Singapore No. 1 in Education

[Picnic06-Biante15]

journalist must be from NUS...  such a basic spelling error.. 

 

 

         

[Jamesc]

There is nothing wrong with the education system

 

its the teachers that are the problem.

 

I couldn't read and I couldn't write and

 

they wouldn't let me talk so skool to me

 

was a complete waste of time.

 

[Jamesc]

I said it before. Education in Singapore is like factory or macdonalds churning out workers. There is good and bad. Good because you get a continuous stream of workers who has the ability to work. Bad is because you get hordes of workers with similar skill set all vying for limited number of jobs. That's why FT still have a place in Singapore because we can't think out of the box.

 

This is very true.

 

Lucky I never pay attention in skool.

 

[Lala81]

I dunno how this is going to work out. But this should be for the better.

 

But even getting them to school maybe difficult.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/compulsory-education-for-all-special-needs-children-from-2019/3260830.html

 

 

SINGAPORE: Starting from 2019, all children with special needs who are above six years old and below 15 will have to attend school, Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng said on Friday (Nov 4).

Currently, children with moderate to severe special needs are exempt from compulsory education. These children will be included under the Compulsory Education Act starting from the Primary 1 registration exercise in 2018 for the 2019 cohort.

All Singaporean children of school-going age are required to regularly attend a national primary school, unless they were granted an exemption due to physical or intellectual disabilities, or if they attend a designated school such as a madrasah, NorthLight School or Assumption Pathway School, or are home-schooled.

There are about 1,770 children per cohort with special education needs, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said. About 75 per cent of them have mild special needs like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia, and attend mainstream schools. They are not exempted under the Compulsory Education Act.

The remaining 25 per cent – about 400 children per cohort – have moderate to severe conditions like visual impairment, autism or multiple disabilities, and are exempted under the Act. According to MOE, the majority of them attend Government-funded special education (SPED) schools run by voluntary welfare organisations.

But 10 per cent of them, or about 40 children, do not go to SPED schools for various reasons, said MOE. They could be home-schooled, enrolled in private education institutions or are unable to attend due to physical or intellectual disabilities.

With the change, all children with moderate to severe special education needs will be required to attend the primary-level sections of specified SPED schools. Exemptions will still be considered, but on a case-by-case basis, the ministry said.

‘A MORE INCLUSIVE SOCIETY’

MOE said that the change is part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to build a more inclusive society. “While parents are primarily responsible for ensuring that children attend school, the Government is also committed to providing school places and opportunities for learning for all Singaporean children,” it said.

Speaking at a special education conference on Friday, Mr Ng described the change as “a significant milestone” in Singapore’s "continuing drive towards national inclusiveness". But he added that the Government is mindful of the challenges given the "sheer diversity and complexity of the special needs landscape".

"There will continue to be a small group of children with serious conditions who will not be able to attend school, or whose parents may still prefer to teach at home," he said. "We will need to work out exemption processes for this group to ensure their interests and welfare are safeguarded.

"But the overall policy intent is clear, as is our determination to facilitate what will be in the best interests of our children.”

Mr Ng said that MOE will appoint an advisory panel chaired by Minister of State for Education Dr Janil Puthucheary to recommend how to implement the change.

The panel members will have in-depth professional expertise in supporting children with special education needs, and could include those in the public healthcare sector, school leadership and voluntary welfare organisations.

MOE WORKING TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF SPED EDUCATION

In a Facebook post on Friday, Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin said the move to extend compulsory education to children with special needs was a “huge step in making Singapore a more inclusive society”.

It also supports the recommendation in the second Enabling Masterplan for more support for these children to access education, he said.

“This will help children with special needs to realise their potential, and open up opportunities for continual learning and employment,” Mr Tan added.

In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia, MOE said that with more students being diagnosed with autism, there has been an increase in demand for places in SPED schools.

Some of these schools, especially those which cater to children with more severe needs, currently have a waitlist for admission, the ministry said.

“To reduce these waitlists, MOE is expanding the physical capacity of these schools, and working closely with the National Council of Social Services (NCSS) and SPED schools to recruit more teachers,” it said.

“MOE, together with NCSS, will continue to closely monitor SPED school places and infrastructure to ensure the timely placement of students with moderate to severe special education needs.”

Still, the change in the Compulsory Education Act is not expected to bring about a significant increase in the number of students enrolling in SPED schools, MOE said.

“Each year, there are only around 40 children with special education needs who are enrolled in private education institutions, are home-schooled or unable to attend schools due to severe disabilities,” it said. “Some of these children could continue to be exempted even with this compulsory education extension. They are not on any waitlist.”

- CNA/cy

 

[Mason016]

I dunno how this is going to work out. But this should be for the better.

 

But even getting them to school maybe difficult.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/compulsory-education-for-all-special-needs-children-from-2019/3260830.html

 

It is for the better.  My kid was the helper of one of her special needs classmate who was suffering from cerebral palsy.  It was a real eye opener for her and shaped some of her beliefs.

 

Also had a kid with Asperger's and that kid is now in NUS High.

[Jman888]

I dunno how this is going to work out. But this should be for the better.

 

But even getting them to school maybe difficult.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/compulsory-education-for-all-special-needs-children-from-2019/3260830.html

 

 

the key word is 'inclusive', mild ADHD and autism can be improved if no one exclude them.

 

the article is published before the purple parade event tomorrow to create more awareness. 

 

http://www.purpleparade.sg/

[Lala81]

the key word is 'inclusive', mild ADHD and autism can be improved if no one exclude them.

 

the article is published before the purple parade event tomorrow to create more awareness. 

 

http://www.purpleparade.sg/

 

Ah i see didn't know that.

It is for the better.  My kid was the helper of one of her special needs classmate who was suffering from cerebral palsy.  It was a real eye opener for her and shaped some of her beliefs.

 

Also had a kid with Asperger's and that kid is now in NUS High.

 

Yeah, when my child is older, i would like to expose them as well.

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Lala81

[Weez911]

A Daughter’s Deadly Deception
by Jeremy Grimaldi
Dundurn

 

 

 

In 2010, a young Canadian woman named Jennifer Pan hired hitmen to fake a break-in at her family home and shoot her parents.

 

 

Her father, Huei Hann, saved himself by dragging his bleeding body onto the front lawn. Her mother, Bich Ha, died on the spot, but not before begging for her daughter to be spared. Little did she know that Jennifer was sitting upstairs, listening to the screams as the crime she had masterminded unfolded.

 

 

Many readers who pick up A Daughter’s Deadly Deception, by Canadian journalist Jeremy Grimaldi, will be aware of the high-profile case on which the book is based. News of the murder sent shockwaves across Canada and the Asian diaspora, in large part because the assault seemed so unlikely. The crime took place in the comfortable Toronto suburb of Markham, which has a large Asian population. The victims were hardworking ethnic Chinese immigrants from Vietnam, relaxing at home on a quiet Monday night.

 

 

The main suspect turned out to be their polite, bespectacled, 24-year-old daughter – an accomplished student, athlete and musician who blamed her mental breakdown on years of extreme parental pressure.

 

 

The story stayed in the news throughout years of police investigations and the trial that followed. Last year, Pan, her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Wong, and two accomplices were sentenced to life in prison; a fifth conspirator was sentenced on a lesser charge.

 

 

Grimaldi, a court reporter who covered the case, takes a closer look at the crime in this almost 350-page book. With the culprits long since jailed, this is a psychological thriller that is not so much a whodunnit as a how-done-it and why-done-it. What possible motive could Pan have had?

 

 

Grimaldi begins with a vivid snapshot of the crime. Pan’s father was sleeping after a long day at work and her mother, wearing her pyjamas, was soaking her feet in a tub when three men rushed into the home brandishing guns. The couple shouted out in English and Cantonese before being dragged to the basement and shot.

 

 

 

Some of Grimaldi’s best writing comes in his description of the police questioning of Pan. He used transcripts, video footage and photo stills to recreate the hours she spent in a window­less interrogation room, at times hunched over sobbing, at others curled in a fetal position. Grimaldi explains the psychological techniques used by the veteran detectives, and it is here the reader learns of the pressures that brought about Pan’s derangement.

 

 

Like many Asian children, Pan was expected to maintain a strict schedule that often kept her up until midnight. A talented musician and athlete, she was told she could be a concert pianist or even compete in the Olympics as a figure skater. Make-up, dating and school dances were forbidden.

 

 

As a ninth grader, she used art supplies to doctor her maths and science results. It was a child’s white lie. But as time passed the web of deception she wove became ever more tangled until, too terrified to admit she had failed senior-year calculus, Pan secretly dropped out of high school. On what was to be her first day at uni­versity, she left home with the new laptop her parents had proudly presented her with and sat for the day in a public library.

 

 

The tragic irony of Pan’s tale is that, while not an Olympian or maths whiz, she shouldn’t have been on the path to delinquency, either. She had been a decent student with a high-school boy­friend, a job at a pizza parlour, a younger brother she loved and dreams of becoming a music teacher.

 

 

Nevertheless, she spent years paying professional forgers so that she could pretend she had graduated from university and was working as a pharmacist.

 

 

When her parents eventually discovered her lies, they cut her off from her long-term boyfriend and confiscated her money and phone. Aged 24, Pan was given a 9pm curfew. Having already shown signs of depression and self-harm, with this final blow, she broke down and plotted her revenge.

 

 

The police tracked down Pan’s hired hitmen to Rexdale, another Toronto suburb with large minority and immigrant populations.

 

 

Grimaldi uses Rexdale to put Pan’s crime into the context of greater Toronto, a multicultural city of almost five million people. Markham has many families like the Pans, living in McMansions and driving luxury cars. Thirty-five kilometres away in Rexdale other immigrants live in poverty, surrounded by crime. There is the unspoken assumption that, had it been a poor black couple shot in Rexdale, the crime would not have garnered anything like as much attention.

 

 

 

Pan’s accomplices were Jamaican Lenford Crawford; David Mylvaganam, born in Montreal to a Sri Lankan father and a Jamaican mother; and Eric Carty, a drug dealer who would be convicted of another murder. The crime they committed was heinous but the temptation is to cast all those involved as villains: the downtrodden daughter, the greedy thugs and the overbearing parents.

 

 

Perhaps it is the Canadian in Grimaldi that makes him look for a sympathetic side to every character. He does not excuse the inexcusable but he does seek out motivations. Deadly Deception might not be Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, but this thorough exploration of what leads seemingly decent people to horrific actions is no tawdry crime paperback, either.

 

News of the murder provoked hand-wringing in Asian communities worldwide, not least because “dragon” parenting was blamed in part for Pan’s actions.

 

 

Like many Hongkongers, I was aware of disturbing parts of my own culture being played out in the Pan family’s drama. Raised in Canada and America as the child of immigrants, I found Hann and Bich Ha’s approach extreme but not un­com­mon for parents intent on giving the next generation a good start. The pressure put on children can be enormous, but so are the struggles faced by their parents in a new country.

 

 

Grimaldi, a white Canadian, does his best to illuminate both sides. He has certainly done his homework, citing Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and essays such as Candice Chung’s Why Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You.

 

 

In the end it is the story of the father, the book’s most sympathetic character, that resonates most.

 

 

Hann arrived in Canada aged 26 as a refugee and “boat person”, with little money and next to no English. He rose each day at 5am and worked overtime in a factory to pay for his children’s education. He and his wife for years delayed a trip to Vietnam, waiting first for their children to graduate from university.

 

 

We later see Hann in a courtroom as an ageing widower recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, testifying through a translator against the daughter who betrayed him.

 

 

One of the family’s requests to the court was that Jennifer not be allowed to contact them. For the next two decades, she is legally barred from saying one word to her father and brother. Not even to apologise.

 

[Showster]

Best university is passe?

 

We are now gunning for the no. 1 in preschool education?

[Sosaria]

It may be pressurizing, but still feel thankful that our education system gives us practical value in seeking employment.

 

Did some work in regional countries in the past, and can see our education sys prepares us well and accredited internationally.

 

In these other countries, young people may have "university" education but mostly end up doing only lower level jobs and have few prospects. To add to the disadvantage, english not widely used. The young office admin staff in the branch of the company i was with all had degrees. Even the "chicken" have univ cert, i am not joking.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Sosaria

[premiumstar]

who dares to deny it

[DACH]

Even the "chicken" have univ cert, i am not joking.

 

University of Pok Pok Pok Gey?

Degree in clucking?

     

[Pinobii]

The women quite mean, how can make this kinda comment infront of the taxi uncle but his response is epic...

 

From ASS:

 

WOMAN TELL SON TO STUDY HARD OR HE WILL BECOME LIKE S'POREAN TAXI UNCLE, BUT HIS REPLY...

 

A taxi driver shared this funny but sad encounter during one of his trips from Singapore's iconic Marina Bay Sands to their condominium.

 

"One day I fetch a well dressed lady with her son in my taxi from MBS to their condo.

 

The lady told her son "You better study hard and go to University. Or else you will end up driving a taxi like this uncle."

 

I reply, "Excuse me madam, I actually got a law degree from University of London. But I like to fetch people home."

 

The boy said "Cool, when I grow up I want to be like uncle."

 

The lady said "Son, today we took the wrong taxi."

[Jamesc]

Education is very important.

 

We should learn from the best.

 

This is what they are teaching in Harvard. 

 

  

 

[Lala81]

Right step.

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/exams-assessments-scrap-mid-year-primary-secondary-schools-10767370

[DACH]

Move to remove exams at Primary 2 level draws mixed reactions

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/move-to-remove-exams-at-p2-level-draws-mixed-reactions

 

SINGAPORE - Starting next year, Primary 2 pupils will no longer have to sit for assessments and exams.

Their teachers will continue using bite-sized forms of assessments such as worksheets, class work and homework to gauge their students' learning, but their grades will not count towards an overall assessment score.

In 2010, the Ministry of Education (MOE) did away with exams at Primary 1 - pupils were graded through informal assessments - and Primary 2 pupils had to sit only one final-year exam.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung, who announced the changes to school heads earlier this week at the annual Workplan Seminar, said those changes in 2010 "reduced stress for lower primary school students, who by and large enjoy school more".

Said Mr Ong: "We will build on this good work. We know that teaching and learning comprises three important components - curricular goals and content, pedagogy and assessment - and together they form a triangle.

"Today, the three components are not balanced. As we overemphasised assessment, we inadvertently reduced the time available for schools to focus on teaching and learning. We need to redress this balance."

Parents and educators had mixed feelings over the latest change.

 

Some parents raised concerns that, without a proper benchmark, they might be unable to gauge their children's standards.

Mrs Cheryl Sim, 49, who has a Primary 1 son in Tao Nan School, said: "In Primary 1, it's good not to have exams so the kids can adjust to a new learning environment.

"But once they are in Primary 2, it might actually be good to have a formal assessment of how they are doing and if they have any catching up to do, before it's too late."

However, some others welcomed the change.

Mrs Dadina Wong, 42, whose son will start Primary 1 in Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) next year, said of the change: "I am comforted. The kids will be less stressed - maybe we don't have to send him for tuition, but rather we can revise slowly with him in our own time.

"It's a different kind of learning and we have more time to manage it as well."

Educators also said that informal modes of assessment would give them a more holistic understanding of their pupils' progress. Moreover, the two exam-free years would allow them to reflect on and explore the way they teach.

Mr Dominic Sy, year head of the Primary 1 and 2 levels at Henry Park Primary School, added: "The removal of exams at P1 and P2 enables students to better transit from kindergarten to Primary 1 by focusing on strengthening their social-emotional competencies and equipping them with important life skills without placing undue stress on them."

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by DACH

[Weez911]

Moving forward, do we want more academic achievers like Chan Chun Sing and Ng Chee Meng, or do we want more entrepreneurs and creative individuals like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Henry Ford and Walt Disney?

[Sosaria]

Actually the education system is just a reflection of employers' requirements. Employers value specific, quantifiable achievements, for fresh entrants into the workforce. So exam results, qualifications are the only standard measure.

 

Changing the way forward by removing assessment and ranking makes the situation less transparent and who knows now what criteria they will use to "rank" students?

 

Yes, don't kid ourselves. Ranking WILL still be done, but now it will be hidden from public view.