in talent and most choose not to come back; those who are unable to afford will just have to make do with ITE, which is, in their opinion, a talent wasted.
I hope the above summary is not overly biased. I come from a Chinese speaking family, but with the correct exposure and learning attitude, I have done relatively well in my English papers ( As for PSLE and O Levels, B for GP). Is English easier to master than Chinese? Not necessarily so. What frustrates me is the constant use of excuses to 'explain' the children's inability to do well in Chinese during PSLE. The parents claim that Chinese is a difficult subject, with alot of memory work. The constant tuition, spelling and dictation has caused the children to dislike or even hate Chinese, and so they fail to perform. Then, may I ask these parents, are subjects like science and math not difficult to learn? Were these problems not faced by the Chinese speaking back then when the switch to English as the medium for teaching was implemented?
The answer to these questions is simple. In the past, education was a privilege. Today, it is a given. Children nowadays are spoilt. They do not understand fully that it does not take only luck or talent to do well in examinations (or even success); hard work is needed too. When they face adversitites or difficulties in learning, they complain. And parents, being overprotective, will voice their opinions to a higher authority, calling for change. For it is in their belief that no matter how fast China rises, Chinese is not as important as the other subjects like science and math, and so less time should be spent on it. And we end up where we are today.
Indeed, as MM Lee has admitted, our bilingual policy is not perfect. However, it does give the racial groups a sense of importance and belonging in the country, that their language is still being recognized by the country. To say that learning Chinese will be useful to our children as they can better communicate with their counterparts from China is superficial, for how many will really do business with the Chinese? To say that learning Chinese (or MTL) will allow us to better appreciate our own culture is perhaps too complex for practical Singaporeans to understand. However, what the learning of Chinese, or MTL for that matter, could really do, is to act as a stepping platform for those from the middle or lower income groups (they are majority Chinese speaking) who do well in MTL but not as well in the other subjects to enter good secondary schools and unleash their potential. Yes, talent is lost because of some who don't do well in Chinese, but we must not forget the talent that is 'found' because of some who have both good Chinese foundations budding potentials.
At the end of the day, I think it still boils down to the purpose of education in Singapore. Singaporeans are a practical lot; the education system has evolved to one that is more concerned with clearing objectives than about learning per se. We only value subjects that are important and neglect those which are not. While our fellow friends in Taiwan are learning about their own culture and other interesting facts about life, we are more concerned with clearing examinations and the PSLE. Someone once said, education is that remains after one has forgotten everything one learned in school. So what has education in Singapore achieved, apart from paper qualifications?
I am glad that MOE has decided against any tweak in their policy. For one, any decrease in weightage of mother tongue in the PSLE, whether or not with good intentions, will send out a wrong message, leading to an impact that may be irreversible.
The recent comments by Minister of Education Dr Ng Eng Hen sparked a heated debate among various groups, with a fine divide between the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking families. Another group worth taking note of consists of foreigners or Eurasians who have picked up Chinese as their mother tongue for numerous reasons. I think this debate is a good reflection upon ourselves - the divide that has and will always exist between the English and Chinese speaking families, the purpose of learning mother tongue, and most importantly the purpose of education.
Many years ago, when the Singapore government decided to use English as the main medium for communication and teaching, the Chinese speaking, who were the majority, suffered. The switch was a painful one for the Chinese speaking, failures were aplenty but they dealt with it and they moved on. Today, the number of English speaking families has increased significantly. With the rise of China, many deem the learning of the Chinese language as important, if not necessary. This time round it is the English speaking who suffer; they have not been exposed to the language before, and so learning it from scratch in school is a difficult process. Being the educated and vocal lot, they have made feedback through various channels. The MOE, seeing their point, has made several changes to the teaching of mother tongue, which included the introduction of MTL B. With the comments by Dr Ng, some of them even suggested that the weightage of MTL be cut in PSLE, giving the below arguments: many of those who do well in other subjects but don't do well in MTL (Chinese especially) end up in the normal stream and eventually lose their place in local universities. Those who are able to afford will study overseas, which results in a loss in talent and most choose not to come back; those who are unable to afford will just have to make do with ITE, which is, in their opinion, a talent wasted.
I hope the above summary is not overly biased. I come from a Chinese speaking family, but with the correct exposure and learning attitude, I have done relatively well in my English papers ( As for PSLE and O Levels, B for GP). Is English easier to master than Chinese? Not necessarily so. What frustrates me is the constant use of excuses to 'explain' the children's inability to do well in Chinese during PSLE. The parents claim that Chinese is a difficult subject, with alot of memory work. The constant tuition, spelling and dictation has caused the children to dislike or even hate Chinese, and so they fail to perform. Then, may I ask these parents, are subjects like science and math not difficult to learn? Were these problems not faced by the Chinese speaking back then when the switch to English as the medium for teaching was implemented?
The answer to these questions is simple. In the past, education was a privilege. Today, it is a given. Children nowadays are spoilt. They do not understand fully that it does not take only luck or talent to do well in examinations (or even success); hard work is needed too. When they face adversitites or difficulties in learning, they complain. And parents, being overprotective, will voice their opinions to a higher authority, calling for change. For it is in their belief that no matter how fast China rises, Chinese is not as important as the other subjects like science and math, and so less time should be spent on it. And we end up where we are today.
Indeed, as MM Lee has admitted, our bilingual policy is not perfect. However, it does give the racial groups a sense of importance and belonging in the country, that their language is still being recognized by the country. To say that learning Chinese will be useful to our children as they can better communicate with their counterparts from China is superficial, for how many will really do business with the Chinese? To say that learning Chinese (or MTL) will allow us to better appreciate our own culture is perhaps too complex for practical Singaporeans to understand. However, what the learning of Chinese, or MTL for that matter, could really do, is to act as a stepping platform for those from the middle or lower income groups (they are majority Chinese speaking) who do well in MTL but not as well in the other subjects to enter good secondary schools and unleash their potential. Yes, talent is lost because of some who don't do well in Chinese, but we must not forget the talent that is 'found' because of some who have both good Chinese foundations budding potentials.
At the end of the day, I think it still boils down to the purpose of education in Singapore. Singaporeans are a practical lot; the education system has evolved to one that is more concerned with clearing objectives than about learning per se. We only value subjects that are important and neglect those which are not. While our fellow friends in Taiwan are learning about their own culture and other interesting facts about life, we are more concerned with clearing examinations and the PSLE. Someone once said, education is that remains after one has forgotten everything one learned in school. So what has education in Singapore achieved, apart from paper qualifications?
lost.
Monday, May 10, 2010
i realised i haven't updated for quite some time. the past few weeks have been quite rushed, i was basically doing whatever that came along. i had no game plan, no focus, no nothing. i ended up splashing into puddle after puddle...with nothing achieved.
i specially chose to extract my wisdom tooth on sunday, so that i had the entire week to myself. i felt the need to take a step back, and think carefully about the things i want to do and achieve in the short term.
i specially chose to extract my wisdom tooth on sunday, so that i had the entire week to myself. i felt the need to take a step back, and think carefully about the things i want to do and achieve in the short term.
a post from a blog i frequent caught me thinking. i read quite a fair bit, i understand about 70-80 percent of the author's arguments, and i think through the arguments. however, i am guilty of not mulling through the points enough; more often that not i read the book too quickly to fully comprehend the message behind the book.
i guess that has to change. To any piece of work, a lack of understanding is a failure to appreciate the author's efforts. To misunderstand a work's intention without putting thought into it could be well termed as an insult. Before i start to stock up on books again, i guess i need to re-read some of them to gain deeper understanding of them. and this will serve as a timely reminder to not be led around by opinions, but to form a point of view on whatever issues that one may come across.
to extend this further, such a concept doesn't only apply only to appreciation of other's works. without a point of view, you won't know where you are going, and without knowing where you are going, you will just lose your way and not achieve anything. which was what happened to me.
moving on, to be safe, i've come up with a to-do list for this week.
1) think through my friend's advice, and decide on my next course of action
2) a post on reducing the weightage of mother tongue in PSLE
3) read
4) watch a movie
5) pack up my room
6) design my future room
6) relax and chill!