Pri education gets revamp

As a product of the old education system, I really hope this new revamp works out like whats being envisioned. It certainly sounds good on paper, but planning and execution would almost certainly be arduous and not short of stakeholders’ complaints, doubts and skepticalism. However, as with any major revamp, it takes time to see the results, and I certainly hope that patience will be shown on this ambitious project.

Go for post-grad studies

Well, i say, easier said than done. University loan itself can be a killer upon graduation for students, and opting for post grad instead of having an income is simply a luxury for many. Although the minister highlighted available scholarships, there is a very limited number of such financial assistance, definitely not enough to cater to the 30,000 or so new fresh grad every year.

Sometimes, I feel that the newspaper is mostly written for a morale-booster, perhaps what critics will say, propaganda. No wonder youths are apathetic towards politics, and taxi drivers can usually be found, well… complaining (you know about what).

What to do before hiring a tutor

There was a recent case of a tutor being jailed for cheating and administrating a fake $10,000 MOE program to a PSLE boy. This piece of news have gotten several other to share their experience with bogus tutors. As such, CASE and MOE have collaborated and written a piece on what to do before hiring a tutor. With the dawn of the new year, and perhaps alot of tutor engagement activities, here’s to all parents and students, a better new year ahead!

Merry Christmas to All

Here’s to a merry merry christmas to all.

While Detroit Slept

For those who read “The World is Flat”, this is a column by the acclaimed author, Thomas Friedman in New York Times, on the automobile industry, both in the past and looking forward into the future.

Selecting the scholar

I thought this was an interesting piece. Even since Philip Yeo started the debate on the proportion of private property/HDB PSC scholars, I thought the government has not tackled this controversy head on. Coming from one of the top secondary schools, I remembered my teacher asking a similar question, on how many of us stay in private properties. Half of the class did, which was an astonishing figure to me at that point in time.

I suppose genes matter, and the government, not just the Singapore government but governments all around the world has a rather difficult task on hand, on how to narrow the widen income gap. To be honest, I feel that mandatory education, and meritocracy are the foremost important steps of all.

Single session schs good, but…

AMONG the many recommendations to improve primary school education, the one on getting these schools to go single session raised a buzz.

Implementing this change, however, may be another story, especially in the popular schools, which already have large enrolments straining their physical facilities.

Parents like the single-session idea, but have voiced their objections to these schools cutting their intakes or running second campuses elsewhere.

A panel looking into enhancing primary education here came up against these issues in recent focus group discussions it held for groups of parents, students and school principals.

The panel, formed last month to gather feedback from the ground and study the recommendations, is led by Senior Minister of State for Education Grace Fu.

Announced by the Education Minister in September, the changes to the primary education landscape include:

* Moving towards a single session to create more space and time for holistic learning;

* Moving towards an all-graduate recruitment by 2015, and

* Enhancing academic and co-curricular activities that build life skills and character in pupils.

At a discussion with 25 parents last Wednesday, many said they welcomed the idea of schools going single session because it would give their children more time in the afternoons.

But how soon this can become reality is hamstrung by some popular schools not having enough classroom space for all levels of pupils in one session.

Lawyer Shirley Lo, 40 and with three children in the popular Southview Primary in Choa Chu Kang, said she hoped that difficulties like space constraint and large enrolment would not keep Southview from going single-session.

‘Often, these popular schools which have large enrolments are the ones where resources are already stretched. They are the ones which will benefit most from going single-session, as teachers can meet more often and consolidate the use of resources,’ she said.

PAP aims to click with young

For those interested, PAP’s website is at http://www.pap.org.sg/video.html

Bigger libraries at malls

Nicely done. Speaking of libraries, they remind me of my 5 years old little nephew. My little nephew was recently diagnosed with myopia, and being an avid reader, the doctor’s advice for his mother was “Don’t bring him to the libraries, that will do more harm to him”. I thought it was certainly ironic

Social Entrepreneurship

Just to build on the previous post on how the rich gets richer, and the poorer and less educated seem to be left behind, I realised that increasingly, social entrepreneurship has been actively promoted in tertiary education. Personally, i have a few friends that are pretty into it. One of the more prominent groups i have heard of is SIFE (Student for Free Enterprise). Check it out at http://www.sife.org

Well, they say to teach a man how to fish rather than to give a man fish. That is supposed to be the gist of social entrepreneurship (Like all other big terms, academia can debate on the definitiion, but for simplicity sake, I’ll just stick to the fish analogy). However, i feel that in the Singapore context, the social entrepreneurship scene is still in its infant stage.  It seems to me that alot of people mix up volunteer work (give a man a fish) with social entrepreneurship (teach a man how to fish).

I have a friend who interned at one of the local stat boards that gives out funding for social enterprise. We had a chat about social entrepreneurship, and agreed that because there isn’t alot of people involved, the social enterprise ideas being generated are rather stale. I guess we cannot expect to see results overnight.

In short, I feel that SE still has a long way to go, but raising awareness amongst the population is probably the first and most effective way to go about for now.

(Since Social entrepreneurship is such a  big topic, it would be great if views are shared. Leave a comment )