Dear Yishun Secondary School: A Neighbourhood School Experience and On why some schools are less equal than others

by Chandralekha, posted in Gratitude, Social issues, Surviving, Thoughts, Thriving, Updates

My alma mater has often been wrongly guessed. In NUS Business School, I was often mistaken to be an an RGS: Raffles Girls’ School turned RJ: Raffles Junior College girl. They were often surprised to know that I was from Singapore Polytechnic. I looked smart, I was told. When I was a relief teacher at my alma mater, Yishun Secondary School(YSS), I was again mistaken to be from another school in the neighbourhood, Yishun Town Secondary School(YTSS), after I told them that I was starting my degree in Accountancy at NUS.

This post is about my experiences as a student in a neighbourhood school located in a neighbourhood with a bad reputation (Read Appendix 1 below). “Dear Yishun Secondary School” are the last words of my schoool song. As much as this post is about my secondary school experiences and me, it is also about meritocracy and the education system in Singapore. I am wearing the lens of someone who has been to institutions where you’re periodically reminded that you’re the creme de la creme(i.e. NUS Business School; most students here have at least two A’s in their A’ levels or a polytechnic GPA of 3.76/4.00) and interacted with students who are supposedly from the nation’s top schools. As someone who is now pursuing my masters at the University of Amsterdam on scholarship and again interacting with some of the brightest of people who have been educated under varying systems. I am writing as someone who has taken up the role of an educator albeit for a negligible while (as a volunteer tutor, as a private tutor, as a relief teacher) in various neighbourhood schools around the island. Of course, my other experiences as a working adult and understanding experiences of others who have taken alternative routes too shade my perspective. While there have been several write-ups on the elite/affiliated school experiences (Read: Affiliation: The Elevator Up The Ivory Tower, I Went to an Elite School. These Are My Privileges, and As Long As SAP Schools Exist, ‘Chinese Elitism’ in Singapore Will Exist), Jeraldine Phneah’s “5 Differences between Neighbourhood and Elite Schools in Singapore” and S’pore Student Shares Lesson In Privilege, Says Not Every School Is A ‘Good’ School Yet seem to be the only writeups which look at the neighbourhood school experience critically. I would like to highlight that I am not an expert in this field. I am merely sharing experiences and where available, corroborating it with information from other sources like archives, news articles, scholarly articles, and parliamentary speeches. I am also throwing in the caveat that these experiences are from more than ten years back. They might no longer be prevalent and I will be happy to be corrected. At the the same time, I also feel that time plays a significant role in our perception. In other words, changing times and norms as well as the maturity of the person, can change the way the same incident is perceived over the years.

Note: My four years at YSS were bittersweet. I am grateful to YSS and the teachers for the experiences and lessons. I am who I am now because of those experiences – good and bad. However, I think we can do better and some issues are more systemic. Naming and shaming specific people is not the goal here (I believe that they are just part of the system and we need to take a step back and look at what’s happening). Real change is the goal. Hence, I write this post.

This is an extremely long piece(over 7,000 words). Feel free to jump around.

A. HOW DID I END UP IN YSS: THE PREQUEL

B. 11 ISSUES

C. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE NEEDY: WHY SOME SCHOOLS ARE LESS EQUAL THAN OTHERS (8)

A. How I ended up in YSS: The prequel

On the day of my PSLE results, I remember feeling a myriad of emotions after seeing the three digits, 214. I first felt sad. I was disappointed with myself to know that I had neither the chance of entering my “dream school”, Anderson Secondary School nor my brother’s school, YTSS. When I saw how my parents’ smile changed from excited smiles to consoling nods, I felt angry at myself for not working hard enough. I felt glad to receive two awards at the graduation ceremony: Best in Tamil language and Outstanding student award for my class, 6 Balance. A special prize was also given to my classmate. She had been brought up by her maternal grandmother since a young age because both her parents were literally absent. A few weeks before PSLE, she had lost her grandmother to cancer. Despite these difficulties, she had always had a smile on her face and made sure that everyone around her was happy. She scored 219. I hate comparing humans. But in my eyes, she was the top student of my school not the one who scored 277. That day when I walked back home from my school, I remember feeling grateful to have my parents by my side. At then, thoughts of unworthiness came back when I thought of how badly I had done despite the decent circumstances that I was under.

As we went home and looked through the booklet which listed the various secondary schools, the respective entry T-scores, the programmes and activities available in the school, I thought that I actually qualified to some schools with cool names. My mum clarified that I should look at the non-affiliation T-score. The affiliation score was for students who were from an affiliate primary school. Like St Margaret’s Primary School and St Margaret’s Secondary School. It’s like a parent-school and a child-school. Was Sembawang Primary School affiliated to Sembawang Secondary School? I checked. It wasn’t. Why were there so many schools without parents? Twelve-year-old me had assumed that students from these affiliated primary schools were disadvantaged in some way and needed extra help from a parent. Perhaps, without this help, no other school would accept these students. Actually, that didn’t make sense either. I was confused. But at that point, this was the least of my concerns. After some careful strategising and discussions, my mum and I came up with the six choices. Tamil language not being offered during school hours ruled out most schools in Sembawang for us.

  1. Yishun Town Secondary School
  2. Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School
  3. Yishun Secondary School

When we were back in school to submit our results, the teacher on duty at that point was my mathematics teacher. He looked at my choices and smiled. As I saw his smile, I remembered what he had said during a remedial lesson echoing in my ears, “I am worried for you. If you’re struggling for primary school maths itself, what are you going to do in secondary school? O’level mathematics is that much more difficult, you know!” I was ashamed to the point that I felt extremely motivated to turn things around in secondary school.

The History of two Friends: YSS & YTSS

  • 1983: YSS was budgeted to be built at a cost of $10.24 million

  • January 1986 – March 1986: YSS, built at a cost of $7.8 million, started functioning with an enrolment of 1,025. The building was shared with YTSS and Yishun Junior College(YJC). (YJC, with 530 seats, had been created to alleviate the burden of a spike in number of O’level students from 7,800 to 9,600. 33 years later, in 2019, it would be merged with Innova Junior College to form Yishun Innova Junior College owing to the falling cohort sizes since 2014.)

  • April 1986 – December 1986: YSS students shared YTSS’s building, built at a cost of $8.1 million, for the rest of the year while waiting for YJC’s building to be ready.

  • January 1987: YSS (as well as YJC) returned back to their respective buildings.

  • January 1988 – June 1988: Secondary 1 students from Northview Secondary School(NVSS) shared the building with YSS while waiting for NVSS’ new building to be ready.

  • 19 August 1988: YSS officially opened by then MP for Nee Soon, Dr Koh Lip Lin

  • June 2002: Commencement of Programme for Rebuilding and Improving Existing Schools(PRIME) at YSS

  • 2005: Commencement of PRIME at YTSS

  • 2010: YTSS was accorded the Autonomous Status.

23 years after its opening, Yishun town secondary school became autonomous, thereby earning status, funds, and freedom. That year, based on PSLE entry scores, YTSS was ranked as the 30th secondary school in Singapore while YSS was ranked 93rd. At the end of 2019, YTSS’ school advisory committee’s funds are 62.5% larger than YSS’ despite having started around the same time (with a very similar logo; though, quite literally one appears the be falling down and another appears to be jumping up) and being located in the same neighbourhood. This shared history of YSS and YTSS is interesting for me. It reminds me of a folklore where two people start at the same point but end up in two starkly different places. One can’t help but wonder why such a disparity exists. Did the two schools attract different kinds of students because of the one added word, “town”? Or what did either of the schools do differently? Perhaps, the reasons for the difference in outcomes between YSS and YTSS are the ones cited by MP Dr Koh in his speech at YSS official opening: the staff’s leadership and commitment and community support(including parents’). Or maybe it’s the whopping $300,000 disparity in the cost of the building. Haha!

The consolation was that my cousins had gone to YSS and it seemed like a cool place. Besides, my mum said that if you’re a talented student, you will excel wherever you go. While I now recognize that that statement is not accurate, it did motivate me. I believed that I was starting tabula rasa in YSS and I worked hard.

Neither YSS nor YTSS is an elite school. They are what some would call neighbourhood schools. I never quite understood why some schools are described as neighbourhood schools and others aren’t. Isn’t the whole of Singapore made up of several neighbourhoods? It is not like Raffles Girls’ School is in Raffles Place or Hwa Chong Institution is in Sentosa right? At this point, I must admit that I did think that the Raffles schools were in Raffles Place initially. If Yishun secondary school is in Yishun, shouldn’t Raffles’ Girls School be in Raffles Place? Why isn’t there a Raffles Boys’ school? Also if Raffles indeed founded Singapore, isn’t the entire Singapore Raffles place? I only realized that this wasn’t the case when I had to go to Raffles Institution for a Tamil competition. I went to Junction 8 after the competition and I realized that it did not feel any different from Northpoint or Causeway point. Bishan seemed to be a neighbourhood just like Yishun or Sembawang. Why then wasn’t Raffles institution considered a neighbourhood school? What makes it an elite school?

What constitutes a neighbourhood? A bus interchange, a mrt station, a community club, a primary school, a secondary school, a community club, a police station, HDB blocks, a few condominiums, a shopping centre (or two, if the space allows for it), a park, a church, a mosque, a temple, a few Cheers outlets(it used to be 7eleven and mama shops), a few coffeeshops, a polyclinic/hospital. But I digress.

B. 11 Issues that I WITNESSED as a YISHunite

1. 16 & Pregnant

We often tend to think that we’re the norm. That our experiences are normative. I too thought that the stuff that happened in my school happened in every other school. However, as I heard others talk about their secondary school in university, I realised that what I have seen is not as normative as I thought it to be.

The most disturbing image for me was seeing one of my seniors collect her ‘O’ level results while pushing a pram. It wasn’t stress weight gain. She had been pregnant while she was sitting for the exams. I have briefly watched the MTV series ’16 and Pregnant’ while switching channels. I couldn’t accept that someone I knew could be that person. In fact, in my school, during one of those sexual education assembly session, a teacher said, “I know y’all have your stead and all. Even if I asked y’all not to have sex, you are still going to do it. All that I am asking y’all to do is when you have it, please wear a condom.” I remember feeling weird and confused. I neither had a stead nor any intentions of having sex but I had to sit down and have them waste our time showing some poorly shot videos and dishing out some unsolicited advice. What they should have also said is not to take a video of yourselves having sex. A sex video of one of my classmates and his girlfriend(a schoolmate) was circulating around.

2. Relationship Issues

Since we’re on the topic of stead, I mean relationships, I could share on some relationship issues. Girls who had relationships with grown-ass men (not boys) looked cooler than others as a 13-year-old. I now look at those with a certain disdain and worry. While a 30 year old woman marrying a 40 year old man seems alright, a 13 year old girl having a 23 year old boyfriend seems really off. A 13-year-old is not a child anymore but I don’t think they know what they’re doing. Furthermore, there’s a clear power difference and this power can be abused. Interestingly, one of my classmates was in love with a relief teacher in my class. They mostly kept it under wraps. I believe they’re married now. I had a classmate who punched on the class windows and had glass pieces pierce through his knuckles. There were blood drops trailing him. His girlfriend had broken up with him. She was a lesbian. She had just came out. That’s when I first learned of that term. I had never considered that that could be a possibility. Another girl in my school (my friend’s friend) had fell in love with a person she met outside of school. She later realised that this person was from our school – and that this person was a butch. Another new word.

3. Relationship Advice in Dollars and Cents

Many teachers, especially the ones who had been teaching in the school for a very long time and have seen how the lives of their students pan out, took the extra effort and time(during classes) to tackle cultural issues. One of it was how some girls end up in relationships that weren’t the best for them. The teacher listed out all her monthly expenses and made an estimation of how much it would cost to live the kind of life that she wants for herself: $3,000. Sharing her own personal stories, she explained how someone who’s just good looking or cool might not be the right choice for you for practical reasons. She had made a case for marrying someone who earns at least this magical amount(which differs for each person based on the kind of life that they want) or earn that sum yourself. She also emphasised on the importance of ensuring that your boyfriend respects you and is a gentleman. I guess with the Marsiling Baby case, where a 22 year old man was charged for murdering his 18-year old girlfriend, as a backdrop, these teachers were just concerned.

4. Toxic Masculinity

The learning curve in YSS with regards to terms and lingos was steep. It was a very different world. My vocabulary expanded. Another word I had learned was Bapok kia. It was used to describe males who showed the slightest tinge of vulnerability or femininity. A lot of those who were joked to be transsexual, actually are and have always been heterosexuals with girlfriends. As I now look back, I realise that the level of masculinity expected from men was toxic. I wish I had said something or did something to stop them.

5. Mental Health Issues

Studying in a place where uniformity and conformity is expected shapes you in unimagineable ways. Some who acted in unconventional ways were labelled as weirdos or psychos. A classmate who wouldn’t speak to anyone at all. A classmate who stopped coming to school because she was suffering from depression. The way mental health issues and the people who had them were spoken about seemed normal then. Today, as I look back, the lack of awareness and understanding seems apparent. Self-mutilation, and suicide weren’t just things you saw in movies. A living-breathing-person seated takes the same bus as me to school could be dealing with demons, and slowly losing hope to live on. But we might not have a clue about any of this. That thought is scary. More should be done to support our children.

6. (Almost Monthly) caning ritual

The first caning that I saw is an image I can’t remove from my head. It was just the second or third week of school. If I remember right, the offence was selling contraband cigarettes (which he had gotten from his brother) to other secondary one boys. Firstly, I was surprised by his innovative idea of using the electrical casing in my classroom to store some of these cigarettes. Secondly, I wasn’t expecting caning to be conducted during class time instead of during assembly time so as to save time. I would eventually get used to seeing my classmates getting caned so regularly. It almost every felt like they were getting caned every month. Whenever the discipline master walked past our class with the cane, we knew. It was usually the same people who were getting caned. They would smile. The caning clearly did nothing to deter them. Yet the monthly caning ritual continued as they continued erring too.

7. overpolicing through spot checks

I remember hating morning assembly sessions for several reasons. The main reason I hated it was because right after the singing of the national anthem, and the pledge recital, we were required to continue standing while our form teacher went down the line, looking at us up and down and checking if we are wearing the uniform as they have intended us to. These checks were also conducted at the beginning of lessons. I would describe myself as a nerdy student. But even I was caught. For my nose piercing. For wearing a shoe with three strokes and a brand logo which was hence, perceived to have more than 25% colour. For wearing a shoe with coloured shoelaces; Again, the shoe was perceived to have more than 25% colour.

I can understand why uniforms are required. We celebrate diversity but everyone must look the same. But I wonder if uniforms divide more than unite. As we speak more about social class and social stratification, these uniforms, while they don’t divide but instead unite within schools, is it possible that they divide outside of school? On trains and buses where these students travel. Perhaps, all students wearing the same uniform will mitigate the problem? Haha. But this is a different debate for a different day (which will probably never come).

I acknowledge that my nose piercing was just me being rebellious and I can understand why they did not want to allow that. But the rule on the percentage of colour permitted on the shoe seemed and continues to seem ridiculous to me. I can only imagine the things that we could have learned during that time instead if it wasn’t wasted on debating if my shoelaces indeed made up more than 25% of my shoe. Such overpolicing through spot checks was also problematic because it felt like we were constantly subject to scrutiny.

8. inequality in the repurcussions depending on who you are

I wasn’t the only one in my school with a nose piercing. There was a clear inequality in the repurcussions depending on who you are. I was often called aside by my vice-principal and politely asked to remove my stud. Another girl who had a piercing too would have her nose stud taken from her and thrown away. She was in the Normal Technical stream; I was in the Express stream.

Many poked their noses into that metal dot on my nose. This included my school’s operations manager. He said, “Only barbarians pierce their nose”. There were Indian teachers in my school who had nose piercings too. I wondered if they knew that he thought that they were barbarians. I wondered if I was being policed more because I was an Indian. Perhaps, they were unaware of how their implicit biases and racial stereotypes that they bought into could indirectly impact the students under them.

9. Blatant Racism

During lessons, blatant racist comments were often made in the guise of innocent questions or joking remarks. All teachers, except one, either laughed along or pretended not to hear what was being said. The one teacher who spoke, said, “We’re all the same. Just humans. Our skin colour is brown – just different intensities”. That was profound to me. She was my Chemistry teacher. It has since became apparent to me that not many are aware of the scientific evidence on race and ethnicity. Perhaps, some of them do think that some races have superiority? Even if they didn’t, most did not have the vocabulary or eloquence to create a teaching point out of that remark. However, as a victim of racism, when teachers pretend to not hear it, we feel even more invisible. Even more powerless. Even more empty.

10. Auntie Gwen & the RTA room

I don’t know what RTA is. But there was a RTA room in YSS. It was a room occupied by Auntie Gwen. I don’t know who she was, what her credentials or past experiences are, or what exactly she did in my school. There were many rumours. Some said that she was a former parent volunteer who permanently stayed in the school to help in the disciplining and overpolicing of students. Some said that she was a supermodel-turned-counsellor. Others said that she carried a gun in her bag. She usually calls you out if you do not follow the school rules and you might have to spend your time after school in detention in her room or you might have your phone confiscated. I was scared of her. Maybe I still am scared but for a different reason. I think the mystery surrounding her made her scarier. It turns out that she passed away last year. Whoever she was and whatever she did, I hope her soul rests in peace if she’s indeed gone to a better place.

11. Community policing

One particularly annoying thing about being policed is that it’s not limited to the teachers in the school compound. The admin and support staff (including the cleaners, and the security guard) seemed to not rate the students highly. As long as you wear the uniform that bears the school logo, your actions would be scrutinised. That’s the case for every school student, I suppose. However, when people living in the neighbourhood, especially those who have children/nephew/nieces studying in some elite school or good neighbourhood school, hold preconceived notions about the school and the students, you feel judged even before you do anything. Suddenly, everything you do is wrong. Those judgy eyes. I could be overthinking. But I have seen how people look at me when I tell them that I am from NUS Business School. That look is very different from this look. Indeed, almost every other morning assembly the VP addresses the school and talks about a complaint that they had received from someone living in the neighbourhood. One of my teachers told us nonchalantly, “No one has told me that I am a bad teacher because I teach in a bad school. It’s the students that give the school its reputation. As long as y’all don’t carry yourself well, this school will continue to be a bad school”. It was a tough love kind of motivation. While I have had many pleasant memories in YSS (see Appendix II), I also remember silently counting down my days.

C. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE NEEDY: Why some schools are less equal than others

Somehow, it feels like our escalator culture of prioritising the fast-moving individuals over and above everyone else and the escalator itself seemed to be present in our education system as well. Are we more focused on realising the potential of just a select few students who have aced an exam when they were 12 rather than realising the potential of everyone? BTW funfact: people who walk on the escalator actually slow everyone down. Why do we still walk on the escalator? (Read this interesting piece on Singapore and escalators)

Many discussions of the education system centers around elite vs non-elite schools. These are important discussions. But I feel that the discussion should also acknowledge that there are several schools which are good but are still considered a neighbourhood school like YTSS. I call them the neighbour-good schools. They are great cases for other neighbourhood schools to learn from. There are also several neighbourhood schools which are sometimes perceived as bad schools. I would like to call them improving schools rather than bad schools. It is imperative that these schools be improved. The country and its people stand to gain from this. Afterall, every school is a good school right?

1. Lack of highly motivated students

In the name of a sorting exercise, these twelve-year-old students have been metaphorically told in front of everyone that they’re stupid and incapable. On the grounds of being not good enough, they have been rejected by schools that they had wanted to go to. This definitely takes a toll on these students’ self-esteem. It is important that this issue is acknowledged and active efforts are taken to improve these students’ self-esteem when they’re sec one itself.

I remember leaving a national Tamil essay writing competition after writing just a paragraph because I was overwhelmed by students clad in uniforms that I have been seeing on television every year for top ‘O’ level students seated around me. Even if I gave my best, it would still not be good enough. Why waste my time and try? In retrospect, I now recognise that this is the self-fulfilling prophecy at play. I had self-esteem issues which I had to deal with.

Furthermore, seeing some of my seniors drop out, some of them retain, some of them drop some subjects (which means they just don’t turn up for the exam; hence, the subject would not be reflected in the ‘O’ levels certificate), some of them retake their ‘O’ levels, some of them return as private ‘O’ level candidates, some of them fail the’O’ levels exams and go to ITE, and some of them pass borderline and enrol into a poly course that they weren’t interested in, served as a reminder. As a YSS student, the possibility of having to retake my ‘O’ levels seemed highly probable. This, along with that scare by my primary school math teacher, had me in an alarmed state. I sought help from everyone I knew including a few seniors who had passed decently. I also had the privilege of an excellent support system as my family. However, it must be acknowledged that these possibilities and probabilities could also push students to think that this is all that can be achieved because they are YSS students. The solution? Read #5.

2. Lack of highly motivated teachers

I have had some amazing teachers (I could make a list here but that’s besides the point). Some teachers who were not allocated to my class but they were so willing to help. But I would be lying if I said that all of them were amazing. Owing to the motivation level of students (as discussed above), the starting points that teachers in these schools are working with are different from the teachers in “good” schools where the students have been already made to feel validated by their PSLE results. Teaching at an improving neighbourhood school encompasses much more than just content transfer. They need to motivate the students and believe in the students right from the start till the end. They need to periodically remind that they’re capable and encourage them. For this to happen, the teachers themselves too need to see every student as a good student. If these teachers are motivated, they are more likely to go the extra mile. They should push not just for every student to pass but for each student to understand their strengths and realise their full potential. Perhaps, the system is currently not rewarding that. In other words, it is possible that they are not extrinsically motivated to make sure that every child reaches her potential. Hence, unless the teachers are intrinsically motivated, they are going to do the bare minimum required to get their performance bonus and move on in life. They are humans too.

3. Lack of high quality lessons, extracurricular enrichment opportunities and notes

Because I took the exact subject combination as my brother, I had access to YTSS’ notes and worksheets. I am not sure why but my brother’s notes (for all subjects except History) were more effective and useful. The notes were concise and it prepared you better for exams.

There were few teachers who were concerned about ensuring that each child achieves their full potential. Most of them were concerned with just getting us to pass and move on. One such teacher organised a special programme for overachievers. He noticed that even the top students in the school struggled to get a B3 in English. In fact, during school exams, it was common to have just two or three people pass while the rest of the cohort failed. Usually with moderation and combination with other class assessment components, the grade moves to a C5. Taught by an external vendor, this special programme was subsidised and paid through our edusave accounts. There were four or five sessions for about ten of us and I remember learning more from those lessons than I have during my English lessons in those four years. Why couldn’t my English teachers have taught me these things? I don’t know.

I also feel that more time should be spent equipping the students with entrepreneurial, analytical, critical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking skills.

4. Poor facilities

While I was doing some research on instagram for this post, I chanced upon the meme above. It was funny and sad to know that the bad classroom conditions persist. The school’s location(proximate to the main road) and squeaky chairs made lessons noisy. Most teachers used annoying and squeaky microphones in their classes which made you question the purpose of a microphone. Was it to create more noise or actually make the teacher more audible? To make things worse, it was often very warm and stuffy even with the windows opened. I had assumed that this is just how schools are. You’re not supposed to feel comfortable in school. Having gone to and spoken to people who have gone to other schools, I have realised that this wasn’t the case for everyone. These are just some obvious differences. Could it be possible that students from some schools don’t perform well because the schools are just not conducive enough? Going by Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew’s logic, air conditioning played a key role in Singapore’ success. The basic things really matter. Airconditioning classrooms might be lavish for a neighbourhood school. But installing fans and ensuring that there’s sufficient ventillation, isn’t too much to ask for, right?

Another matter is the school buildings’ architectural as well as interior design. They do not allow for the school’s culture to be reflected in it. Just like the HDBs around these schools which are so standardised, neighbourhood schools too all look very similar. They are very functional. They do not inspire nor invoke positive emotions. More could be done to improve these schools to make them more conducive. More trees and greenery (not homogeneous grassed areas) could be incorporated.

It would be interesting to ask students from each school to send their wishlists for their schools. Perhaps, the disparity would become more apparent.

5. Lack of a celebration of culture, heritage, and successful alumni

Aren’t there any existing outstanding YSS alumni? I know a few people (excluding myself) but the school has not taken a systematic and sufficient approach to celebrate its alumni and bring them back. Heck, it does not even have a Facebook/LinkedIn page or an active alumni club. One of my NUS Business School lecturers told us that when he wanted to start a business, it was his ACSI friends who chipped in. Old boys network. There are Old girls networks too. Neighbourhood schools like YSS need too build such an alumni base with active connections to the current students too. They need to build an unique cultural dna based on their history and heritage. Rich history and heritage isn’t something that only good and/or elite schools are allowed to have.

6. Poorly informed students and teachers (Careers & Subject Combinations)

The greatest disparity in my opinion is the disparity in aspirations. Every student needs to know all careers on the planet, skills and experiences required for these careers, available pathways to progress to pursue that (1) desired career, (2) available mentorship programmes to support them through their journey, as well as (3) scholarships and bursaries that they could apply for. There are clear differences in information between students from elite and neighbourgood schools and those from improving schools. My gripe is not that these schools don’t prepare and equip them for these careers. My gripe is that these students are not even informed of what careers are available apart from the usual teacher, soldier, policemen, lawyer, doctor, etc. They do not even aspire to be these because they don’t even know that these possibilities exist. Even if they know of these jobs, they are told to be realistic. Sometimes, the financial situation of the families might deter them further. As it is, some of them(I acknowledge that they were the minority) were working part-time while studying. Teachers too are often ill-informed. They give advice based on how the situation was twenty or thirty years back when they were students themselves. Outdated and sometimes, even irrelevant information misguides students in their career decisions and subject combination decisions.

With numeorus changes in teachers, some teachers were going on maternity leave, others being allocated to graduating classes, a lot of my sec 2 classes were conducted by relief teachers. During ‘free periods’, they would share their education journey. It became apparent that even some of these relief teachers were not able to become a teacher because they did not have a bachelor’s qualification. The ST “Career Guide” book too seemed to suggest this. Being a YSS alumni himself, a relief teacher shared his strategies for getting admitted into local university.

  1. Regardless of your course choice, go to SP/NP/TP (prioritised in that same order). Don’t waste time going to a neighbourhood junior college and getting retained.
  2. Don’t take a course that is too specialized such that it becomes completely irrelevant
  3. Subject choices for streaming: Combined science: Keep it simple, don’t bother with pure science, Combined humanities(History/Social Studies): YSS has a better track record for History than Geography or Literature(Our spotting is quite accurate), Principles of Accounts: easier to score because you’re not competing with most top schools, Additional Mathematics: a requisite for most courses in university(if you go through the polytechnic route)

I understand that MOE has Education and Career Guidance since 2014. Perhaps, this would improve the situation.

7. Poor career guidance, mentoring and preparation

There’s a reason why students from some secondary school keep receiving scholarships. It’s not because these schools are good schools. These schools understand what these scholarships require and guide the students in fulfilling these requirements. Some would argue that these schools have gamed the system. These schools are not just the elite schools but the neighbourgood schools too. Some of these schools also extensively train the students on writing winning scholarship motivation letters. Some of them are also teach how to write cover letters to apply for internships. Hence, these helps some students accumulate privileges while other students are deprived of these privileges. Perhaps, if the school spends more time equipping students for the real-world instead of policing them, YSS would become a neighbourgood school.

8. Lack of sufficient SOCIAL support system for students

Fadzli Bin Baharom Adzahar’s “Taking the Gravel Road”: Educational Aspirations of Working Class Malay Youths(2012) was an interesting read. In that piece, he showed how how these youths’ wrecked ambitions were underpinned by routinely cultural exchanges and actions among their friends in the neighbourhood.

A: I want to try to make it to poly(technic).

B: ‘N’ levels and ‘O’ levels never pass, want to dream to enter poly

C: Poly? Can lah…. Polyclinic

A quote of a conversation between one one of these malay youths and his peers.

That conversation seemed very familiar to me. During the last few months of poly, I told one of my secondary school friends that I was applying to local universities to pursue my bachelors. She had replied something along the lines of “Those are very competitive to get in, right? Why waste time? You not going to work? Maybe can do Kaplan after that.” The context is different and it isn’t as bad. But there seems to be a trend. The Singapore Youth Resilience Survey‘s findings too echo a similar sentiment; students in neighbourhood schools may not have sufficient social support to build resilience.

Conclusion

As students ascend, perform well and reach greater heights, they would carry YSS’ name with them as ambassadors. At the same time, they would come back, share their life journey and insights, provide career advice and mentor students. This will further fuel the transformation process. The good name of the school will spread and the way people living in the community view the schools and the students will change. Just installing chinese words to the school’s building or adding Chinese scriptures to the general office will not improve the perception of the school and perhaps, give a “good school” vibe. Ridiculous, isn’t it? It happened at YSS. And I know that it isn’t the only school. Parents too must see that the highest-ranked school may not be the right one for their child and trust these improving neighbourhood schools to provide a good environment and resources for their child to flourish.

Improving schools need to be transformed. One by one. Our education system too needs to be transformed for the changing world. It is heartening to see this changes happening. Ong Chye Hin’s Challenges and Processes in School Turnaround A Singapore Secondary School Principal’s Perspective provides a detailed systematic approach for transforming schools. Ricemedia’s MOE-sponsored articles, A Father’s Love Letter to His Daughter On Her Education Journey and To Understand Why Kids Won’t Stay In School, We Need To Look At What Keeps Them Out as well as Straits Times’ article on the changes in the education system over the years gives me hope. MPs and NMPs have also raised interesting suggestions to improve the education system and we’re seeing some of the changes being implemented already.

  • Reducing class size (SG: 40 | OECD: 24 | GEP:25)
  • Jointly conducting CCA in clusters, outreach initiatives and inter-school collaboration to increase interaction
  • Vertically integrating primary and secondary schools
  • Rotating of teachers and principals within clusters
  • Involving alumni more meaningfully
  • Sending some of the most experienced and well-regarded principals to head neighbourhood schools
  • Relocating cluster 1, branded schools to the heartlands
  • Relooking phases 2A and 2B of the primary school balloting system: unfair, unmeritocratic, anachronistic
  • Boosting neighbourhood schools’ resources to cater to the different abilities of individual students and aid in their progress

As students and parents of students from YSS (and other improving schools), you have the power to push for change. Get involved with the school management. Write to The Straits Times forum, Ricemedia, Members of Parliament, and Ministers & Ministry of Education.

Timeline: The History of Two FRIENDS: YSS & YTSS Links

Ministry to spend $158 m on JC and 21 schools The Straits Times, 20 November 1983

Three schools in Yishun share same premises The Straits Times, 3 January 1986

New school in Yishun operating at two sites The Straits Times, 5 January 1988

New school The Straits Times, 29 July 1988

Sharp rise in education levels in the last decade The Straits Times, 20 August 1988

Official opening of Yishun Secondary School today The Straits Times, 19 August 1988

YSS Historical Milestones

YTSS School History

Yishun Innova Junior College Wikipage

Other Interesting Links

Parents’ Perceptions Of The Singapore Primary School System

Today: Understanding meritocracy

Today: The need for an evolving meritocracy

Appendix I: Fun facts about Yishun

APPENDIX II: PLEASANT MEMORIES AT YSS

  • Subsidised schoool trip to Chiang Mai as a reward for clinching the SYF Gold award
  • Sportz and Artz Carnival
  • Speech Day Indian dance performances (and receiving the award for Best in Tamil while clad in my dance costume every year throughout my study at YSS)
  • Weekly Indian Dance sessions
  • Welcome Tea Party for secondary one Indian students
  • Singing competition(for all the Tamil students at YSS); I won the consolation prize
  • North cluster competitions
  • Tamil theatre workshop that helped to prepare us for a short play we staged at Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School
  • Elaborate Pongal celebrations (which include uriyadithal, and traditional pongal making with clay pots and charcoal)
  • School-wide Kolam competition as part of Racial Harmony Day celebrations I think (we:students of Indian cultual society prepared the kolam rice ourselves by dying and later drying them)
  • National Day & Enterprise Day

Appendix III: YSS IN THE NEWS

With social media and more media companies(Read: Coconuts.co, and Mothership), more of what happens in school is known to the public.

Till my next post(Final 8; The next is titled ‘Born this way’), stay curious.

Published by Chandralekha

Making the world a better place one word at a time.

Leave a comment