To Stream Or Not To Stream - there is no more question
My goodness!
I joked once to a friend when it happened the first time. I said, "You know the sky just fell today?" She knew I was withholding something and did not want to give me the pleasure of driving home my point. She did not offer me a lead in so I did not have the thrill of making my point. What I wanted to say to was "Hello! The Minister of Education just decided that you can still get to the University without Chinese!"
If you don't already know what I mean, grab hold of a senior who knows and find out or go into the MOE website and find out yourself. After you have found out, say a silent prayer for every schoolmate of yours that might have migrated just so that they could avoid what they viewed as the curse of having to do Chinese to get into a local university.
And now it has happened again:
2nd Fall
The Gifted Education Programme is going to be a thing of the past. When I feel like collecting my thoughts, I will pen down my memories of teaching in the programme. Whenever anyone gives me that "how can you contribute to such an elitist programme" look, I will go "Puhlease! They are on the other end of the continuum - learning disabilities on one end and gifted on the other end. Trust me, they are special needs kids too. Envy not their parents!"
3rd Fall
No more Streaming at primary school. Minister Tharman deserves votes for many generations to come. This is probably the one issue that parents cite commonly when asked why they have chosen to sever their ties with this country and hoist family, funds and future overseas. I am still recovering from the shock.
What are the implications?
Suddenly there is less need to go into panic mode when your kid enters P3. So tuition centres currently relying on frenzied parents bred on an EM1-phobic culture will face the heat. The first time the sky fell, I heard Chinese enrichment centres sent some of their Chinese tutors who were Chinese nationals packing home because the numbers requiring Chinese tuition, just, suddenly, fell.
What do you think wil happen this time?
I joked once to a friend when it happened the first time. I said, "You know the sky just fell today?" She knew I was withholding something and did not want to give me the pleasure of driving home my point. She did not offer me a lead in so I did not have the thrill of making my point. What I wanted to say to was "Hello! The Minister of Education just decided that you can still get to the University without Chinese!"
If you don't already know what I mean, grab hold of a senior who knows and find out or go into the MOE website and find out yourself. After you have found out, say a silent prayer for every schoolmate of yours that might have migrated just so that they could avoid what they viewed as the curse of having to do Chinese to get into a local university.
And now it has happened again:
2nd Fall
The Gifted Education Programme is going to be a thing of the past. When I feel like collecting my thoughts, I will pen down my memories of teaching in the programme. Whenever anyone gives me that "how can you contribute to such an elitist programme" look, I will go "Puhlease! They are on the other end of the continuum - learning disabilities on one end and gifted on the other end. Trust me, they are special needs kids too. Envy not their parents!"
3rd Fall
No more Streaming at primary school. Minister Tharman deserves votes for many generations to come. This is probably the one issue that parents cite commonly when asked why they have chosen to sever their ties with this country and hoist family, funds and future overseas. I am still recovering from the shock.
What are the implications?
Suddenly there is less need to go into panic mode when your kid enters P3. So tuition centres currently relying on frenzied parents bred on an EM1-phobic culture will face the heat. The first time the sky fell, I heard Chinese enrichment centres sent some of their Chinese tutors who were Chinese nationals packing home because the numbers requiring Chinese tuition, just, suddenly, fell.
What do you think wil happen this time?
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