Jan 17 2012
getting ready for school…
This year I take my first step into the “education system” so to speak. My daughter turns 7 next year which means she enters primary school, so come July this year, I’ll be like many other parents in the country as I vy for a spot in a school for my daughter.
In the last few years I’ve had to quickly understand how the education system works in Singapore, it has changed quite a bit since I was a kid.
Before I became a parent, I never would have thought it would be this “hard” to get your child into the school of your choice. I had my first taste of this when we were picking a kindergarten for our daughter. We had planned to put her in pre nursery when she turned 3 so here at 1.5 years old, we were too late and were already on the waiting list. I thought to myself….really?
Then I started to read up on how to register for primary school and quickly learnt about who gets to go first. It was somewhat daunting and scary. It was also at that time that I registered for all the alumni groups that I could! I figured better safe than sorry. Would you believe some of these memberships can go up to S$1000?! An investment in my child’s future, I told myself.
Just the other day on the show (AM Live!) we talked about some options that exist in other parts of the world with regards to the education system. There are no perfect systems and each have pros and cons. Some have very rigid structures while others have a very free approach to it all. I think they both work as long as one key component comes into play - parents! An education system can only do so much for your child, it should only do so much. The rest is up to us as parents. We have to get involved, learn with them and help them along. We cannot outsource the whole thing because going to school is only part of the process.
In my opinion, we learn so much more from our environment and from the people around us. Our parents played a very large role in shaping our outlook on life. Many young people who did not go to “great” schools still turned out to be great leaders. They were inspired and motivated to learn.
I hope to be able to inspire and motive my children. I hope to do so by showing them the relevance of what they learn, by showing them that they can enjoy learning. I hope that the rigours and peer pressure that comes from others and the local education system do not diminish that joy for learning within them. Once that is gone, everything is so much harder to learn.
Well, I have since got my head around how things work here in Singapore and I think we’ll be okay. But come July this year, I’m sure I’ll be showing some cracked nerves as well just like many other parents in the country!
