bbbay\" post_id=\"2127412\" time=\"1705623566\" user_id=\"175278:

I have this perspective: there are other places around the world where graduates cannot find jobs. And they have to their own set of social ill to deal with daily. If ABB can’t get my kids into the popular Uni course they want, then they can settle for the 2nd choice. If no scholarships, then settle for more affordable alternatives. Our children can still make decent living in Singapore even they are not the top. And there are always opportunities to upgrade later in life. My boss was a lawyer. Now he has to start learning again on new domains in AI/data analytics.

Agree we should constantly strive for improvement of system. We are already seeing many good changes in our education systems in past years. but at the same time I always remind myself whatever we have achieved around us are not a given, not an entitlement.

Yes, I fully agree with the perspective on vying for popular courses. I get the impression that we are heading towards having AAA or AAB for 2nd or even 3rd choice courses even under the new system. By the time we move to a 3rd choice course, how far in terms of interest and motivation are we away from a 1st or 2nd choice course ?

Next, I address the issue of 90 points vs 70 points. That's a drastic change. So if we assume we have been/ are supportive of the rationales the ministry has given for a 90 point system, what stronger reasons do we have for a drastic change ? I am not a champion of a 90 point system. It is like saying we run \"one last year\" with 90 points, then we make a drastic change the following year to 70 points (within a year and literally from the 31 Dec of 1 year to the 1 Jan of another). Why ? Is the substantial rise of mental health issues among the young one of the factors with the current system ? or other compelling and detailed issues not foreseen ? If not foreseen, why ? Without going back to see what we missed, how do we know if we won't miss other critical signposts down the line ?

Yes, if no scholarship look for cheaper alternatives, and that is from a non-ministerial perspective. The ministry has to adopt a view that the role of education is not just about content/ programs. Though not all local contents/ programs locally are great and we don't have to always chase after what others think are. The example of upgrades later in life is not discounted too but that too is from a non-ministerial perspective. Education from a ministerial perspective should include ingraining values that will last a lifetime including integrity by actions, not words . In addition and not of lesser priority, it's about fulfilling the role to be a social leveller.

Contrary to the popular belief that scholarships get one to the top, not all are in this bracket anymore. Even MOE has begun using the term \"scholarships\" loosely since years ago. For example, we have hordes of students who met certain academic/ achievement standards to get a couple of hundreds of dollars scholarship awards per year. I do not see our education has improved in the past years, but as a lists of pluses and minuses at each stage. The observations in the videos I highlighted earlier are meant to point out that not all is well and without having honest, non- defensive, and deep mindsets on what education means, real improvements are hard to come.

Yes, what we have is not a given, and not an entitlement but this criteria applies to everyone, not only students and parents.

I am speaking as a parent whose kids did not have bad results and CCAs so it's normal for others to expect me to \"accept what the system offers\".

I dread to see the day that kids must get AAA or AAB to gain U admissions. To me, nothing to be ashamed of if the kid gets a certification from ITE, BBB for A levels, being unable to enter U after poly diploma, or switching from one course to another. If the kid is genuine about his/ her interests (interests = strong motivator), and yet the doors are closed unless one has AAA/ AAB combinations above for all areas of interests, it's time to find out what went wrong.

MOE recently said kids have to be given space to grow and be independent but I see many scholarships explicitly fixated on excellent results and CCAs. Teaching qualities aren't uniform and CCA trials are not always created fair these days. Alignments are badly needed. We can argue that many other attributes are subjective, but there are others that are at least partially not and yet, not included. We can also argue that \"unfortunately there must be some benchmarks for scholarships\". Unlikely affecting the well heeled (and I assume that we here are from the \"middle class\"). However, scholarships are increasingly becoming high stakes avenues when the spectre of tertiary education costs (among the total costs of living) and underemployments stack up. Competitions are ok and I believe we should encourage kids to put their best foot forward but in Porter's world, it's also about bringing down the intensity of competitions that reach unhealthy levels.

Kids these days have to contend with issues on class and unlevel playing fields too. Scholarship criteria largely ignore these elements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pDdd16XtIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8frwa5JdaQ
Then areas that no one broaches, e.g. not that all female undergrads are ok but there are those after sugar daddies to fund their studies.

Hi, I am looking for A levels H2 Biology face to face tuition for DD. Would anyone be able to provide recommendations, contact ? Any guidelines for typical charges will be appreciated too.

I am also trying to find a pair of track shoes for her. The grooves should not be shallow ones. Does anyone know of a "warehouse sale" so that time can be saved instead of visiting shops one by one ? If you have made track shoe purchases online and bought from a different brand, how straightforward is the experience to gauge the right shoe size ? (we had an experience when we ordered the wrong size and getting a refund was a nightmare).
Thanks in advance.

Just seen the calculators offered by simkhoo and rrruthie. Is there no difference in how RP is calculated for a H2 and a H3 subject ? e.g. a H2 B grade is the same as a H3 B grade ?

If this is the case, is H3 only taken when the individual has a strong interest and time, or when he/ she wants additional doors to be open (e.g. for science subjects, it could be research) ? If this is the case, is it right to say that an individual taking H2 science subject is not allowed to do scientific research in that subject ?

Ok, I guess based on the timings you folks replied on the forum and my message out, some of the questions in my immediate posts at 9.18pm were already answered. There are still outstanding ones for the 9.18pm posts though. May I know for those of you with children in sc, what time do they usually sleep ?

I may be the minority but I am thinking in terms of balancing personal development, grades and sleep. If sleep hours for jc1 and jc2 are different, also advise.

Why is RP90 even a measure that people talk about if it doesn’t count for anything significantly different ?


"Did you ask the students when you saw them? What did they say? What was their reason to “fight for a jc student council participation“?"

Nope, one problem we faced was the time taken for the open houses. In that short 2 days, we actually covered different jcs. We actually covered quite a lot of questions but left out those I posted here inadvertently.
I am not expecting answers to all questions but do you (or anyone) have insights why ?

"Should be the same between sec school student council exco and non-exco. You could try asking your daughter for the difference in her sec school between these 2 groups. If she is interested, she should find out."

She knows the differences in secondary school. I am still back to the original question :
"I mean, sure there are students who want to develop leadership skills but is this the only significant reason ?", meaning what impact would it have on e.g. admissions, scholarships, additional opportunities etc ?, Nothing ?, Exactly the same as O levels ?"

"Why would they have more student council members year on year? They will graduate and leave the school and another new cohort joins the school."

What I mean is e.g. in year 2020, there were b students for incoming cohort. out of these students c were from affiliated ip/ dual track schools. So those non affiliated will be b-c.
For student council members in that cohort, there were d students out of which e were from affiliated ip/ dual track schools.
So if we compare c/b and e/f, will there be a significant difference year on year for a particular jc ?
Same line of question applies to years 2021, 2022, and proportions of student council exco members. Maybe we can consider the following jcs : ejc, hjc, nyjc, ri, vjc ?

My son’s case (long story) also came with turn of events and suffice to say "in life, you win some, you lose some". But thanks for your concerns (not just curiosity)

I need some help here. For the past 2 years, dd and us had set our sights for her to enrol into a poly this year. The original arguments (for poly and not jc) were similar to what some folks here have put up.

By a turn of events (nothing to do with e.g. fickle-mindedness, adaptability issues, friends’ influence), she opted for jcs for first few choices in this year’s submission and we (have to) support her.

However, this meant that there were certain areas on jc which we had not found out enough :
(a) what is RP90 exactly ? Is this some score that must be obtained for e.g. selected (?) admissions, scholarships or something ?

(b) what possible common reasons can there be for a student to fight for a jc student council participation, articulated or otherwise ? I asked this because in two cases, a non-negligible number of the students we spoke to had somehow turned to other ccas only after unsuccessful attempts to get a place in a student council.

how much difference are we talking about between a student council exco member and a student council member ? I mean, sure there are students who want to develop leadership skills but is this the only significant reason ?

(d) for jcs with ip/ dual track affiliations, did they have more student council members or student council exco members year on year with students from these ip/ dual track affiliations by proportions of student "origin" to vacancies ? If there are jc/(s) in this category that exhibit a different trend, which one/(s) ?
Thanks

On the safe side, it’s good to have one of the parents to keep a close tab on the child’s developments while in secondary school these days.

We often hear of known tradeoffs in selecting schools, which can be gathered through standard sources. Not expecting schools to be perfect and I am not an advocate of molly-coddling. Fine if everything is ok but occasions exist when it is not the child’s fault when something goes wrong/ terribly wrong. On the other hand, there are rave reviews of what certain schools come with too.

Thanks. What languages does he learn ? Does he have computing projects with hardware ? Yes, we have attended 2 poly open houses so far. As in all open houses, we cannot be sure if the schools only showcase what look ‘great’. This is why we are asking around too.

staypositive\" post_id=\"2078247\" time=\"1660384246\" user_id=\"1713:

My son choose to go to poly instead of JC. He EAE-ed into Ngee Ann for IT during Sec4. Now he’s finishing his cybersecurity course and will be doing internship with a Big4. On hindsight it was a great choice, he is really happy, doing & studying what he loves, even though he chose the path less travelled. At one stage while still in sec4, he felt so lousy and really bad and started questioning if he should go to JC instead / the trigger was that all his classmates were talking about JCs. Going to poly was like as if ‘you are second grade’ and not good enough for JC.

As parents we had our fair share of “advice” , snickering, the look from neighbours and older folks on why we let him choose poly and not JC. Frankly, his aptitude and genuine motivation matters , not what others think or say coz these people are not living his life. As parents, we were steadfast and happy that we stayed focus above all the noise to support him

Ok, we are on the same page. DD's friends are also thinking about JCs while she is thinking about Poly. Why did your son consider EAE ? Is it because he has already found out about other Polys and made up his mind ? Why Ngee Ann and another Poly ? Did he join any CCA in Poly ?