Sec 5 class advised: Go to ITE instead

last SG · 2008-01-12T22:05:25+00:00

Sat, Jan 19, 2008 The Straits Times I REFER to the article, 'Principal's ITE advice 'had to be delivered'' (ST, Jan 17). I cannot believe Minister of State...

I-like-flings(m) SG

I have alot of straight A students UNDER ME too.... vjc, njc, rjc, rgs, nygh, scgs, mgs... even now in hk....grad from their top uni are UNDER ME.. if u know what i mean Embarassed

youyayu SG

i don’t feel there is anything wrong.. they can’t cope it so y not just go to ITE?

798 SG

it seems dat societies condemn ite... Sad

i heard one of a gal's dad shouting at the admission dat he would rather send his dotter oversea den letting her studying in ite. Evil or Very Mad

Quincey SG

I went to Sec 5, went onto JC and from there uni. I have other pals from my cohort, who were not academically inclined, went their own way, and yet defined and found their own measures of success. Of course, there are others who are not "doing so well" or have not found their way, but I'm sure those individuals will construct their livelihoods somehow or rather.

But I remembered clearly how it was back then. The common perception that once you are an 'N-Level' student, you are destined for (It's The End). I remember very vividly once during a dinner party an immediate family member asked me what I wanted to do in the future. I told him, I'll like to pursue a degree in university, and he just said two words that till this day reverberates at the back of my head, 'dream on'!

I think what these students need is hope, the last thing you want to hear is some piece of statistic telling you you are bound to fail. Yes, some will fail, in the academic sense, but this is not what education is about. It's sure darn hell not about the passing rates of Normal acad students in your school. It's about education, what has that gone to? Have the educators of today forgotten that age old creed? I say,educate them, give everyone a fair and equal chance, and equip your students to find their own way at the end of the day. That is what education is about and not flashing the grades of students and humiliating them in front of their peers.

I think this particular chap needs a reawakening, maybe a stint as a trainee in NIE will wake up her ideas.

stellazio SG

Principals are all from JC. Naturally some sort of elitist mindset. Twisted Evil

*prepares for flame*.. Embarassed

Timmay SG

When I was in Normal Academic, it wasn't the principal, but the teachers who persuaded my class to join ITE.

Their rationale being that since the gap between 'N' and 'O' levels is wide, we'd be a little unprepared for the latter and have to study very hard.

I beg to defer, I spent the first half of the year playing my games and the later half moderately studying hard.

I'm the easy-go-lucky person so I made sure I wasn't stressed

In the end, my 'O' level results were quite satisfactory Wink

P.S: If you cannot study at home, and want to study at a comfortable place, don't go to the regular hangouts like Macdonalds. Instead, go to your nearby community centre, there should be a study room.What you need is cc membership(Forgot but cheap) before you can register to be a member of the room($5/yr, dirt cheap! and A/C too!)

syncopation_music SG

hmmm , its quite bad ,this means the grades of the daughter must be quite bad.. but singapore have lotsa private school , studying there isnt a shameful thing

syncopation_music SG

Quincey , I agree with you .that person who said such nasty thing abt N level should be castrated Twisted Evil

Look at the number of N level student entering Uni , isnt that a feat ?
one shouldnt think of grades .I have known Certificate of Merit friend who simply work in those cannot make it MNC,and does grade plays an important roles in one's career ?no !

btw I was also from N level ,then go Poly . being slow doesnt mean a loser ,it just how steady one is in one's career

Wink Wink Wink

syncopation_music SG

youyayu is elitist mentality Twisted Evil

What is the original objectives setting up education since Greek time?

to give education without discrimination ,race or creed

Cool Cool

Isnt now the perverted direction of education ? to climb ranking ,to beef up profile of principal and to provide clean shining records for education bureaucrats ?

phil30k SG

I agree with Rhonda.

I'd like to add that education is not as simple as we'd like to believe. There's a combination of the maturity of the student, whether there are other problems on his mind, his perception of the world, his perception of the curriculum and lots of other factors to consider.

While I'd like to believe that the principal was looking for a best fit for the students in our educational system, I'm not persuaded this was the case.

Just from a superficial examination of the matter. It looks more like he/she was cheating and trying to manipulate her school ranking by using psychological warfare on students she felt were in the way.

I think the principal should be sacked. Otherwise the wrong message would be sent out... that it is okay to disguise school ranking manipulation by "removing" students who don't contribute to it.

<Precious> SG

Whether the girls' self-esteem/confidence has been crushed anot depends on their character. The principal's "putting down" the students could be the catalyst to challenge them to put in more effort in their studies so that they end up faring better. Wink

Sometimes, the more you encourage a student, the more you don't see him performing but the more you criticise, put him down and provoke, the more he'll rise up to the challenge, even if just to prove you wrong....... reverse psychology Razz

LazerLordz SG

Not to sound terribly elitist, but if you had a child and you could afford to send him/her abroad to study instead of ITE, would you?

My friend came here to study in SIM-UOL instead of TAFE (Australia's ITE). Now perhaps I understood why..

gerrykoh SG

What the principal should have done is to give the best teacher to the weaker classes. It is a fact that the top class usually gets all the best teachers.

When my daughter was in Sec. 3, the whole class failed physics, luckily in Sec. 4 they got a fantastic teacher. She motivated the girls & gave extra remedial classes. When they got their "O' results, there was 100% passes & most of them got As & Bs.
A dedicated teacher can do wonders, she can transform average students into super performers & get them to love the subject instead of just studying to pass.

gigabyte14 SG

most principals from jc la

train brain, never train character

Rhonda SG

True.

However, in order to know which treatment to apply to which student, you have to spend time knowing them well enough. In this case, since the Principal is obviously not caring enough to invest that kind of time and energy, she should then tread carefully and adopt an encouraging stance instead of a condemning one.

gasband SG

I do not think the Principal did anything wrong. She was being practical to the students. Choose the path which you think is best for u. She did not say she will penalise them if they choose to persist with going to Poly or JC.

This is what we did with my sister. I did ok in my o levels, went to Poly, then to Uni and graduated with a degree. On the other hand, my sister, was not very keen on her studies, but however we knew the importance of at least having some qualifications in Singapore and we urged to choose the best path for herself. When in Primary school, she already are failing alot of subjects. After PSLE results are released, she barely made it to the then newly set up Normal Technical, SUPPOSEDLY, for those whose results cannot make it in PSLE. We urged her to go for it regardless of what the perceptions were.

In Secondary school, her results improved! Not excellent but she was passing more then what we expected and we were glad. When it comes to the Sec 4 time when she needs to make a choice between going to ITE or take O LEVELS, after discussing, we asked her, why not choose ITE because if she thinks that she is not the academic kind, no point putting so much stress on her to go to O LEVELS, this may just be counter productive. And to us, though I was a Uni Grad, I never tot ITE was lousy because I simply saw many ITE grads making it in life. So in the end, she also agreed to go to ITE.

No, this story does not have a damn superb fairytale ending. My sister did not become someone great. She is not working in some big MNCs as a manager. She has worked in retail and is now a bank teller at a bank. But I am proud of her, because she got her ITE cert and she is now working in a decent job, earning a living for herself. She is married and striving honestly for a living with her husband. She may not have a degree but right now she is happy. I knew going to ITE was the right choice for her, because it gave her time and space to express herself and to learn. She may not be what she is today if we had forced her to go for O LEVELS. And I thank God for who she is today.

Misogynist SG

In the past, when your principal or teacher said that you're gonna fail, your parents would agree and cane the crap out of you and ensure that ya gonna sit on your ass the whole day to study till you pass.

Now, teachers and principals got to soothe the ego of these little brats. I've to say this, dear parents, stop molly coddling your kids, it's the real world out there, if you suck, you suck. If you like diplomatic and politically correct lessons, you chose the wrong species.

Instead of complaining to your parents that your principal said you're a failure, why don't you guys band together and prove her wrong instead of getting mummy and daddy to protect you. Pathetic whiners.

Y_Shun SG

It all depends on yourself, whether you want to do it anots.

Quincey SG

Yes, you should be proud of your sister Gasband.

But there's a difference between encouraging the student to find his or her own path and arbitrarily dismissing a bunch of N level students as ITE bound because of some statistic and the need to keep the school's passing rate at a certain degree to make all look pretty.

Not to say that ITE is bad, many students from ITE have contributed a whole lot to society. If there is a student who does not make the grade for poly or JC and is looking for an alternative, I think ITE is a good place to further one's education. However, when one, above all an educator choose to give into societal sterotypes and label his or her student as ITE bound by the virtue of them being N Level students, I find that totally unexceptable! One can argue that she is being realistic, but how can one even project the results even before the exams itself have been written. I think the esteemed principal will do better to devote her time and resources to aid his or her students to do well for their exams, instead of reading and trimming his or her own set of statistics.

798 SG

yeah. since the majority of societies already written off ite education.

but guess most middle-class pple will have no choice but send their children to ite cos going oversea is not affortable for them.

unless some ministers r setting example by sending their kid to ite. pple will write them off.

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