In an ideal situation, it goes without saying that students should not be overly grade-conscious but should instead, do tasks with fervency, instead of doing them for the grades. In fact, it is a common sight in the classroom to see students questioning the number of ACE points or CIP hours before actually doing these activities. This is definitely a negative situation which we should try to rid of.
However, we must dig further into this phenomenon and explore the true perpetrator of this. It is the education system, both in Singapore and in Hwa Chong, which is causing this to happen. As we flip through the many pages of the Special Programmes booklet and glance through the criteria for qualifying into each of the special programmes, we observe a pattern. “__P: A1 in ___”. If we look down to the fundamentals of even qualifying for the next level, we see that our MSGs, both academic and scholastic, need to be of a certain level. How can we, as students, not be grade-conscious?
It was previously stated that we should not study for the sake of grades, but for the interest instead. This is definitely agreed, but once again, we have to consider that we NEED the grades to get into a programme which we are interested in. For example, if Student A wants to get into a specific programme, he has to excel in the relevant subjects. Furthermore, if he wants to get into the Centre for Scholastic Excellence (CSE), he has to attain an MSG of less than 1.5! Now, we return to the question: is it the students who work just for the grades, or is it the education system which forces the students to work just for the grades?
As for the case of ACE, it must be noted that every student has to undertake a minimum of 4 subjects every year. Amongst the 5 core subjects in Years 1 and 2, it is hard to expect a student to be fervent and interested in 4 of them. Every student has an area of interest, and an area of excellence. Everyone has to undertake subjects, one or more, that they are not very interested but have to do the relevant ACE work just for the grades. It is pretty much preposterous to expect a student to be interested in Language Arts, Chinese, Math, Science, and Humanities at the same time, isn’t it?
For Primary School Leaving Examination, ‘O’ Levels, ‘A’ Levels and further examinations, we must score well to proceed to a better education. Without the stellar results and exceedingly good grades, the path to a brighter future can be said to be more or less gone. How can we, as students, not be grade-conscious?
Many Singaporean parents are extremely kiasu and send their children to tuition centres and enrichment centres for extra lessons. They drill the message that they must do well in their studies deep into their young children’s brains. Their children, day after day of listening to this, will obviously be grade-conscious. How can we, as students, not be grade-conscious?
Singapore has slowly moved the children, the leaders of the future, into a vicious cycle of being grade-conscious. It is not the children who want to get the grades and are doing their work just for them, but it is the education system as a whole that is forcing them into this! Well, but I must emphasise here that I am not pushing the blame to the education system and saying that the students are in no way wrong. However, it is vital and essential to strike a balance between the two – interest and grades. Since the education system is not going to change (in the near future), I believe our mindsets have to change. As to how, I am not sure. We have been driven in such a manner for numerous years now, and asking us to change will be too much, I guess.
Sorry, if this above message seemed too fierce, it was not meant to be…
Regards,
Nathan (:
