Oct 22nd, 2007
Drama over PSLE paper
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It’s interesting to see the repeat of a drama that happens from time to time. First, pupils came out of PSLE crying after the mathematics paper. Angry parents start writing to newspapers and ringing up MOE to complain. The examination board chief has to come out and say that the paper was no more difficult than other years.
In the first place, why are the students crying? It’s obviously because parents and teachers are stressing them. Schooling is no longer fun anymore. I don’t mean to say that it was just fun when I was in primary school but I remember grades never seemed so important. In fact, I remember always being sent out of the class and having my exercise books flung out of the classroom door because I often did not do homework.
I honestly don’t recall how PSLE was like. All I remember was that I couldn’t wait for the PSLE to be over because it meant I could go and play soccer everyday. In fact, I think soccer was more important than my PSLE. I know I was a naughty boy back then and perhaps I should have been more disciplined but hey, I think I enjoyed my primary school days.
Of course, I do not advocate such naughty behaviour. I probably will give my own kid an earful for that. What I think parents should do is to tell kids to try their best and if the paper comes out to be really ‘difficult’, assure the kids that it will not be a problem. There are years where papers have been difficult but students still got into good secondary schools. If everyone does so badly, all the good schools are going to close shop because nobody can qualify!
Chill. Things will work out fine.
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I took my PSLE in the 80’s and there were people crying then. It seems like nothing much has changed except that we, now as parents, are unhappy about it.
Haha crying?
Madness…
I don’t remember crying although I thought I screwed up my paper. And the primary syllabus is getting harder and harder mmhmm - no wonder children are getting more stressed.
Ohwell.
It’s the whole society that’s uptight about it from govt down. The kids are but merely showing the symptoms
yup. children should be assured that there are many other things to excel in and there are many routes to success. but of course, in singapore, things are so fast paced and everyone’s chasing the singapore dream. we lack ‘heart’, and do what our head tells us.
Understanding the mindset of a stressed Singaporean student requires bridging a little generation gap and doing a some slippery slope pseudo-logic, but here goes:
Poor PSLE scores leads to getting into a lousy (read: has a cut-off score less than 250/300) secondary school.
Getting into a lousy secondary school leads to getting lousy O-Level scores (read: not a one-pointer L1R5).
Getting a lousy O-level score means getting into a lousy JC or (gasp!) polytechnic (read: no university!).
(Thinking about ITE makes one faint in horror.)
Getting into a lousy pre-uni educational institute means no uni education. And an uni education is regarded highly.
No university education means getting a lousy job.
A lousy job means lousy pay and not getting the best out of life.
The logic behind that reasoning is very shaky but many believe it. I don’t because I got into a neighbourhood school, got an L1R5 of 8 minus 2, and am in polytechnic with a results which I’m too modest to reveal. =P
Therefore, students are just too stressed out. It’s good to be stressed if they aren’t on track, but not good to stressed out over little things like PSLE grades. What’s the big deal if you land in Catholic High instead of Raffles Institution? CH is perfectly fine. Even neighborhood schools are OK if you can block out condescending teachers and typical void-deck loiterers and hang in there for 4 years.
After all, it’s not the school which is taking exams for students. Students have full control over their future whether they wish to bluff themselves about it or not.
yes, students may have full control over the future they want and it is easy to say that they are lying to themselves.
But what motivates them to lie to themselves? We are born in a culture which treats material success as the final aim of life and to that end, children are indoctrinated even before they can think for themselves: study hard. study hard. study hard. if you don’t make it, its your business.
So can we really tell PSLE kids that the future is theirs for the taking? Asian society keeps the children bound tightly to the family, even when they are adults. There is not much independence for your typical 12-year-old. And the culture is not going to change, although the world progresses.
And the children pay the price.
Btw, i decided to make a comeback. heh.
haha.. nowadays if teachers fling books out of the classroom they might get a complaint letter sent to them by the parents or something..
scary kids =)
Given a choice, everyone wants to chill over their kids PSLE exams. Our exams don’t give the average kid a chance, everyone wants their kids to be a scholar with a fat paycheck. Face it, this is Singapore, you want your offsprings to be successful (scholar, civil servant etc) which means consistently good grades all the way from Pri school to Uni. Coupled with most household “investing” in 1 or 2 kids, it is not rocket science to know what parents want. I grew up without homework n school pressure, i will be a dropout in today’s context. So, for those who wants to chill, pls do not regret or your kids will grow up and curse you for not doing your “duty” Parents who complain after PSLE are actually crying out for help in a cold and helpless system.
OMG guojun, where have you been????????
CJ,
There were people crying in the 80s? Must be those who cried then spoiling the market now.
Michael,
I think part of the problem is also with the media. I remember for years they used to devote pages to ‘top’ students and how top schools are becoming harder to get in. Utilising a media theory, this is a good example of how the media cultivates a certain mindset.
Stanley,
I haven’t mentioned how the teacher will ask for the longest and hardest ruler from the class to smack the hands of naughty kids. And, I remember a student got spanked so hard the ruler broke. These days, the teacher confirm go jail.
Dan,
This is why I am contemplating not bringing up my kids in Singapore. Some are going to call me unpatriotic but I do think that such pressure cooker environment takes the joy out of both learning and childhood.
Sam,
Actually, my hypothesis is that grades are measurable. This is why students and parents chase grades blindly. I do think that people become disoriented when they have nothing that can be measured and benchmarked against. And, there’s the whole bragging rights issue, i.e. “My daughter scored 280 but your son scored only 270″. Small wonder why some parents are not happy unless their kids score full marks.
yh,
The students are crying even BEFORE they knew they screwed up their paper. All they know is that they couldn’t do some questions and they thought they are screwed. I think this is what makes it even more ridiculous. Finishing exams should be a happy feeling!
well, i guess it is natural to cry after a paper which u knew u did badly in. jus let ur emotions flow for awhile. nth big abt it.
then, compose urself.
hv an aim: to brace urself for the nxt paper.
to think that u will do well in the other papers to make up for the one u knew u did badly in.
that is wat i hv to say, ppl.
lol if they did badly for the paper wont they be crying like in the middle of doin it? lol
iyah, why cry when do badly in paper? it just mean the kid hasnt been studying smart enough, and this leads to another problem in the sg education. all do TYS like nobody’s business, and blame the exam paper to be too hard.
but aaron, for you to be so nothy in pri sch, im surprised u went tchs. :p
Haha, I still don’t know how I managed to get a score good enough for Chinese High! It’s a real mystery, really.
um hiee i am hannah and i am asking if PSLE is hard or not pls tell me i am quite scared because this year i am going to take i am scared so scared can you tell me what to do??
I don’t think any of us can tell u…its up to if u see it as difficult or not mah…
you might wanna consider how we teenagers feel when we don’t perform up to expectations and hence getting into a crappy jc. we feel like it’s all over coz’ it’s so awfully difficult to climb out of this dark pit where opportunities are few and where we face discrimination ):
Hey! I am 14 and I took my PSLE 2 years ago, now I am in Hwa Chong Instituition. However, I do not actually agree with you on saying that last year’s paper was more difficult than previous years’ papers. I feel that that is how MOE viewed the paper, however, it’s the candidates who did the paper and experience how tough it was.Btw, I agree with you that nowadays, children do not have ‘childhoods’ , but isn’t this typical Singapore? Kiasu and all? Or perhaps it was the capacity of last yr’s candidates? Perhaps is just an assumation and I feel tt u should not encourage children to be just like you when you were young. In the past, the society wasn’t that competitive , but now in modern Singapore, slack a bit , lose out lots!
difficult or not difficult, the parents will NOT know coz the papers are not shown to us after the exams. the board can claim all they want, right?
if teachers are fully-trained to teach students to cope with and to handle difficult maths questions, then why would even a TOP student come out ’shattered’? what went wrong exactly?
as a parent, i am more concerned how this would affect a 12 year old, especially students who are ‘below-average’. no matter how hard they try now, will they even have a chance to even ‘pass’ the maths paper at all?
should the syllabus be re-looked into again? what is missing?
Oh i’ve got a score of 255 ><
Hey! The math paper was easy? Whats the big fuss about the crying and all?! Eeeh. The syllabus, is SO not getting harder.