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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - SG parent: My kid can't study in SG</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>May-25 1:59 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 12) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>13947.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Warm welcome for returning talent? Schools haven't got the message
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WE RECENTLY returned to Singapore after living abroad for more than four years. Although I was prepared for the challenges my children would face doing Chinese in school, I was taken aback by how difficult it was for my daughter to even get a place in school.
When I visited the Ministry of Education (MOE) website, I was initially heartened by the information posted for returning Singaporeans.
The website notes that the "Ministry of Education (MOE) is committed to assisting all Singaporean children, including returning Singaporeans, to benefit from our education system".
My son had been on the Leave of Absence Scheme so his re-entry into primary school was straightforward. My daughter, however, sans PSLE and seeking admission into Secondary 2, faced some difficulty. All the schools we approached had no vacancies.
We shrugged it off as an issue of timing, luck and the popularity of the schools in our vicinity.
As we were unable to make it for the centralised exams under MOE's School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (Spers) programme, we sought help from the School Placement Service.
We were asked to contact School X, where consideration for entry would be based on an entrance exam. We were confident that in conducting entrance exams, schools would also apply the criteria MOE claims to use for Spers.
The website says: "The papers include non-content-based questions that assess general reasoning skills. This will more holistically assess applicants who have attended overseas schools with curricula different from Singapore's."
I did not think that my daughter would be disadvantaged by the differences in curricula.
School X later informed us that based on the results of the maths test, there was no way my daughter could ever catch up with the maths syllabus, and therefore she could not be accepted.
My daughter later sat for an entrance exam in another school which we contacted on our own accord. Unfortunately, she was not accepted there either, despite her feeling she had done quite well. No reason was given, and the entire process was very impersonal.
We were discouraged. Our choices had been realistic; we had applied for places not just in brand-name schools. Alas, nothing was considered other than exam results. No consideration was given to my daughter's previous school results, awards, nor her extra-curricular activities. She was not interviewed and there were no general-reasoning ability tests, an important way to gauge aptitude.
For the record, my daughter managed to catch up with the local maths syllabus in a matter of three weeks. She is now happily enrolled in an international school and is deservedly in the top maths set.
So, despite what is said about welcoming returning talent, the environment does not really seem to be conducive for those with school-going children. Perhaps, more guidance needs to be given to schools on how to assess children coming from other school curricula. Soon Van Kit Meng (Mrs)
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
WE RECENTLY returned to Singapore after living abroad for more than four years. Although I was prepared for the challenges my children would face doing Chinese in school, I was taken aback by how difficult it was for my daughter to even get a place in school.
When I visited the Ministry of Education (MOE) website, I was initially heartened by the information posted for returning Singaporeans.
The website notes that the "Ministry of Education (MOE) is committed to assisting all Singaporean children, including returning Singaporeans, to benefit from our education system".
My son had been on the Leave of Absence Scheme so his re-entry into primary school was straightforward. My daughter, however, sans PSLE and seeking admission into Secondary 2, faced some difficulty. All the schools we approached had no vacancies.
We shrugged it off as an issue of timing, luck and the popularity of the schools in our vicinity.
As we were unable to make it for the centralised exams under MOE's School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (Spers) programme, we sought help from the School Placement Service.
We were asked to contact School X, where consideration for entry would be based on an entrance exam. We were confident that in conducting entrance exams, schools would also apply the criteria MOE claims to use for Spers.
The website says: "The papers include non-content-based questions that assess general reasoning skills. This will more holistically assess applicants who have attended overseas schools with curricula different from Singapore's."
I did not think that my daughter would be disadvantaged by the differences in curricula.
School X later informed us that based on the results of the maths test, there was no way my daughter could ever catch up with the maths syllabus, and therefore she could not be accepted.
My daughter later sat for an entrance exam in another school which we contacted on our own accord. Unfortunately, she was not accepted there either, despite her feeling she had done quite well. No reason was given, and the entire process was very impersonal.
We were discouraged. Our choices had been realistic; we had applied for places not just in brand-name schools. Alas, nothing was considered other than exam results. No consideration was given to my daughter's previous school results, awards, nor her extra-curricular activities. She was not interviewed and there were no general-reasoning ability tests, an important way to gauge aptitude.
For the record, my daughter managed to catch up with the local maths syllabus in a matter of three weeks. She is now happily enrolled in an international school and is deservedly in the top maths set.
So, despite what is said about welcoming returning talent, the environment does not really seem to be conducive for those with school-going children. Perhaps, more guidance needs to be given to schools on how to assess children coming from other school curricula. Soon Van Kit Meng (Mrs)
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