Day 07: A picture that makes you happy
Monday, May 10, 2010 @ 9:53 pm.
Before I start, I think I'd better give my opinion on the weightage of Mother Tongue.
From CNA:
SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry said reducing the weightage for Mother Tongue in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) can help students whose scores border between the normal and express stream.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli said this can help when streaming students to secondary schools.
It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
Some primary schools recognise that building up a student's confidence and team spirit are just as important as grades, and they are organising more camps and activities in this regard.
Personally, I don't see why the MOE is even considering lowering the weightage of Mother Tongue. If we are a bilingual country, we shouldn't be reducing the weightage of the other language. That just makes us... monolingual.
I predict that students will only end up speaking English, because they feel that Mother Tongue isn't important. And probably all the arguments about losing local culture will bob up to the surface again.
I mean, to many English-educated families (like ahem my family ahem ahem), the main focus of learning Mother Tongue is grades. My father wanted me to drop MT altogether if I didn't score high enough to get into HMT, because he wanted me to focus on other subjects, and be satisfied with my MT grade, because I'm definitely not counting on it for my L1R5. And the main reason why I'm taking HMT right now is for those two bonus points. (And also that I want to prove to myself that I can do it.)
For those of you that know my O Level results, it may be a shock, or nowhere near one, to know that right now it's the highest score for Chinese in this generation. Of course there aren't many people in this generation yet so I can't say much.
So again, with reduced weightage on grades, far too many people, like I would probably do, would give up on their Mother Tongue and focus on the other subjects. Then what happens to the standards of their Mother Tongue? Dismal, like mine.
It may be a surprise that I'm actually supporting this. In fact, if I were in that generation, I would probably want it, because Chinese has always, always pulled down my grade. If the weightage of Chinese were dropped, I would have done so much better for PSLE; that was my non-A* subject. I wouldn't feel as much pressure to do well on Chinese, and maybe I'd be happier.
But I know that if the weightage were dropped, I'd forgo any effort on my Chinese (huh, not like I'm putting in any effort now...) and my Chinese would probably be worse than it is now.
And a few years down the road I'd regret it. So would the people who went down my road.
Well, maybe.
So see, I have no ulterior motive here. Enhanced reliability?
--
Anyway, a photo that makes me happy.
This is my current desktop background. It's linked because the actual thing is probably too big.
Anyway, it's not a photo, but a drawing. It's a picture of two OCs (original characters) of two DeviantArt users drawn by another DeviantArt user.
I know that doesn't explain anything at all, but isn't it so cute?
Which is why it's now my background.
