by Rin Yeo
We’ve all been through that phase – as a student we can’t wait to grow up and as an adult, well, we wish we could be back to being a student again. However, while we reminisce our student days, essentially the education is also changing – and here’s why it’s tough to be a student in Singapore these days!
1. Ever changing syllabus
For those of you who happen to be the first batch affected by any change in the syllabus, it’ll be a learning process for you, just as much as it is for the teachers. So just exactly what are the standards set for scoring well on it? With both parties attempting to understand the concept, just what exactly are we learning? We probably won’t even know after we graduated!
2. Going, going, gone and hello, huh?
With some schools closing, some others opening (You know, yah?) and some merging…your dream of going where you want to go may remain as a dream or a puzzle, and you’ll never know until you graduate. IB students might be thankful for this, because through the program, there’s no need to fret over where they should go after they are done with their Os. However, for those who have had made up their minds long before they graduated to only find what they want’s gone then…well, tough luck.
3. Books or gadgets?
Going environmentally friendly is a good thing, and since most students are well-versed in the art of technology these day, it shouldn’t be an issue if books are obsolete, right? Wrong! Despite all the learning on gadgets, at the end of the day, most of the examinations take place with pen and paper, which means – no Googling for all the answers that we need! Help!
4. Where has the time gone?!
Remember those hours that you used to be able to afford for a game or two once you are done with homework? Have you realised that as you get older and progressed further along your educational path, all those homework and assignments that seems never-ending make 24hours/day suddenly seem insufficient? Before you know it, it’s already 3am in the morning, and you need to be up at 6am later! Where has the time gone?!
(PS: Globally, Singapore ranks as third in terms of time spent on homework!)
5. Not everything is created equal
How many of you have had your lecturers/teachers tell you “Just produce theory as that’s what your examiners want to see” (or along those lines at least). Follow it, and you may get the grades assigned, but essentially, that isn’t enough for the real world. In fact, in August 2015, a finding revealed that most graduates end up being over-qualified in terms of their qualifications for their job, with the reason being: They are unskilled in real-world application. So should theory triumph then – someone please teach us!
