Direct School Admission (DSA) students in Integrated Programme schools:
Parents of children who have been admitted into IP schools have expressed their concern to me on their anxieties, mainly whether their child will be able to cope with the rigorous educational standards of the top schools even though many of them do not meet the cutoff scores of their individual schools. I can assure you that with enough preparation, your child will be ready to meet the expectations of their IP schools and do better than their peers. I will cover this issue in the points below.
- Your child’s PSLE grade is low because of their success in the DSA interview.
Once a 12yo child is informed that he/she has been admitted into a top school before taking the PSLE, their typical response will be a sigh of relief and a more relaxed attitude towards one of the most stressful exams in Singapore. Most of my DSA students, and including my friends who have been successful in DSA applications into IP schools, have told me that the days leading up to PSLE have been stress-free, and they are able to focus more on their CCAs instead of just pure academics. This is shown in their lower PSLE scores as compared to their peers in their respective IP schools, who have been spending a lot of time hitting the ten year series as their spots in the IP schools are not secured. I assure you that if your child studied more during those days, he/she would see a significant jump in their PSLE scores as well. They are by no means lacking in terms of intelligence compared to their peers.
- There are quite a few skills or chapters covered in the PSLE that have insignificant impact on secondary school life
In the chapters of Science, only human/plant systems, forces, energy, man and his environment are tested in Secondary school. The bulk of what they learn in Primary 6, which is animal based such as environmental impact, web of life, adaptation, is completely untested at the Secondary level. For Math, the skills used in the last 20 marks of the exam, which essentially act as a gatekeeper to A* grade, are used to tackle open ended problem sums with abstract concepts. These skills may not be of great value in Secondary level Maths which focuses more on laws, procedure and presentation. In English, compositions test students on creative narrative writing, whereas Secondary level English tests them on argumentative essays, which place more importance on current affairs, and debating of key points rather than narrative and creative writing. In Secondary school, discipline and conscientiousness is more important, as compared to primary school which values open ended problem solving through problem sums and seemingly out of textbook structured question answers.
- The schools provide extra assistance to their DSA students
It should come as no surprise that the DSA students are valued members of the school as they are their representatives in CCAs. If students are taken out of class due to CCA commitments, there will be avenues for the teachers to cover those lost lessons with them again. CCAs are also expected to stand down during exam periods, especially during finals where the weightage of the exams are the highest.
That being said, DSA students should never rest on their laurels. IP is a competitive system that has sieved out most of the academically gifted children in Singapore. To do well in such an environment requires intense efforts from both parents as well as students to ensure that they do not stray from the path of academic excellence.
Mr Y.S Pang, IP Math and Science tutor at Singapore Learner
OUR IP TUTORS:
Mr Pang: Mr Pang graduated with a B.Eng(Honors) from NUS, and has been coaching students in O-level/IP and A-level Mathematics and Science for more than 5 years. An alumnus of RVHS(IP) and an experienced tutor in IP/A-level education, Mr Pang is a results oriented tutor whose students do very well in exams through efficient learning methods and exam preparation skills. Mr Pang employs a variety of teaching methods to cater to every type of learner, as well as teaching them the skill of self diagnostics, giving them the ability to constantly spot and rectify their own errors. He takes pride in inspiring his students to become confident learners and critical thinkers.
Mr Ilyasa: An NIE-trained Teacher, Mr Ilyasa has been coaching students in O-Level & IP Chemistry, Physics and Math for more than 12 years. An alumnus of Raffles Institution, Mr Ilyasa holds a a Bachelor of Science degree from the NUS as well as a Master of Education (Curriculum & Teaching) degree from the National Institute of Education. Mr Ilyasa’s thinking and metacognitive approaches to problem solving has helped many students of varying abilities to excel in Math and the Sciences. He has coached students from many different schools and streams, including IP, SAP, and IB.
For INDIVIDUAL (1-1) TUITION, you may contact Mr Ilyasa at 97860411.
IMPORTANCE of HEAD START for ECONOMICS
Hi all,
I am Mr Jimmy Teh, currently a tutor for Economics Headstart and Relearning Programme with SG Learner.
I have taught in JC since 2008, before venturing into tuition in 2015.
As a former teacher who was once in a mainstream school, I am aware of the rigour of JC curriculum and how it is designed to promote critical thinkers and self-directed learners. However, there will be times when it will be difficult, especially during the whole preparation for the new term, orientations for the group leaders and even those competing and preparing for their CCA major competitions.
Thus, I feel it will be crucial to have programmes specially catered to these group of students who might find their first term of school to be exceedingly overwhelming and would prefer to have some fundaments covered.
These courses are planned with a unique set of notes for easy learning and come with its own diagnostics to help you to identify the root cause of your issues, be it inadequacies in the understanding of content, unable to tackle the question fully or not using the right words for the answers.
Work done will also be fully assessed, with sufficient rigour and exposure in these programmes.
So feel free to join me in our programs at Bukit Batok!
Contact 6569 4897 or whatsapp 9385 5341 for more details.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s quotes on education
Here are some of the words said about education by our first Prime Minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, in 1966:
Teachers are very important:
“In my experience – both as a pupil in school and in universities, and subsequently in trying to teach people at large simple political ideas – the most important person is the man who is in charge of the boy. The principal is also important: he maintains discipline in the school, although he cannot substitute for the teacher, the form-master, who commands the respect and the affection of the class and who gives of himself. For effective teaching, – such as explaining to an ignorant audience the simple A.B.C. of currency or reserves backing, and why our currency could be sound if we do this and do that – one really has to give of oneself. The process demands effort and nervous energy.”
Principals must be dedicated to their work:
“After all those who are good enough to be promoted to principals must have had some dedication; otherwise, it is sheer lunacy to put a man in charge of a school.”
Why engineering is unpopular (even today):
“Secondly, we cannot afford to produce the kind of pupils we did before. All of them went in for qualities which led to individual survival. You ask any bright boy what he wants to do. He wants to be a doctor. Why? Because then he can go anywhere in the world; he will still be a doctor and make money. Or, if he can’t, he will be a lawyer because he also makes money that way. But if he is asked to be an engineer or an architect or to do something else he says “Then what happens? If the country collapses I can’t get another job elsewhere. This attitude must change.”
The kind of students we want to produce:
“What is the ideal product? The ideal product is the student, the university graduate, who is strong, robust, rugged, with tremendous qualities of stamina, endurance and at the same time, with great intellectual discipline and, most important of all, humility and love for his community; a readiness to serve whether God or king or country or, if you like, just his community.”
Teachers must feel they are doing something worthwhile:
“No teacher can really perform his duty unless he feels he is doing something worthwhile. Every school teacher in the classroom must feel for and with his flock of 35 or 32 children. Unless he does that, the teacher cannot give his pupil something.”
Schooled but not educated:
“I am extremely anxious about the generation that is growing up literate but uneducated. They can read; they can write; they can pass examinations. But they are not really educated; they have not formed; they have not developed. They are not effective digits for the community.”
On single-session schools:
“No more primary schools need be built until the day when it is decided that Singapore is rich enough to have every school running only one session. And that day will come, provided the people work hard and good administration is maintained; and most probably in ten years’ time, there will be in each school a playing field, gymnasium, school hall — all the paraphernalia required to build a complete citizen.”
The above are taken from an address — New Bearings in Our Education System — to school principals in Singapore, by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, on August 29, 1966.
A mission for teachers …
“We who are teachers would have to accommodate ourselves to lives as clerks or functionaries if we did not have in mind a quest for a better state of things for those we teach and for the world we all share. It is simply not enough for us to reproduce the way things are.” (p.1)
– Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
A new mission for schools …
“The 10 jobs projected to be the most in-demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004. Thus, the new mission of schools must be to prepare students to work at jobs that do not yet exist, creating ideas and solutions for products and problems that have not yet been identified, using technologies that have not yet been invented.”
– Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University, in the Straits Times, Aug 26 2009, p. A12.
Quote on Teaching …
“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
John Dewey
Happy Teachers’ Day!
I would like to wish all Teachers (including myself), a Happy Teachers’ Day. May we continue to facilitate wonderment and awe in our students about their experiences so that they will be ready to think for themselves when the time comes.
Here I would like to print a quote (from Maxine Greene) that I learnt in my Master of Education course at the NIE:
“We who are teachers would have to accommodate ourselves to lives as clerks or functionaries if we did not have in mind a quest for a better state of things for those we teach and for the world we all share. It is simply not enough for us to reproduce the way things are.” (Greene, 1995, p.1)
Rgds,
References:
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Quote – on opportunity, hope and belief ….
“Given a proper environment with tender, loving care and a good dose of discipline, a single seed can blossom into beautiful roses. All children can be educated if given a chance and the belief.” (Frances Ess, a teacher, in TODAY, 1 Sep 2011, p. 22)
Quote – On the need to remove labelling …
“..persons marked as unworthy are unlikely to feel good enough to pose the questions in which learning begins, unlikely to experience whatever curriculum is presented as relevant to their being in the world.” (p. 212)
Greene, M. (1993). Diversity and inclusion: toward a curriculum for human beings. Teachers College Record, 95(2), 211-221.