Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
The release of the GCE O level results has seen the hopes of some realised, while there are those whose hope has been crushed (so it seems). However an issue that cropped up was that of students applying to polytechnics despite the fact that their grades were sufficient for entry into a JC.
As a result several students who expected to qualify for certain polytechnic courses did not qualify due to the competition from the aforementioned students. As expected some parents took to arms, writing to the forum decrying that it was unfair for the top students to deprive people of their places in poly and so on so forth. The Mainstream Media capped it of with an article in the Sunday Times, which carried some comments from the said students which i found abit insensitive, but thats not the point here.
Yes it is indeed sad for those students who were banking on getting their favourite courses, but did not get them. However, having failed that, i hope they can learn some lessons from this and stand up and fight again. Sure you may not be able to take the course u want now, but there are other options (which have nothing to do with the Northeast Line and so on) which one can explore. Not getting what one wants is a common thing in life; be it in love, sex, money so on so forth. And we should not blame those students who chose the poly route. They are also pursuing their dreams, its not as if they woke up one day and decided to make u miserable.
But now to the next part. I see this trend as a good thing. For years people have been under the erroneous assumption that polytechnics are for those who cannot make it to JC. Thats bull. I never liked the fact that people tend to throw the "go to poly" line whenever they were unhappy with someone's result. And i never saw any point in perpertrating the poly is like that, jc is like this kind of nonsense. Such divisiveness only serves to drive a barrier. Poly and JC each serve their own purpose in the grand scheme of things.
Thus this new trend could help shift the erroneous mindset with regards to a poly education; hopefully in time to come, people will see that poly, and ITE, is merely another route to the end point and do not attach any of the nonsensical notions that "top scorers" should stick to JC and so on so forth.
The release of the GCE O level results has seen the hopes of some realised, while there are those whose hope has been crushed (so it seems). However an issue that cropped up was that of students applying to polytechnics despite the fact that their grades were sufficient for entry into a JC.
As a result several students who expected to qualify for certain polytechnic courses did not qualify due to the competition from the aforementioned students. As expected some parents took to arms, writing to the forum decrying that it was unfair for the top students to deprive people of their places in poly and so on so forth. The Mainstream Media capped it of with an article in the Sunday Times, which carried some comments from the said students which i found abit insensitive, but thats not the point here.
Yes it is indeed sad for those students who were banking on getting their favourite courses, but did not get them. However, having failed that, i hope they can learn some lessons from this and stand up and fight again. Sure you may not be able to take the course u want now, but there are other options (which have nothing to do with the Northeast Line and so on) which one can explore. Not getting what one wants is a common thing in life; be it in love, sex, money so on so forth. And we should not blame those students who chose the poly route. They are also pursuing their dreams, its not as if they woke up one day and decided to make u miserable.
But now to the next part. I see this trend as a good thing. For years people have been under the erroneous assumption that polytechnics are for those who cannot make it to JC. Thats bull. I never liked the fact that people tend to throw the "go to poly" line whenever they were unhappy with someone's result. And i never saw any point in perpertrating the poly is like that, jc is like this kind of nonsense. Such divisiveness only serves to drive a barrier. Poly and JC each serve their own purpose in the grand scheme of things.
Thus this new trend could help shift the erroneous mindset with regards to a poly education; hopefully in time to come, people will see that poly, and ITE, is merely another route to the end point and do not attach any of the nonsensical notions that "top scorers" should stick to JC and so on so forth.
5 Comments:
At 4:18 PM ,
Anonymous said...
I agree that the new trend may be a good thing. Whenever Singaporeans lament about the inequity of life. Education is one of them and streaming being the top bug-bear. They may not see that there are those beyond their control and those quite easily changed.
The perception of those in Extended, EM3, and its current reincarnation is just one of the things that if society so-willed can change with no nod from the government needed!
All that society has to do is refuse to stigmatize them. Ignore the temporary labels that the Ministry applies. Caring parents and extended families can sponsor their sons and daugthers to develope their strengths not defined or recognized by the system. Make up for the difference in resources going into the elite schools versus neighbourhood schools. Recognize that education is for the whole person and beyond what Singaporeans trivially calls "academic achievement".
Now that the line between JC and Poly is blurred, maybe the society would think twice before applying streotypes that it is so comfortable with. The box may have been drawn by the government but the society need not agree with it. Time to pull youself up by your own bootstraps :)
Unless, goodness forbid, I am completly wrong, the box was set by the society with no part played by the government!
At 5:15 PM ,
Ned Stark said...
With regards to who should take the blame, its rather hard to say. Its one of them chicken and egg situations. And things like IP, and scholarships serve to perpetrate the system. So who should change? Singapore Society is a product of social engineering and thus it seems that only a top down approach can work. The sad thing is people still take their cue from Zheng hu:(
At 8:31 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Cheer up. I would like to think that there are sheep and there are thinking sheep. If we see the whole herd careering off a cliff, we just say xiao and turn the other way.
A cuppucino toppped with lotsa cocoa powder helps, though its kinda late for coffee. Try it tomorrow :)
At 5:48 PM ,
nofearSingapore said...
Hi winter,
we should always encourage our young people in their pursuits.
I personally feel that it is not important which route one takes as long as one sees life as a journey and JC/poly/U or neither of these are just part of this long and interesting journey.
We will experience ups and downs but society and employers ( and admission officers) should give all a second chance. Not all can score straight A's for every test/exams. We already know that straight A students do not necessarily succeed in life ( no matter how one define success).
Hope our society give all a fair chance.
Dr.Huang
At 12:51 AM ,
Ned Stark said...
Dr Huang,
Thanks for visiting my humble blog. I agree, our society tends not to like to give people the second chance; rather it seems to enjoy passing judgements on people. I feel that the Public service commission should take the lead in this matter, by drawing scholars from a wider range. I had a friend from poly who went for MOE interview; the interviewer kept harping on why he did not study in a JC.
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