KiasuParents@SG

I spent some time this afternoon going what I think is one of the most hilarious websites to date. It's aptly named KiasuParent.com.

The most entertaining bits are under 'Articles' and 'Forum'. Most of it is obsessed with the kid's education. Basically, how to prepare one's kid(s) for formal education and how to get one's kid into the preferred school. See here.

After about 20 minutes, the conclusion is as follows:

For the average Singapore to maximise the chances of getting his/her kid into the "better" primary schools,

One should either be Hokkien or Methodist, 

or better still... be both. A Methodist Hokkien.

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Live near the preferred school

Then make sure you get yourself (+ the 2 references) registered with the clan/church in time (with all nec paperwork) to qualify for the right phases of primary 1 registration. Of course, it's a sad sad day if you claim to be able to speak fluent Hokkien, but unfortunately, it's your mother, not your father, who is Hokkien.

Makes me wonder how a Singaporean, who is neither able to claim to be Hokkien nor Methodist, feels about the ballyhoo. E.g. if one is Muslim Malay. Or Hindu Indian.
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If School X produces top scorers, does it mean that your kid will do well by getting into that school? Magic dust! The focus is always on how many top scorers the schools produce. It's more important to understand the proportion of students whose scores are in the top Xth percentile and lowest Xth percentile. This gives a better idea of the school's performance.

And even so, it is not to say that the performance is entirely that of the school's credit. There are other factors such as family background which contribute significantly to a child's PSLE performance.

Unfortunately, no parent will receive a report to such a detail. All decisions are still based on misleading rankings and hearsay.

The discussion thread(s) about the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) is also a hilarious read. Has anyone read any longitudinal study reports on GEPers? Without which, this is merely a frenzy. Like a stampede during the Great Singapore Sale. Grab first, talk later.
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Lastly, the comments in the discussion forum made by ostensible parents are indeed harrowing. Going by our great leader's line of argument, such parents should stop fretting so much. No number of good schools is gonna make a difference to such problematic genes.

But it is always difficult to tell someone that he/she is not good enough to be the best. He/she likes to believe that his/her offsprings are indeed a fresh start. Tabula rasa.

This... is the root of the problem, isn't it?

Japan teacher reprimanded for murderous maths quiz

A Japanese primary school teacher has been reprimanded for giving his pupils a maths problem in which he asked how long it would take to kill 18 children at a rate of three murders a day.

This is up there in the league of getting students to raise a pig with the objective of eating it in due course.

LOVELY!

Any prizes for the correct answer?!!
*waves both hands in the air* Choose me! Choose me!!

What is the point of tuition for your child?

It sounds silly to even be asking this question.
But, it's always useful to ask to this question when one is part of a frenzy.

Mr Yong doesn't get it. He believes the education system should help everyone realise his potential. In my experience, that's certainly not true. In fact, our education system does one thing very well. That is to categorise and segregate kids into 'classes'.

And this segregation is what keeps the university degree valuable. If everyone has a uni degree, then yours is definitely worth less. Hence, by allowing more people to get into university may sound popular with the masses, it's merely a temporary high. Because in the long run, these graduates would be faced with broken dreams when they cannot find jobs/lifestyles which match their 'graduate' dream.

Ms Ho's letter to the forum makes more sense. But she makes a huge assumption, i.e. parents are able to accurately assess the potential of their kids. And rightly so, she makes this assumption.

As more 'educated' adults start to move into the ranks of 'parents', shouldn't we expect more enlightened and rational parenting behaviour and decision-making?

If not, it just goes to show how (in)effective all that 'education' mumbo jumbo really is.
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Scoring an 'A' in any subject means one is able to give the exact answer which the tester is looking for within the test constraints. That's all it is about.
It's not about being 'intelligent'. It's certainly not about being different, special, creative etc, i.e. any of those Steve Jobs qualities, if that's what being 'intelligent' means these days.

And having the ability to give the exact answer is hardly a guarantee for a 'better future'. That's an urban myth which many people happen to subscribe to at the same time. A lot of achieving a better future stems from opportunities, and that is more related to networks. Especially, in the Asian context, family network is exceptionally significant.

If you have gone through all those years of 'education', and have not been able to figure this out, that would be the greater tragedy. And not whether your kid gets tuition or 'A' or not.
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So does this mean you should take your kid out of the tuition class immediately?

You wish that the 'right' answer is that simple.
Unfortunately, that's something we, the educated, have not been trained/educated to do, i.e. to be able to Think Independently.

안녕하세요!

I've been taking Korean Language classes for some time now.



My 선생님 (teacher) is a middle-aged Korean lady from Seoul. Her husband and her daughter works and studies in Singapore respectively.

Enunciation of the Korean terms does not come naturally for me, but my 선생님 (teacher)'s infectious energy and personality make one pay attention in class. It helps that she does not speak fluent English because it forces the class to focus on what she's trying to put across, especially when she is describing a Korean term or phenomenon. From what I have gathered, it seems she has a post-graduate degree in Korean linguistics.

The class is made up of say around 25 students mostly in their 20s (=_=) in tables of 4 to 5. There are only 2 guys in the class. Apparently, there is a table of Samsung staff. Also, there is this particular table which is located right in front of our 선생님 (teacher). That table seems to be quite advanced. They know many Korean terms, always finish their homework, and always score highly for the weekly spelling test. (Nabeh.)

Somehow, I ended up at a table at the back, consisting of 3 females (all working in accounting firms), a guy in a software firm (who plays soccer with his Korean colleagues), and me. One of the females at my table has a Korean boyfriend. The girls are obviously K-wave fans. I only know Cruel Temptations, Here Comes Ajumma, Kim Yu Na, and some swear words taught by my Korean MBA classmates (which I tried to teach my table last week when 선생님 (teacher) introduced us to the word 'dog' *evil smile*).
Damn! I'm very behind.

And the other day, one of my table mates asked me if I had a blog. O_o

I love being back in class.
My mind cannot help but to wonder about South Korea's history, cultural influences, similarities with the Chinese language/dialects, national pride etc.
For example, 'radio' is formally known as 라디오 'lah-dee-yo' in Korean. And it is incorrect to pronounce it as 'radio' when you are speaking in Korean.

Now, compare that with how embarrassed we are taught to feel if we cannot speak English/Mandarin 'correctly' in the Singaporean context. I think such self-chastising is symptomatic of underlying and fundamental inferiority complex and insecurity of a people.

Ok, I have to go study... There is a major test next week, and I have only been scrapping past my spelling tests!!

My brain is too slow and my heart is too purist.
I have been resisting to memorise the Korean terms, but instead attempting to learn by phonetics. This has proven to be ULTRA inefficient, because whenever I try to give myself mock spelling tests at home, I confuse myself with my own bad pronunciation. Then, during the actual test, I can't recognise what my teacher has read to the class. DUH?! I have to fix my learning technique, i.e. going back to good old rote learning. =_=

ROAR! 죽어!

Entry to Local Unis

The debate on whether poly grads ought to be given equal opportunity for entry to local universities has been going on for weeks!

I love reading stuff from people who write to the forum, coz sometimes they make hilarious arguments. E.g. People go to poly because they didn't qualify for junior college, and so they should not deserve a chance to study in the local unis. O_o

It's not just Poly Cert vs 'A' Levels Cert

Before we get all myopic and start poking at the eyes of our own kind, take a good look at what kind of students the local unis have been taking in. Apart from taking in our great 'A' levels holders for undergraduate courses, the local unis have been taking in foreigners from all sorts of education system around the world. Before we diss the quality of our own polytechnic grads, we should make sure that those foreign students are holding pre-U qualifications which equal, if not better, our 'A' level certs and poly diplomas.

Lack of Standardised Test

To put it simply, this current debate has been going on and on soley because the local unis generally do not use a standarised admissions test to assess the ability of the applicants to the undergraduate programmes.

In the US, students take high school exams (GED), then take the SATs to gain entry to local unis. They recognise the variance in standard of applicants who may have been educated via a variety of avenues, e.g. public schools, private schools, distance-learning, home-schooled, not from the US etc.

Afghan College Entrance Exam Day
More than 1,800 prospective cadets rise for the playing of the Afghan National Anthem before the start of the Afghan College Entrance Exam for the Afghan National Army Academy, Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 25. The prospective cadets here are hoping to be one of the approximately 300 chosen for the new freshman class. The exam makes up 80 percent of their final admissions score. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)

Customised Standardised Test

Heh heh... sounds oxymoronic...

Having said that, I have to add that some faculties/departments, Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Architecture etc., do create their own set of entry hurdles, e.g. entrance exams, interviews, personal statements etc.

E.g. During my time, the Department of Architecture in NUS shortlists a few hundred applicants ('A' level holders, polygrads, foreigners etc) and get them to sit through a test (which consists of all sorts of questions, i.e. quantitative and qualitative), then shortlist again, and get the remaining to go for an interview with their portfolios, then finalise the list of candidates.

Why does Department of Architecture go through this trouble? Because it's very difficult to assess whether one has an aptitude for Architecture just by looking at the 'A' levels cert. Is someone with 3As and 1B in Double Maths, Physics & Economics suitable for the Architecture course? It's difficult to tell. Wouldn't it make more sense to just accept the better Architecture polygrads? If then, people would be writing the papers to complain about Department of Architecture favouring polygrads. Unfair advantage for polygrads!

Hence, the useful entrance exam + interview + portfolio presentation.

Question is: How many departments/faculties can and/or bother to do something so labour-intensive? Imagine those super large faculties producing thousands of graduates each year... They already need a factory-line method to sort out the existing thousands of applications.

Imagine if every department/faculty in the local unis start coming up with their own entrance exams, tests, interviews etc... And you have 5 options to fill... Do you have to go for all 5 entrance assessments?! *fainted*