Lament of the median student

This is the title of the article in the Straits Times on Friday, Mar 28, 2008, written by Chua Mui Hoong on page 31.

Did anyone else read this article? I thought it was a very good read and interesting point of view which I totally agree with.

Mui Hoong wrote about the education system in Singapore, how exams are crafted to sieve out the best from the merely good, and how this ratchets up the exam difficulty systems all round to create a punishing spiral.

The net effect: "the more parents push their kids with tuition and enrichment classes to do better, the tougher it becomes for the average student to keep pace".

In other words, bright kids make the education system stressful for everyone else, especially average students who will keep struggling to just maintain their average grades.

In our day, if you could achieve 75 marks or better, you got an A grade in your subject and a pat on the head from our parents. In today's system, even if you got 80+ marks, but if everyone else in your class got 90+, then you are relegated to a B or even C grade as you are no longer graded on absolute marks, but on a scale relative to the whole cohort.

While this is obviously a more "worldly realistic" way of grading students, I lament the way we are going with this as it really does stress our kids out and undermines their confidence.

As Mui Hoong states in the last part of her article, it is up to us adults and parents "to praise and encourage children for making improvements that no examiner gives credit for - for passing after failing, for scoring 60 after a string of 50s".

If you haven't already read this article, I fully recommend it as food for thought for us all parents and educators.

And please share your thoughts on this article with me in here :)