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Chinese Part 5

I read that reading and writing daily can help keep the brain active and so prevent or delay the onset of dementia. Hopefully, writing one's blog helps there.

Back to the topic of Chinese, I have a brainwave, ha ha. If the weighting for Chinese in the PSLE is to be reduced (which, if it happens, had better be well explained with reasons much more substantial than giving children a better shot at getting into top schools), let it be reduced to whatever-it-will-be and then bonus points (and definitely much more than the measley 2 points currently given for good performance in Higher MT) be given to those who get A and better.

Actually, I also see there is an argument for similarly reducing the weighting for Science but I guess the Minister for Ed probably doesn't want to go there...

So let me keep my thoughts to myself for the moment though I cannot help thinking about it now that the idea of tweaking the PSLE scoring has been broached. After all, there are 'important' subjects that are not even 'counted' in the PSLE. Would anyone argue that PE, moral education (in whatever form) and Social Studies are not important, for example? They don't even have one point in the PSLE score, so why can't we change the scoring for any or all of the four 'important' subjects?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Fuzzoo:
Good idea! Give those kiasu parents what they want but don't let them get away with it. And schools, at least the independent and autonomous ones, should be given the freedom to choose what sort of students they want to admit. I bet you the top schools will screen out those who don't do well in 2nd lang bec afterall 2nd lang is also a subject at secondary level and these top schools have always been able to fill up their vacancies with students who do well in all 4 subjects so why should they bother with those who do well only in 3? If you can't cope with just 4 subjects, how do you think a top school will see you? It's not the Chinese weightage that needs to be lowered; it's those kiasu parents' expectations of their kids that need to be lowered!!!
household name said…
Ah, thank you, my idea has at least one supporter. Unfortunately, the authorities are definitely not choosing my way...

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