I can't remember where I read this, but I came across a comment in a Singaporean's blog recently: The major flaw of our education system is that it destroys the self-confidence of the students.
Unless I'm conflating this with someone else's post, I think the blogger talked about a recent article in the Straits Times by some scholar, who wrote about being rejected by the elite when he did not get the grades to apply for the PSC scholarship. And about the "top students" who also don't have confidence in themselves.
Sad, but true.
One of the fundamental assumptions of the Singapore education system is that one should never be satisfied with their achievements. Getting 99% is not enough, there's still a percent more to go. 100%? Then make sure you maintain that. This assumption, of course, is not an artificial construction by some bureaucratic idiots, but sadly, it's a reflection of society.
Sitting on your own laurels isn't exactly the best idea for success, but an obsession with marginal benefits could easily backfire. My brother had this friend in primary school whose mother would cane him (at worst, and best give him a shelling) if he doesn't score 100% on his exams. Needless to say, he didn't exactly turn out very well. This is probably an extreme example, but it illustrates my point: why kick up such a big fuss over that 2%? Why obsess over the marginal benefits at the detriment of the self esteem of the student?
There's also a common belief, especially in the top schools, that internal exams must be infinitely more difficult than the national exams. Then when the students take the PSLE/O Levels/A Levels, they'll find it a breeze and ace the exam! It is not entirely uncommon to have internal exams with a very low passing rate (and I'm not even talking about As), or at the very best, demand superhuman concentration and chao-mugging abilities from students.
I remember F Math exams on techniques of algebraic manipulation. (I am so very tempted not to call that algebra. Algebra, to me, is a beautiful subject concerning groups, rings, fields, modules, etc. Not ugly equations.) Many of the math exams are not conceptually hard, they just demand accuracy in manipulating strings of symbols, solving unnecessarily complicated equations, and many times you need to memorize certain tricks in manipulations. Usually, the "difficult" exams bear all these characteristics, and not because the concepts are difficult.
Seriously, what's the point of failing half the cohort in an internal exam? Especially in a top school, where you know majority of the students can ace the standardized exam. Although I'm certainly not an advocate of let's pass every damn bloody student so as not to destroy their self esteem that is all too common in America (and so far, has only led to this), setting an overly tough exam is counterproductive.
The other self-destructive aspect of the Singapore education system is the value placed on students. You're not successful if you're just a 4A student, the benchmark for the highest form of success is the Scholarship. And according to some ST writers, apparently it's not just any scholarship, but The PSC Scholarship, The SAF Scholarship, and for the very bestest of the bestest, THE President's Scholarship.
I remember in JC 1 I was invited to some PSC talk, because my O Level results were considered good by them. I think I took some assessment test and performed pretty decently. But I totally bombed my promos and I was never invited back in JC 2. I didn't really care because I was not gunning for a scholarship, even if PSC let a scholarship drop from the sky into my hands I wouldn't have taken it up. (Hmm... scholarships dropping from the sky has been a topic over here.) But I can imagine how devastating it could be for a student with straight As in O Levels who has high hopes for a scholarship, but performed poorly in the bloody promos for some reason or another. It's not the A Levels or even the prelims! #%^#, is the worth of a student based on a (relatively) minor internal exam?
What the worth of a student to a school? Another statistic on the list of 4A students? To add to the ranking of the school?
I criticize, however, I currently cannot think of any suggestions to improve the system. The American system is almost the polar opposite, in the sense that every student is overvalued. However, there's also overemphasis on standardized testing, learning by rote, you know, all those annoying things that don't appear in a Singaporean's romanticized view of America. But for all those who hated math in school, good news: you don't need to be able to add, subtract, multiply or divide in order to learn "math" in America! That's the function of a calculator!
However, I think that this self-esteem problem isn't just about The Education System, but is also a lot about societal norms and expectations. It isn't just about overhauling the System. The over competitiveness, and ridiculously good grades needed into get into my alma mater (last I heard, straight As isn't quite enough. I barely slipped through), the dismissive attitude towards students (and youth in general), aren't just Policies Created by Bureaucrats. (They helped, though.)
Part 2: Primary School! How children are socialized.
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In Search of Respect is the title of a work by Philippe Bourgois, about the drug trade and Puerto Ricans in East Harlem. Although I don't agree with all the views expressed in the work, the lack of respect given to these people resonated with me. Hence the title of this post.
