Lower weightage of MT in PSLE

There's been another big hoo-ha over academic matters in Singapore: the lowering of weightage of Mother Tongue at PSLE.

Parents whose children are strong in Mother Tongue, especially Chinese, I suspect, are objecting vehemently to the suggestion.

An online petition is set up here, and the content is as such:

To Minister-of-Education,

Subject: Weighting for Mother Tongue in PSLE should not be cut

Dear Sir,

We refer to the article "Mother tongue weighting in PSLE could be cut" published in The Strait Times dated 21 April 2010. (http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20100421-211509.html)

We think that the weighting for Mother Tongue in PSLE should not be cut, reasons being:

(1) Our younger generation will think that Mother Tongue is not an important subject and thus will not be as willing and motivated to learn and to master it.

(2) Mother languages taught in Primary School level is of acceptable difficulty and it is needed for reading and conversing. Reducing the weighting of Mother Tongue in PSLE might deprive the students the ability to converse and to read in their Mother Tongue effectively, as it's importance is not stressed in the PSLE level.

(3) We believe all subjects examined in the PSLE level are moderated accordingly. The PSLE system should reward those who are willing to work hard and excel in their Mother Tongue subject, instead of punishing them with the reduce of weighting in PSLE.

We understand that some of our younger generation have difficulty in mastering their Mother Tongue. However, we do believe that reducing the weighting of Mother Tongue in PSLE is not the solution for this problem and we urge you to reconsider the consequences the change might bring to our future generations.

Yours faithfully,


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Added by: inn0cent on April 23, 2010, 12:51:46 pm
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Amendments:

***(2) Mother TONGUE languages taught in Primary School level is of acceptable difficulty and it is needed for reading and conversing. Reducing the weighting of Mother Tongue in PSLE might deprive the students the ability to converse and to read in their Mother Tongue effectively, as it's importance is not stressed in the PSLE level.


I'm rather relieved to read of this piece of news. I hope the change can come soon so that Coco can benefit from it. Coco's Chinese is not as strong as I had hoped she could become within a short span of time. I'm not sure if she could become a smooth writer 1.5 years later when she's due to take her PSLE. It's been quite stressful worrying about her performance in Chinese bringing her overall score down, although she's not stellar in her Maths and Science either. However, she seems more daunted by the learning of Chinese than the rest of the subjects. The worst thing that can happen to a learner is to develop a fear for the subject. When there is fear, you will almost never succeed at it. If you ever do, the journey is of an arduous one.

I can only say that I am really glad that such a proposal was never in place during my time. If not, I would surely have been banished to the Normal Stream. Our education system is an unforgiving one. You just have to do badly for one crucial exam and your deal is either over or you will need to spend an awful lot more time than your peers who had succeeded to reach the 'finishing line'.