formulae: hop + e

Saturday, February 05, 2005

what is the world coming to?? did you know? moe has reduced the primary school+secondary school chinese syllabus by 10-15%. P6 syllabus has been reduced by 61%!
this is super ridiculous. it's unaccounted for, it's unfair to all the students. at least for chinese 'b' syllabus pupils could choose. if they really could not cope then they could opt to go an easier route. but now everyone's syllabus has been cut, no matter whether you excelled in chinese or did poorly. it will no doubt decrease the already-very-very-low chinese standards in singapore. this is really really very absurd.

those who are weak in chinese will just be happy that their lives has been made easier although their chinese will be weaker. those who are strong in chinese, some of them will start to relax because the syllabus is like too easy for them then their chinese will deterioate also. it's unfair to most of them because they are deprived of the chance to learn more. do we really need to cut the syllabus by so much? 61%? is it really neccessary? the reason given was that a simpler syllabus will make lessons easier and hence more interesting. how TRUE. simpler syllabus makes the lessons more relaxed and at a slower pace but definitely would not invoke the students' interest just because the subject has been made easier. in fact it will cause students to lose interest. why can't the in-charge realise that our chinese standards are really at an incredible low level? do you ever hear of england holding speak good english campaigns? why do we need speak chinese campaigns?

it is claimed that the extra time from the reduced syllabus will be used to teach composition and oral skills. how are the pupils going to use the words for oral or compo-writing when they dont even learn it in the first place??

also, with the continual decrease in chinese standards, and the frequent changes on the syllabus, where are we going to find suitable people to work in the chinese media next time? can we just wholly rely on PRCs? i think it is still best for singaporeans to work in the local media. also i noticed one thing. why is it that those who read the straits times often cannot/do not read zaobao but those who read zaobao read straits times also? its not about being cheena. have you seen amercians or english laughing at their own people for being english-y or something? no! so why are we doing that? it's ridiculous. not to mention that you only need a D7 for chinese to enter the U. how difficult that is!! hmph.