where is the passion

darf- SG

after reading the thread about Singapore's elitist education system, i decided to start thread because i want to voice out my comments, on something else about the education system, which would have been off topic in that thead (hence this disscussion)

im sure most of you would have heard about the CCA (known formerly as ECA) points system applied in JCs, polytechnics (not sure) and secondary schools

in the tertiary education system, they have the PEARLS points
PEARLS stands for:

Participation
Enrichment
Achievement
Representation
Leadership
Service

technically, when you take part in a cca, you get more points for the more you do
i suppose this is to award those who are more active in their CCAs, and give them a "chance" to compete with the more academically inclined peers

however, i feel that this system is flawed, and is doing more harm then good

e.g.
i have a friend who is a tennis player
for the school's first team or not, that remains undetermined for now (he's still JC1)
the tennis team trains (very hard, i would add) at least 3-4 times a week until 7-8 pm
he complains that even though he puts in a lot of effort for his cca, he does not feel that the school acknowledges his sweat and toil
according to the PEARLS system, he will only get 2 points overall if he continues his efforts in tennis, but fail to get into the first team.

the main thing that im trying to say is not that the PEARLS system should award more points or whatnot, but rather the bigger picture, of whether it is doing its job appropriately

right now, such a CCA system awards students who achieve top places in national or international competitions
also, under the "leadership" category, it awards points to those who hold titles in leadership positions such as chairman or captain

how about those who constantly put in effort, but do not have the ability to be one of the best?
in an average sized cca, only one or two will be selected to become the "heads"
how about the rest of the team who put in effort as well?
maybe this is not "convincing" enough, i shall elaborate later

i believe the CCA points system was set up to "level the playing field" among the students, some of whom do not have the same academic (the 3Rs: read, remember, regurgitate) talents of their fellow students
this was supposedly to let those students "catch up" with the other students, and promote the idea of being "all-rounded" students

what it did however, was just add obstacles to the already challenging rat race
instead of helping those caught behind, this system raises the standards for those on top
for them to even more differentiate themselves among the rest of the "scholars", CCA was nothing more then just to make themselves appear more "brilliant" then other hopefuls

originally, national placings were put in place to encourage participation
of course the schools responded well, they felt that it was a pretty good idea to introduce competition
however, it worked too well
schools with commemorable records in the CCA department used that as an advertisement, to encourage budding sportsmen to join them
this does not seem to work both ways
in institutions where the a particular CCA is well known for winning countless medals, only the best are allowed to remain in the CCA
in other words, they have trials for all the players, and only the better ones are allowed to remain
it would seem, that the drive for students to continue now comes from how many medals they can win, not their desire to acheive
where is the passion?

note: i have decided to end this post here, as incoherent as it seems, as i am having difficulty organising my thoughts
it would be much easier to reply to posts...
so please comment
ty

SingaporeTyrannosaur SG

When you create systems to measure the unmeasurable, you simply create people who will cynically manipulate the system.

oldbreadstinks SG

Laughing

but i get the point Very Happy Smile , it has always been the pap's policy to create a society like this , what can i say other then they've succeeded

Atobe SG

Can the ENTIRE approach to educating our young truly achieve the final objective of having our young becoming EDUCATED, KNOWLEDGEABLE, and (most important of all) CREATIVE ?

The policies implemented to help in a ROUNDED EDUCATION - that not only places emphasis on SUBJECTS but also on SPORTS, are well intended.

Unfortunately, either the methods or approaches to achieve the objective were not well THOUGHT THROUGH, or the implementation or the executors of the methods had got it all wrong.

Singapore remained desparately in need of CREATIVE and CRITICAL and ANALYTICAL MINDS to enable Singapore to compete in a Global Economy.

If Human Resource is our only assets, then not enough is done to free up the education system, so as to allow everyone the opportunity to achieve this objective.

nismoS132 SG

having had an interesting conversation with some americans just this afternoon, coupled with past experiences, i'd say we're not alone in being elitist in the education system.

to them, there's alot of difference being a high school grad, college grad and an ivy league college grad.

Lingos SG

I think it's ridiculous.
Why would i want to put in extra time to hang around idiots from school?
I really hated my school life in Sg, all 12 years of it!

oldbreadstinks SG

and create someone that goes against pap to make them angry? Confused

[email protected] SG

lets face it.
In singapore? u can't talk about passion. your friend in the CCA and all that? well thats singapore for you.
the reason i am leaving sinagpore? for my passion.

Viper52 SG

High 5 Heng! slap

[email protected] SG

yeah!
^5!
Mr. Green

[email protected]_arms SG

in the tertiary education system, they have the PEARLS points
PEARLS stands for:

Participation
Enrichment
Achievement
Representation
Leadership
Service

The 1st time I heard of this thing 2 years ago, I knew it was flawed. In an average JC, of about at least 1000 teenagers forming the student body.. this PEARLS system applies to each and everyone of them. This PEARLS system is flawed because it is designed to encourage this 6 traits.. but only in a hand few of chosen proud students.

Let me ask you.. how possible is it for 1000 students to "participate" in events, even though we do admittedly have many CCAs, there is enough places for all students to merely participate.. even an "energy saving rep" is participating.

Next, this is subjective, some people are more "enriched" than others, but NOT everyone will be enriched.

Now here comes the moment of truth. How possible is it for all students, or majority of students to be able to have "achievement" in their CCAs, via awards. Think about it, you always see a few people being awarded for doing CCA stuff in school.

How possible is it for all students to "represent" their CCAs in important s-h-i-t? Impossible, only a few chosen Ones will be able to represent their CCAs.

How possible is it for all students to be in "Leadership" positions in any CCA???

The PEARLS system is flawed because it only helps a handful of people. But then again out of the 6 characteristics, only 3 characteristics are VERY FLAWED, these are Leadership, Participation and Achievment. Thus it is quite a balanced flawed system heh.

One of your ministers himself said this... maybe it was LKY, dunno... "Creativity can only flourish in a DISCIPLINED environment". THis is wrong, creativity flourishes in a borderless world, which is not in Singapore sad to say.
E.g. "Can I have my clouds green?"
Art teacher will say "NO!"
"Hey mr TCS director, what say you to having Wheel Of Fortune Singapore?"
TCS director: "No your crazylah" (Based on a true telephone call made me ME when i was 12 years old).

And recently one comment I made to a school teacher, in my old secondary school:
ME: HEy wtf? We could be earning more $$$ via patenships, instead of this CIP bullshit, begging for coins int he street in exchange for stickers.
Teacher: Do you have any patentships, dun talk big
Me: Yes, our D&T department in school has many new impressive gadgets, (e.g. Mechanical Spiders which cling onto glass surfaces and crawls on tall buildings, cleaning windows, saving $ on bangla window cleaners). We could have patentships

Teacher: SEow Lar! Go back into the streets and beg, take some more stickers with you.

Months later, the D&T project prototype for the spider was thrown away, because the new batch of Sec4s came in, and more space was needed for their projects. What a waste (ALL BASED ON TRUE STORIES OF STUNTING CREATIVITY IN SINGAPORE)

Back to the quote: Your PE programme is pathetic.. it should be called PT, not PE. Since nowadays, PE is just another form of NS preparation. No emphasis on sports.

But, we must not diss the pursuit of knowledge. It is very important. because without knowledge, you cannot use the knowledge if you dont have it, even if you are creative. However. what is wrong with this system is the stress and hectic schedules of life. People don't have time to go on dates, much less be creative about what they have learned.

Teachers try to drill Creativity by not "spoon-feeding" students in class, forcing them to look up their own materials. Yes it is a way, but given the limited time that students have to study, plus the mindless CIP routines, plus the PEARLS bull-s-h-i-t. There is not enough time... 2 years is not enough time. 2 years does not even take into account the severe Ego issues possessed by local teachers... where local teachers cancel lectures if even 1 student insults their superiority by "taking"/"whispering", resulting in less curriculum time.

This is not the way to go.

When i look at your system, i would cry if I were one of you. Something is seriously wrong, if a foreign infidel without any knowledge of mandarin, can master the language in 3 years in Britain or Australia, while a local student is still struggling after being in school for 16 years. Something is seriously wrong.