Education 02 (Sep 09 - Jul 10)

[LenaHuat]

Hi K
Really I thought the principal is being truthful. Far too many educationists at our MOE are just being politically correct and fear far too much abt their ricebowls.

[kennynah]

Hi L

I have no doubt this principal has good intentions

[millionairemind]

With the changes to the education system for P1/P2, there is no longer mid-term and final term exams. However, some schools still try to "circumvent" this "decree"

The boy's P1 classes are instead, taking Topical Review tests once/twice a term to make sure that they do understand what the teacher is teaching. These tests are not graded but are meant to tell the school how well the kids are absorbing and understanding the lessons taught.

The boy still has a Year End test/exam which will be graded.

Not much stress and he is really enjoying school. No tuition needed. Just need to pay attention in school. Lots of free time

I quite like this system.

[winston]

They should have more verbal tests. In just a few minutes, you will now whether the kids have understood what you have been teaching ...

[millionairemind]

After all the hue and cry...

I suspect this has got to do with elections being just around the corner....

May 11, 2010
GOVERNMENT ON MOTHER TONGUE
No lowering of weightage
By Clarissa Oon
THE weightage of the Mother Tongue in the Primary School Leaving Examination will not be lowered, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Education Minister Ng Eng Hen reassured Singaporeans opposed to the move.

Bilingualism remains as important as ever, but what will change is the way the mother tongue languages are taught and examined, they said on Tuesday morning, in response to the outpouring of views on the subject.

The underlying problem is that students today have such diverse backgrounds and aptitudes in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, and reducing the Mother Tongue weighting is not the best way of resolving that, PM Lee said.

'I think this would send the wrong signal, that we are downgrading Mother Tongue. Certainly, it will not be efficient in helping the student to reach the level which we would like him to reach,' he explained in a press conference at the Istana.

Instead, the Ministry of Education (MOE) is exploring examination models, pegged to different levels of language proficiency, that 'give students progressive, successive achievable targets to aim for'.

This would be fair to both strong and weak students, he said, adding: 'The better students can go further and be awarded for their achievement. The weaker students can progress as far as their abilities will allow, reach a meaningful proficiency level and get appropriate credit for what they've accomplished.'

Dr Ng stressed that such an overhaul of mother tongue teaching and examination was a long term one, and would not affect the present batches of primary school students. Any revisions to the curriculum and the PSLE format would take place over the next five to 15 years, he said.

He also apologised for having earlier given the wrong impression that his ministry planned to reduce the weighting for mother tongues at the PSLE.

[millionairemind]

Today's front page shows a LHL with a dour faced Ng...

I personally don't think he gave the wrong impression. I think he was forced to take it back....

May 12, 2010
'I gave the wrong impression'

EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen apologised yesterday for giving the 'wrong impression' in a recent press interview that his ministry was planning to reduce the mother tongue weightage.

A committee reviewing the teaching and testing of mother tongue languages has not proposed any change to the scoring system in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), he clarified.

'I think I should have chosen my words more carefully and apologise for creating that wrong impression,' he said of his interview three weeks ago with The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao.

In that interview, Dr Ng had said the Ministry of Education (MOE) was looking at options to address the overemphasis on exams, where 'mother tongue languages count for so much in the PSLE'.

'The worry is whether it could exclude someone from progressing in his educational pathway even if he did well in other subjects,' he had said.

Yesterday, he noted that those remarks led to Singaporeans becoming concerned that MOE was proposing the weightage of mother tongue languages be reduced.

[winston]

TOL:-

When I was growing up, the emphasis is on "Communication".

You dont have to be a Philosopher or award-winning Writer, but you must be able to have basic Communication skills eg. being able to ask for direction, being able to give direction etc.

If you ask me, I would say teach your kids Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, Hindi, Tamil, English etc.

It would be so great if your kids can speak a few languages and dialects, rather than just be Bilingual only.

Anyway, what is your "mother tongue" ?

Does your mother speak Mandarin to you ? Or English, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese etc ?

If your mother does not speak Mandarin to you so why is it called "mother tongue" ? .

Ha Ha ... language, will always bring out the strong feelings in most people so I will leave my comments as it is before I start having a strong debate on this issue.

And I'm not interested in having a debate on something I cant invest in.

[millionairemind]

Not engaging you in any debate W... just my tots on this matter...

Is Chinese REALLY that difficult??? Our bilingual education system has been in place for more than 30yrs now.....

Often times, its the parents who are unconsciously "programming" the kids that "CHINESE" isn't as important as Science, English or Math. This creates the belief in the kids that "CHINESE" is difficult.

The Chinese from mainland China came to Singapore not able to speak a word of English and yet they top our PSLE exams with straight Astars... Nobody ever told them to give up on English cos' its difficult.. I read that they just pick up a dictionary and start memorizing the words...

Our kids have gone soft...

The Mrs. and I are both of the same opinion that Languages are DEAD subjects and one can easily score if one puts in the hard work.

We used to speak to the boy only in Mandarin 24/7 since he was born till he was 4 just so that he can have a very firm grasp of the language.

Currently, we speak to the boy in English from Monday thro' Wednesday and only in Mandarin the balance of the week, just for him to exercise his linguistic abilities.

[winston]

Ha Ha ... different perspective ..

We used to purposely hire an Indonesian maid who cant speak English, to also force the kids to also learn how to speak Malay / Bahasa Indonesia.

[kennynah]

languages are important...we think using one...don't you?

therefore, the more linguistically abled one is...the better thought processes become...

sure, it can be hokkien, canto, teochew, etc... but remember, those people are very likely very capable in mandarin...enough to "translate" word for word from the bible mandarin version...

balance is the key...we dont forget our roots...so we speak our dialects...we speak mandarin, so we remember we are chinese, malay if we are malay and tamil/hindu if our ancestors are from india.... english is required since it is a commerce language...

i wish i had signed up for german/french/spanish, etc when i was younger... i've had some japanese lessons before but the lack of practice and a japanese girlfriend, i have almost forgotten it...

i would encourage children to learn as many languages as possible...languages are beautiful...they express our soul....