Rilek1Corner

Tag: PSLE

  • Dzar Ismail: Parents Are Congratulated For Children’s PSLE Results, Don’t Forget To Thank Teachers Too

    Dzar Ismail: Parents Are Congratulated For Children’s PSLE Results, Don’t Forget To Thank Teachers Too

    My friend, a teacher had mixed feelings about the PSLE results today. A Foundation student he taught, managed to get into the Express stream. His parents beemed with pride, came up to my friend and cried. They apologized profusely. Why?

    Sometime early this year, they lodged a complaint to the school principal because they felt that my friend’s teaching skills were not conventional. My friend got a warning letter. An unneccesary warning letter.

    Visibly upset with what he felt was an unfair verdict, he could have toned down. But, he soldiered on because the student’s parents did not proactively help their child at home with his studies. The results were eminent early this morning.

    So when they came to apologize, and thank my friend, it was too late. Damage was done. The warning letter will affect his grade and his bonus.

    Ladies and gentlemen. This is why we lose quality individuals in the teaching fratenity. The system is quick to penalise our teachers just to appease their stakeholders.

    Not all teachers work for the money. Many I know do it because they want to unleash every child’s potential, regardless of the family social climate they come from.

    Ive seen many posts thanking parents. Here’s one to all the teachers for a job well done.

     

    Source: Dzar Ismail

  • Don’t Despair, PSLE Results Don’t Determine Your Life

    Don’t Despair, PSLE Results Don’t Determine Your Life

    I want friends and parents to do this: share with us your PSLE score and then tell us what you are doing now. It will give hope and motivation to the young ones that PSLE scores don’t necessarily determine your future.

    So let’s start the ball rolling:

    My PSLE score is 221. I am now an Associate Professor in a University.

     

    Source: Khairudin Aljunied

  • Angry Abang: Malay Community Must Not Look Down On Members Who Speak Malay

    Angry Abang: Malay Community Must Not Look Down On Members Who Speak Malay

    So everyone is talking about this Coco girl who is faking her accent to claim that she is mix. And everyone is like slamming her for it. Some people are going to the extent of saying that she is forgetting her roots and that she is just some Malay minah.

    I would just like to then ask a question—How about the Malays who are being fucking put down for TRYING to speak MALAY, but now feel inferior, cos people keep saying that they have a funny accent?

    Bear with me…. I am trying to make my point.

    I am MALAY. I am fucking proud to be a MALAY, because I believe that the MELAYUS have a rich culture and tradition. However, I have a problem. I have a speech problem. It was hard for me to admit it back then, but thanks to the people around me, I am slowly gaining the confidence to speak the language.

    It all started with my life in primary school. Not to sound pompous, but somehow, I was among the few Malays who got into the A class. I was in primary 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A. My father was a very strict man (actually he still is). If I were to drop in my grades back then, I would have to answer to the buckle of the belt. So that explains my grades, and my overachieving nature in primary school. Being the few Malays in my class, and a painfully shy one, my close friends are therefore those in the same class as me; all of them are non-Malays. I did try to mix with the Malays from the other classes during the common Malay Language classes. However, the Malays in the other classes weren’t so open to making friends with me, cos they say “I eat ‘babi’ with the students in my class, and therefore I am haram”. So I spoke a lot more English and a bit of Mandarin in primary school. However, I did well in Malay writing classes—I even have a few of my writings published in the newspaper… My mum even had them laminated and stuck onto the fridge till today. But I couldn’t speak Malay fluently.

    In secondary school, I had to take Malay O level twice cos the first time I took it, I scored C5 for the first attempt… and having Malay teachers who literally slept in class wasn’t helping the situation. But I finally managed to get A2 in the end. The oral examiners weren’t so impressed with the way I spoke in Malay.

    In Madrasah, there is also the equivalent of PSLE. For the oral examination, you had to read a few pages of the Quran, which I did. In my head, I thought I did okay… that is until the Ustazah, who is the teacher, openly asked me if I had mixed parentage. I innocently told her that my father is Malay and my Mother is Javanese. I had no idea why she asked the question in the first place. She then asked her next question—Abeh kenapa awak baca Quran macam ada slang? (translation—Why are you reading the Quran with an accent?).

    Many years ago, I was also dropped out of a Malay production because apparently my accent couldn’t be improved within the rehearsal period.

    Then I also attended an audition for another Malay stage production. During the audition, I was asked to do a monologue in Malay. I did. At the end of the audition, the director, asked me in a condescending tone, “when you sleep, do you dream in Malay or English?” At this point the other panellists started laughing. I remembered walking out of the audition room feeling humiliated and hopeless. I remembered cursing the production and hoping that it would never fucking make it to stage… this is something that I am not proud of. Anyway, the production never did make it to stage. I also remembered wanting to give up speaking Malay or ever wanting to do any production in Malay.

    However…

    I persevered. I still kept on speaking the language even though I have to, most of the time, struggle a lot. And I am not afraid to claim out loud that I am Malay. And right now, I am using my company A.D.I Concept as a platform to front productions that explore Malay cultures, tradition and the different superstitious beliefs. I am still trying to improve on my Malay, even though the accent is still stuck there.

    The point I want to make out of this long post is… There are MALAYS who are fucking trying to be proud of the language and culture and tradition. WE ARE FUCKING TRYING. SO BEAR THAT IN MIND BEFORE YOU PUT US DOWN JUST COS WE HAVE AN ACCENT. WE ARE FUCKING TRYING.

    Terima kasih kerana sudi membaca. Thank you for reading.

     

    Source: Adi Jamaludin

  • New PSLE Scoring System Will Dilute Elitism, Now Time To Stop Entry By Affiliation And Direct School Admissions

    New PSLE Scoring System Will Dilute Elitism, Now Time To Stop Entry By Affiliation And Direct School Admissions

    Your average 4-pointer will be faced with a tough decision. which school to pick as his first choice? what if RI only has a Sec 1 enrolment class of 400 and your 4-pointer knows that there are 4000 4-pointers in Singapore? He is not guaranteed entry into RI any more. The school of his second and third choice becomes very important also – if he picks HCI, for example, and their cut off is also 4-points, he basically has no chance of getting in if there are400 x 4-pointers who put HCI as first choice. so he will be forced to diversify his choice of schools.

    In the past, your PSLE 260++ students would all just go straight for the RIs and the HCIs and the RGSes, and go on to hang out together, go to tuition together, apply for scholarships together, marry each other, work in the same high paying jobs together, continue to decide policy together, and send their kids back to same schools together in an entire career and life track cut off from the rest of Singapore.

    With this scheme, there is a strong chance that they will end up in any number of 20-30 other schools instead of 2-3… spreading the talent pool. Doubling down on “every school is a good school”. Breaking the concentration of elitism. And this happens all the way down. It’s a good move.

    The next step is to end affiliation and to clamp down on DSA.

     

    Source: Joshua Ip

  • PSLE Maths Question Weighs Heavily On Parents’ Minds

    PSLE Maths Question Weighs Heavily On Parents’ Minds

    HOW heavy are eight $1 Singapore coins? Six grams, 60g, 600g or 6kg?

    That question in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) mathematics paper on Friday has upset a number of people, including parents.

    At least one person suggested the question is not related to maths and that it must have baffled many pupils sitting the exam, Chinese evening daily Shin Min Daily News reported yesterday.

    The person, surnamed Lee, posted on the Ministry of Education’s Facebook page seeking clarification.

    “Are we having (an) IQ exam or maths exam?” wrote the Facebook user, who also believed there could be more than one answer since the candidates were not told the weight of each coin.

    According to a mother whose letter was published by Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, the exam question has generated a lot of discussion among parents.

    “Our children found it difficult to answer,” wrote Yin Xiuping, who said many pupils simply resorted to perception and estimation.

    Some picked 600g because they had noticed how the pockets of their pants had sagged each time they placed coins in them, said Ms Yin.

    Some based their answer on the belief that the weight of eight $1 coins is close to that of a 500ml mineral water bottle, she added.

    But private tutors told Shin Min that such questions are not uncommon in primary school exams.

    “The question is in line with the maths syllabus. For example, pupils are taught to estimate the weights of objects such as a watermelon,” said Ann Tan.

    Some teachers have even brought their pupils to supermarkets where they can check out some common items first-hand, added Ms Tan.

    According to another tutor, who wanted to be known only as Ms Sng, many pupils still cannot answer such questions although they have appeared before in the PSLE.

    “Some parents want their children to only attend classes, take tuition and do their homework… They are not even allowed to make purchases on their own. But maths is all around us and children should learn from their surroundings,” said Ms Sng.

    Ms Yin wrote: “The conclusion among parents from this question is that their children should be made to do more housework so they could acquire basic knowledge on life.”

    And the answer to the question? Based on a photo showing eight $1 coins on a weighing machine, which Shin Min got from a reader, the coins weigh 61g.

     

    Source: http://mypaper.sg