Chinese education in Singapore
Actually I have been wanting to write something about this for a real long time liao, but yup have been too lazy. But anyway, what motivated me to write something tonight was how I bumped into a old friend just now, at Comfort driving centre. She was an ex-LEP girl from TJC, and currently at NIE as a trainee teacher.
We sat down to have tea, and I was telling her that I really pei fu them for being in the profession of chinese teachers, when the environment is really not advantageous, for Chinese teaching.
Surprisingly she supported the usage of electonics dictionaries in exam, and the revamp of Higher Chinese syllabus at A level.
It turned out that the new A level is called H2, and many more students will be joining the group of Higher Chinese students. There will be a much larger base of students doing Higher Chinese at A level, and we can foresee that there will be people may not even be able to read gongfu novels properly, not to mention hong lou meng. There is a need to be realistic.
When I read the usage of electronic dictionaries being allowed at Chinese exam, my first reaction is: "What the fucking hell?" Actually even the normal dictionaries should be banned from exam halls. If a student can write the essay without a dictionary and with no wrong word or mis-usage, he/ she should be rewarded for them. My friend was saying that dictionaries are like clutches to the "crippled". At least let them to be able to write something, then to be totally crippled.
Maybe I am being inrealistic. Haha the future Chinese-teachers-to-be are warned repeatedly by their lecturers at NIE that the "standards of students nowadays are beyond their imagination" and they were told to be prepared.
I am interpreting all these actions, as a shift in the general objective of MOE. The expansion of student base at A level chinese shows that they are trying to let more students to do Chinese at a higher level. They are more of looking for a way to improve the general standard. Yes the keyword here is general standard, not the top standard. That's why gu wen and hong lou meng are reduced, and yet a much larger group of students are roped in so more people have the chance to appreciate hong lou meng, cha guan, lun yu etc etc.
I don't mean to criticize that much. I mean yes, no matter what MOE does, no matter what policy they come up with, they can never make everybody happy. But I do hope that they are clear about their objectives.
And that they are clear about what price we paid for it.
Yes, what made me so disappointed was that everytime I read a piece of news of Chinese education revamp, it will always be catering to the weaker students. Electronic dictionaries in exam halls, Chinese syllabus 'B', teaching Chinese with English, etc etc.
I do understand that we need to be realistic, and that we have to ensure that weaker students catch up.
But what about the students with the potential to go much further? Has anything been done so far?
No. I haven't seen anything yet.
From my personal experience (and many others), the so-called "Higher Chinese" syllabus from primary school to secondary school was too low for us. In a textbook, at most there were only be a few words which I didn't know beforehand. It is not an uncommon occurrence that I knew all the words in a ke4 wen2 even before the teacher taught it.
I started reading lianhe zaobao since primary four. Haha, imagine my shock when we were told to subscribe to friday weekly in sec 1, and the teacher said they will use material from lianhe zaobao when we reach uppper secondary. Hahahahaha.
With the emphasis being on learning words and zao ju and whatsoever crap, you can tell how bored I was.
And yes I was already in the so-called "elite" Chinese stream. Yes what I received was the best Chinese education for a kid in mainstream school.
I am not alone. Because I have friends with similar sentiments.
I hope that next time, I will read that something is being done about it. My kid cousins of 6 and 7 years old are reading story books now, and they are perfectly conversant in English and Mandarin. It's great to see them reading story books of both languages. I hope that when I see their textbooks next time, I won't be so angry that I decide to take the matter into my own hands, and start to teach them myself. Damn.
It's time we need to develop the students with potential. And our "higher" chinese, is clearly not high enough. And it is going lower, and lower, and lower. | 
