<p>To be “middle class” (once called in French ‘la bourgeoisie’) is not to be humble.</p>
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<p>To those who get streamed to the top. </p>
<p>Have you seen the conditions in the neighbourhood schools? They are appalling, and gangsterism is rife.</p>
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<p>Because that would a much more market-efficient method of allocating resources; such schools under a private administration (receiving public voucher money for each student) would actually be under pressure to yield results and not be complacent. Have you seen the attitudes of the administrations of these schools? It is little wonder they help to perpetuate the quagmire. </p>
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<p>My school’s guidance office happened to be very proactive in community activism and helped us offset rent, food, etc. Not outright payouts necessarily; subsidies were provided for dual enrollment education and in general, intellectually enriching but costly activities that took place outside the syllabus.</p>
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<p>It’s true – just look at the demographics of the top secondary schools.</p>
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<p>Because the model of charter schools and voucher schools has succeeded in turning poorly performing district schools into well-performing and robust ones. It also financially rewards schools for carrying out effective programs.</p>
<p>Not in Hwa Chong at least. Sure, there are people who are relatively well-off (sons of top civil servants and directors), but most of the people are “middle-class” in the sense that they are in the middle 50% of the income bracket. Hardly “elite”, unless you consider 75% of the population “elite”.</p>
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<p>Benchmarking and ranking systems (both public and internal) and KPIs (which are linked to principals’/teachers’ salaries, promotions and bonuses) set by the Ministry of Education for all schools already put the administrators, teachers (and consequently students) under pressure and incentive to perform better. </p>
<p>Along with the fact that parents choose schools based on published examination results from prior years (and that MOE ultimately allocates students to schools based on results), this already achieves a similar effect to what a school voucher system is supposed to do in the US.</p>
<p>In fact, the students and teachers get so much pressure to perform that they end up complaining on online forums and even to the Straits Times forum section (personally surprised ST publishes the letters though).</p>
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<p>Except that the majority of Singapore schools are not poorly performing by US standards. Looking at TIMSS data, I’d say 75-80% of Singapore students are “above average” by US standards.</p>
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<p>“Middle class” != “elite” either.</p>
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<p>I’d say even if you ended up in a neighbourhood secondary school, it is very cheap as well - most likely cheaper than Hwa Chong or RI.</p>
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<p>Is that to the poorer students (offsetting rent, food) or do they try to help everyone do that? I would like more detail please.</p>
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<p>Well, in Singapore now you could enroll in specific NUS/NTU/SMU courses while in JC if you decide to take up the H3 subjects offer by the 3 universities - paying nothing except the exam fee (which is waived if your income is below a certain level). Most research programmes offered by the government/A*STAR/YDSP/internships are free too (some even pay you).</p>
<p>I would also like to add that the school voucher program is implemented to provide parents a choice in which elementary/middle/high school their child should attend (and of course as a consequence, try to get poorer performing schools to “wake up” and perform better). </p>
<p>This element of choice has always existed in Singapore (provided that you score well in your PSLE and/or O-levels) so the school vouchers programme doesn’t introduce anything new. Parents and educators in Singapore have also always known which schools are “up-and-coming”, which schools are the best etc - a simple look-up of the ranking tables could tell me that.</p>
<p>project work, haha
i heard rumours said the moe was thinking of putting project work as a official subject starting in secondary 3
how amusing!!!</p>
<p>just wondering have you guys heard about USEIC? Do you think it’s a useful and effective avenue where i can seek guidance for uni applications? or would school counselors be fine enough?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s very difficult getting my school counselors because they always seem to be busy. Have you had any contact with the rj counselors? How are they in your opinion?</p>
<p>the USEIC service is badly overpriced methinks. Although they are of course extremely helpful and provide very good service, the essay consulting thing isn’t VERY much better than the comments given by my friends. But of course, with years and years of experience in essay reading, perhaps their comments on your essay and their suggestions have a higher chance of being correct than those that your friends give.</p>
<p>Preparation-wise, you want good O + A Level marks and good ECs/relationships with teachers from sec 3ish onwards (since sec 3/4 is when you get the most competitions + leadership positions) so start a little before then. Though your sec school is also indirectly influenced by your primary school so I suppose preschool/K2 isn’t too far off (get into a good primary school) or P3 (go into GEP) or P4 (EM1) :P</p>