The results of the 2012 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in Singapore was
released yesterday, on 22nd of November.
As announced earlier this week, the Ministry of Education did not released the top scorers of the exams, departing from the practice of previous years. I thought one of the reasons was due to excess numbers of parents from the past years had complained about the stress level of P6 students had gone through when their result were compared to the top scorers.
However, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said: "It is not possible, nor desirable, to eliminate stress completely. Nor should we be shy about achievements."
Seriously, who is really having the stress? The students or the parents? From my understanding, every student had put in their best effort when they sat for their examinations. It was the parents who were not satisfied with the child's result and imposed the stress upon he/she because they thought their child had work so hard and for that reason their child should have done better than others.
Really? The result speaks louder than words.
I know for a fact that my child had been studying very hard since the embargo months from July 7th to October 3rd, the last day of the examination. He studied day and night with no tuition. That earned him a T-score 268 as compared to the top score of 285. I could not imagine how much time and hard work for those students who have scored between the range. Go figure...
As a parent, I fully understand the feelings of wanting the child to do well. However, we have to learn not to demand but to encourage them to strive for their best.
"PSLE is an important exam - but it is not the be-all and end-all. It marks the
conclusion of one stage of the learning journey - and the road ahead is a long
one," Mr Heng added. "As adults, all of us will have to learn continually throughout
our lives. It is not healthy to have such national focus at this stage of the
journey".
I strongly agreed with Mr Heng. It's a milestones which all the P6 students have achieved in their education journey and they should continue to pursue learning along appropriate pathways. Now that PSLE is over, let's cheer and continue to support our children to take up new challenges in the next phase coming...
