I went to an elite primary school. It wasn’t like Captain America.

The whole primary school saga is just nuts. Plain kiasuism in action.

I went to those Elite schools (will remain unmentioned) but I vowed to myself if I ever had kids I would not send them there. I did not even realize how I was being indoctrined to be a snotty brat. There were cliques, fake accents, branded goods, girls bullying their drivers who ferried them to school daily in huge cars……and they all looked down on kids from the neighbourhood schools who were so much better kids than us anyway.

It was terrible behaviour (bad influence indeed) and I noticed that in some cases for those who haven’t had the hard knocks of life….carries forward into the workplace where the elitist attitude continues…..bad……just bad. They were so used to thinking they were the best and deserved the best, steam rolling over everyone else.

Another thing I realized, only much later, is that elite schools get much better programmes which is so unfair. Then how can there be a level playing field? I don’t know if it’s still the case now.

Anyway the people I respect the most happen to come from the most humble neighbourhood schools.

By the way, your family is just awesome! Love how supportive they are and how strong their values are as well.

Take it from somebody who went to an elite school: there is a difference.

Caleb’s half-right; it is about peer influence. In an elite school (okay, outside of primary school) most of the students have gotten there through sheer grit, determination or genius. And this means that the people there are not to have trifled with. In my school, I was kept on my toes. They say that lousy teachers end up there, because frankly it doesn’t matter how badly you teach, the students mostly study by themselves and ace tests anyway. They’re right.

For scientific evidence I cite a study which shows that a child’s friends/peers are significantly greater influences than their teachers/parents.

The other half is difficult to quantify, but I would use facility/opportunity/potential. It’s no surprise; elite schools, better funded, better buildings/labs/facilities. They also get more opportunities; competitions, tie-ups with other academic institutions and programmes, and weird chances to do things other people would not. It is a positive experience.

The people, on the other hand, are right bastards…

Hi,

Do the statistics back up this claim then? I’m not disputing your story, but the point is, it’s simply “one” story, we should look into the broader picture.

I’m sure if we look into different batches of students coming from different primary schools, we can perhaps find a gauge of success, say what their eventual O lvl results are, what their university enrollment are.

Although unfortunately the results will be skewed and favoring those from elite primary schools, simply because their parents are more affluent, more likely able to afford tuition, enrichment courses, and more likely to do better in life.

You are right that I should not put down neighbourhood schools just like that. But I must say, it is not without basis. I have friends in University who survived those schools and told me they will never allow their children to go to such schools. I cannot be sure, but I think it is reasonable to assume that the chances of having your life ruined by ill influences are probably higher in neighbourhood schools. By the way, I added “if you are unlucky enough” to my last paragraph because it isn’t always true.

About why “good education” is only extended to a minority, “elite” few, the answer cannot be more obvious. It is simply because of the fact that classes exists. They are very real. Some students love learning, so we encourage them to learn. Others do not enjoy learning, we should help them develop an interest.

Unfortunately, what we did in the past was that we force fed them. That is probably not the best way to handle the situation, but surely, putting students who do not care about learning in GEP can really ruin their lives. We must understand that it is impossible, logistically speaking, to identify the best way to help every single child. This resulted in the stark classification of students which is quite unhealthy. Also, I agree that many will benefit if places for GEP are increased.

Nonetheless, I think one point of disagreement we have is that you believe children inherently enjoy learning, and that the stress and competition take that joy away from learning. I disagree. There are children that simply do not enjoy mainstream education. They may be interested in performing arts, sports or other areas, or perhaps are simply not interested in learning (preferring to watch TV, movies, loiter, window shop or play computer games instead).

That said, performing arts and sports are not bad per se, but those are really for the truly gifted and talented. Having multitudes of ordinary children without real talent in performing arts and sports becoming infatuated by such things due to popular media, and are then encouraged to pursue these interests in place of conventional education in language, mathematics and science, will only result in many many disappointments.

Because of this very unfortunate fact, students have to be “forced” to do what they do not really like. And these students, are placed in the main stream. As I have said, putting them in GEP will simply not work for them. In truth, I do not have a solution.

I graduated from the worst class in EM2 in Nanyang in 95 and my experience was quite different

My main gripe with nyps was how Communist it was. There was an acknowledgement that we weren’t as academically talented as the rest but we weren’t considered bad people because of that. One teacher told us it was OK to have bad grades if we were good people

In fact people thought the geps were weird and one proclaimed he hated them. So this one way framing is most unhelpful – there is a dialectic

The effort to smoothen out the difference between elite schools and otherwise should be the combined responsibility of the community and the government.

But when it goes down to the individual level, you are fighting for yourself, and your child. That is why parents do such things.

It is the same with me. I may say that this and that is good for the world and that things will be better on average for everyone; but when you narrow the scope down to the individual level, I will definitely put in some extra effort so that I will come out on top.

Isn’t that just so Singaporean?

In the interests of disclosure, it should be noted that Agagooga went from the worst EM2 class in the Communist primary school to the GEP programme in an elite secondary school.

Well, nothing in life is assured, but some things are better than others

Well, I have been through both ends I guess. I left my first primary school to enter NYPS Gifted Programme EONS ago when there were only 4 schools with Pri Sch GEP (Rosyth, RGPS, ACPS, Nanyang). I must admit the teachers who taught me then were inspiring. They went out of their way to make sure we coped well with our work. I admittedly wasn’t the most hardworking (some would call lazy), not submitting work etc. But the teachers in Primary 5 changed me. . counselled me, made me show up daily at recess time with a log of what was due tomorrow. Yeps, I am grateful to them all..

I agree with the comment that the risk of running into foul company is indeed lower in “elite schools”, and “peer pressure” being important. But ultimately not all of us enter “elite” schools, and if we do, make the most of it, if we don’t? Ditto.

I don’t think most parents were expecting NYPS to be a superhero solution as you are suggesting in your article. As mentioned by others, better facilities, less exposure to negative influences, better peer influences and generally better students emerge from such schools.

Secondly, I’m not quite sure what you were expecting from NYPS – it probably provides the best resources for a child to succeed. As much as you enjoyed the emphatic “Not NYPS”, NYPS provides just as much if not more that any other schools can provide. Your criticism against the teachers, as well as the GEP kids were criticisms that you would have experienced far worse in a regular neighbourhood school, it doesn’t hold. I’m sure your parents were lovely – all these values that you said they inculcated in you means they did a good job. All the resources and pedagogy that NYPS provides, which successes across various streams (as seen through its alumni), means NYPS does a better job than most.

That means the sole responsibility lies in the child, however young, because there is only so much schools and parents can do.

I came from a neighbourhood school, and I would know the experience and influences and that are there are the valid reasons for parents to choose otherwise, on both sides of the supposed coin you speak of despite not being anywhere else other than NYPS. Like Winston, I left my school to join NYPS and most of us were so happy to be in such a well-endowed school that we didn’t even have half the mind to be arrogant, discriminating or whatnot. Like Caleb, all of us enjoy learning, and if anything, the competition for us was more “demoralising” within our peers, and that’s because those who succeeded, though not always, but often times really worked harder than most. Should you have a kid later – would you send your kid to NYPS, or would you choose a regular school?

I would suggest that perhaps if you did not enter NYPS on the basis of your mum’s alumni affiliation and had to qualify through the GEP system, you’d be as insanely appreciative and driven as most of the GEP kids of the NYPS opportunity. I find your criticism of those kids very rich at the very least – however unbecoming some were, they were ultimately kids and I’m certain they were the minority. Most of us had good friends from different streams, neighbourhood schools – my non-GEP friends never hated GEP kids and neither did most of us indulge in any high-handed arrogance. There will always be exceptions. There are just as many non performing mean asshats – those are called school bullies who pick on the nerdy kids.

And I’m not sure how your mentioning of the fact that you were prefect due to your to top English scores convey your point – all it shows is EM2 kids have all the opportunities to be prefects and leaders just as any other streams. I highly doubt the teachers choose purely on results (there were so many subjects, assuming you didn’t top the rest, then were the others made prefects?) Results are regarded by them as one facto that holds a general correlation to behavior/discipline and role model purposes and that is understandable.

The separation of classes is quite clearly another old grouse – the intention was to group students of similar pace and performance so that teachers can maximise the efficiency of their teaching and each students’ potential. On a micro level, it actually minimises the competition problem you speak out against – of a child throwing his hands up and giving up because some smart ass beside finishes math questions in half the time everyday and sits there grinning while he or she struggles. Surely there are downsides but, to claim other “less elite” schools would benefit these kids better is hardly inaccurate.

There will always be people smarter, better and who excel better. In both my neighbourhood school and NYPS, there were far more teachers that were encouraging and positive when I did badly, than there were bad apples. Similarly, the students as well. In fact, I found the smarty pants in my neighbourhood school far more abrasive and arrogant than any I met at NYPS, who generally carried themselves more modestly amongst their peers.

The only issue that stands out is that children who, with understandably with self-pride, cannot cope with competition and not being at the top of the pile. It’s general human nature that we enjoy ourselves when we excel – the challenge is to push oneself when one isn’t. I didn’t do to well, I’m not a scholar or a highflier, but I know the resources and opportunities NYPS provided were fantastic and to blame any lack of performance in an environment like NYPS would be nothing more than ego-nursing. And as mentioned, NYPS offers far more understanding teachers that I experienced at a neighbourhood school (As Winston mentioned – not all of us did well and surely doing badly in GEP by your logical extension creates far more pressure)

You: “It’s the most disgusting when the kids are indoctrinated with this belief that they “deserve” what they’ve got. It’s a sense of entitlement devoid of empathy. They then look down on the poor and homeless, thinking, “Look, I’m where I am because I worked hard! ”

The irony is, you had it a lot better than most in society and your generalisations and broad brushes of things/areas/people you don’t fancy throughout your article carry that very sense of a lack of empathy and understanding. Stop this stupid fallacy that people who succeed are more arrogant (people who don’t can’t be arrogant in this respect, so how can we even measure that?) and that people who succeed didn’t start off poor and little resources.

I would hazard a guess that my family was a lot poorer than yours, given your globetrotting and seemingly privileged background, but I do apologize if I am wrong, but citing the poor and homeless and “championing their cause” to put across your point that you were unhappy at feeling slighted at NYPS against some “ruling elite class” is distasteful.

There are lots of poor kids in the GEP system (poor familes, single-parent familes, incomplete families) as well and it really grates that you are in effect, criticising the embarrassment of riches that many of them are thankful for at NYPS, that you had handed you on a platter.

If the same generalisations were applied to you – then you would come across as an entitled kid who didn’t excel when given the opportunity in NYPS and didn’t like not being at the top of the pile, but still secretly enjoys being called a former NYPS kid, thinks that scoring 241 for PSLE and topping English in class deserves better. Insane medicine isn’t it?

I totally agree with your view. I was from a neighborhood pri/sec school. Where you are today is determine by the amount of hard work you put in. No school can help you if you don’t wish to help yourself. I’m now studying medicine in a top notch university in UK with some fellow Singaporeans who are considered “elites”.

There are no bad schools, only bad teachers.

Wonderfully written, Kirsten!

I would like to share my academic life story to prove the point that you don’t need to be in an elite school to be the best version of yourself.

I went to 2 neighborhood pre-schools, of which I have no recollection of being ‘molded’ for the future. I then spent my 6 years of primary school education in 3 neighborhood primary schools because we moved house.

I agree with Ian that ‘There are no bad schools, only bad teachers’.

I spent my PSLE year in a totally new primary school. I had mean classmates who made fun of and ostracized me, and was cursed with a form teacher (also my teacher for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, PE, CME) who took such joy in humiliating me and just making my life hell in general. She replaced all the lessons I loved (English, Art, Social Studies) with those I hated (the rest). She made me hate studying, my classmates made me hate making friends, they all made me hate going to school. I guess I was lucky I didn’t receive any physical abuse, but I just hated everything that happened in my last year of primary school education. My thirst for learning was mostly overshadowed by my fear of going to school. Till this day I hold that teacher largely responsible for my bad PSLE results.

With my PSLE score of 186 I was directly ousted from the Express Stream – 188 was the minimum. My parents blew their top when I presented to them my results. I think they were more disappointed in me because they felt I could have done better than angry that my results were plain bad. But at my grand age of 12, I really couldn’t tell. They made me feel less of myself, and that didn’t help in building my early teens self-esteem.

I entered the Normal Academic stream in a neighborhood school and stayed for all 5 years. Those 5 years were anything but rosy.

People say the friends you make in secondary school will most likely be the ones you stick with for the rest of your life. Well I’m glad I don’t ever see my secondary school friends again. I don’t want to either. There were 2 NA classes and I was in alternate classes each year for whatever reason. The behavioral traits of my classmates were rather homogeneous. They smoked, got involved in verbal and physical fights, and terrorized other less gangster-like classmates – they were the classic examples of ah lians and ah bengs. Classes were meant for sleeping in and chatting, after school hours were meant for hanging around in void decks and each other’s homes engaging in activities I am embarrassed to even reveal.

It was really easy to just become one of them because the influence was tremendous. But I think my upbringing and own moral values played a big part in steering me away from those people and their activities. I was, for the lack of a better term, different from them. Just different.

In Sec 2, my results were so good my form teacher recommended me to fast track to the Express Stream. But I turned it down. I liked being in the Normal Acad stream, I liked the lackadaisical pace, I liked that I got to receive scholarship every year. LOL.

In fact, I have a lot to thank my classmates for. If not for their laziness and absolute disregard for education, I wouldn’t have built such a healthy self-esteem in my growing years. I topped the class, and never performed worse than 3rd in standard, every year. Of course I worked hard, but without their united effort in bringing down the bar, I wouldn’t feel as good about myself if I had been in the Express Stream. A classmate scored 44 points for L1R4 for ‘O’ levels. Awesome.

One thing I really hated about being in the NA stream was that teachers and principal treated us differently. It is true that the majority of them were really disinterested in learning, but they penalized the rest of us who loved learning. In Sec 3, they removed Literature Studies from our syllabus, assuming that if our English standard is so lousy, Literature would be a waste of our time. But I loved literature! I love the English language and have been good at it since I was a little girl. I have my mum who gave me a solid foundation in English and made learning so much fun from young to thank for. The loss of studying more into Literature is still one of my greatest regrets.

I left my secondary school years behind with an ‘O’ level score of L1R5 = 11, and L1R4 = 9. Good enough to enter a JC but I disliked the rigidity of JC life; it felt like secondary school all over again. We had the opportunity of trying out for 3 months back then.

I went to Ngee Ann Polytechnic to pursue a diploma in Business Studies and graduated as top 5% of the cohort. My grades scored me a spot in the National University of Singapore.

My university days were the best in my entire academic life. Had I become an elite? Nope. I was still me, with my upbringing and moral values, but feeling more guarded against those who came from elite schools. I was expecting them to be snobbish and arrogant but the people who have become my really good friends were anything but. My friends never looked down on my ‘non-elite’ background, in fact, they respect and admire my determination and hard work to bring myself to where I am today. I graduated with results far better than many, many JC students who came from a history of branded schools.

In sharing my story I hope to convey the message that the consequence of being in an elite school surrounded by elite people might not be superior to that of being in a neighborhood school surrounded by bengs and lians. As my mother always tells us, “Bloom where you are planted”. My siblings and I never went to any branded schools but we all ended up doing well academically and well tuned to the world. My brother always proudly tells his friends about his sister who was in EM2, went to Normal Academic, opted for poly, and graduated from NUS.

So you see, being in an elite school does not guarantee results, some say it might even backfire. You might end up a social retard with high IQ, or a well-adjusted street-smart person who has seen and struggled through the less glamorous side of society.

Well, I can say with some certainty from my experience that a child’s financial background is independent of whether he makes it into the GEP stream.

Personally, I think that the teachers in “elite” schools are not necessarily of the top-notch. However, because they tend to have the financial backing, the schools are able to provide more opportunities for the students to develop themselves, in the form of say enrichment programs, external activities or overseas trips. This is probably one of the only advantages of sending a child to a top school (besides better facilities). The students in the schools aren’t intelligent because they are taught well – they get good grades because they were intelligent to begin with and put in the effort to maintain their own good grades. It’s not the quality of the teachers that is making the school what it is, but is rather, the quality of the students.

Thanks for your post Kirsten – it is comforting to note, as a new parent myself.
Nevertheless, I do agree with the posts of J, Caleb and the rest – the school makes a difference.

I went to a neighbourhood primary school but made it to the top R-secondary on the strength of my PSLE score. In my secondary school, I did reasonably well, but made the mistake of not studying for my O levels (I had a near perfect prelims score and was misguidedly arrogant) and ended up in a neighbourhood JC again. So I do think I know what it’s like to be on both sides of the story.

In my JC, I grew tired of being the only one in GP class who knew the answers – it was hard to learn anything when the teacher was still busy trying to teach the class what I had already known and learnt in secondary school. Bored, I eventually skipped classes (there was no shortage of friends who were similarly disinterested, although academically, their grades could be far worse than mine). The problem was compounded by the teachers. I remember that my science notes were so skimpy that, despite reading them several times, I still could not ace my exams.

In secondary school, my fellow students kept me on my toes – although I was a slacker by nature, I had to keep up and not be the last in class. I did not realize that being in the mid-tier of an “elite” school was actually far better than being the top of a school where the standard was much lower. Since the expectation was to score straight As, I aimed for the stars and reached the moon. In a school with lower standards, you are not even expected to be able to obtain a perfect score.

Eventually (luckily) I bucked up in time after flunking my prelims and wondering if that was really it for me. I studied for my A levels (with notes from an elite JC which I had managed to grab, albeit from a few years back) and made it to one of the “professional” courses. I shudder to think of what might have happened had I not had those notes. I probably would not have made it to university. (which I do realize is probably not the end of the road, but realistically, it would be very difficult to find employment in today’s world) In the end, it seems to have boiled down to luck.

As a parent I sincerely hope that my child would not go through what I had gone through – it almost seems as if I had made it by a stroke of luck (by getting my hands on the elite notes). The school matters – which is why any individual concerned parent would do all that they can to help their child. Donating money or moving house in order to get my child into an elite school is out for me since I am not wealthy (I’m told donations start from 6 digit sums and property prices are insanely high right now) so I am only left with the option of volunteering. Even then, I hesitate as many parent-volunteers have failed to get their child in, without taking the additional step of moving house to within 1km of the school.

Whilst I do not have to act until a good many years later, I suspect that I will have to accept my lot in life and hope that my background will not unduly disadvantage my child. I hope that she can start off on the best footing and not have to rely on luck, as I did. I do not blame those parents who have the means to get their child into the elite schools and choose to act – after all, every parent wants the best for their child.

Actually did anyone ever wonder what would happen if they just take the resources and attitudes etc that was aimed at the GEP or the smarter classes and just use it on the average classes with average students… oh wait this guy Rosenthal did, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect

I was a GEP kid from RGPS, and my experience could not have been more different – the teachers there were nurturing, caring and let us go crazy. Little emphasis was placed on our grades. I recall 3 years of non-curriculum intellectual stimulation and childish fun. In fact, I think I had an unblemished academic record of bad grades over there. But upon progressing to RGS, my peers and I were pummeled daily with the very same message NYPS endorsed. Personally, I think the principal of each school is the key determinant in its ethos.

Hi there, I just wanted to add that the most probable reason why GEP is only offered to students who tend to do better in studies, is that this batch of students are different in this particular way. Writing from a secondary GEPer who just graduated from primary school GEP NYPS this year’s POV, I notice that most of my classmates tend to be more active than my mainstream friends. They also tend to do all kinds of unexplainable stuff that normal adults would be so baffled by and would automatically assume that we are just plain idiots. In fact, this things that we do are more or less logical but we seemly find it a waste of time to explain to adults. Thus, specially trained teachers who can understand us, tolerate our stubbornness, our noise and our short fuses, are brought into this program so that we would not grow up to be social outcasts and also to allow us to grow to our full potential. Simply put, mainstream kids are like balloons flying freely into the sky but us, we are the ones who also have the same potential to fly but society’s so called normal upbringing defies what we think is right and we start to revolt against the system, causing us not to fly. That’s when the GEP teachers come in to sort out our thinking and motivate us so that we can soar.
This way of teaching is not suitable for everyone as not everyone has our kind of mindset and not everyone face our difficulties. That’s why GEP is not extended to all kids in Singapore.
I recall when I was in my old school, from p1-p3. I hated school so much, simply because I knew, the teachers expected me to be like the rest of my classmates, obedient, ask only a few questions, and stop being so active and reckless. But I was the total opposite, causing them to dislike me and causing me to wallow daily in my misery. The only thing I looked forward to everyday was talking to my friends and delighting in the lesson of the one and only teacher who could understand me-my science teacher. Everytime I was sent to the DM, she was the one who would really take the time to ask me the reason and elaborate on what I mean while the rest of the
teachers just state that I was giving a unreasonable reason and scolding me.
99% of my friends have versions of my story although some had saviours like my science teacher, others did not. But all of us are glad that in the GEP, we all truly have a place where we belong. We are finally accepted for all our flaws and our eccentricities. It is GEP which has given us a place in society and help us reach our full potential.
Remember, while maybe there are some mainstreamers who also have difficulties like us, but did not get into GEP, we can only say that in every society, there are some who have slipped through the cracks. I hope this would clear the name of us GEPers and people would no longer accuse us of being uncaring elites who simply get special treatment, for we too, once had our problems. GEP, just helped solved them.

Hi. I’m a secondary three school student from a neighborhood school. I got interested in elitism is Singapore when I realized that students from elite schools are really good academically, so I wanted to find out more. I was initially worried that I wouldn’t score well for my O’ levels compared to those from the elite schools. But I am relieved to hear that those from elite schools do not necessarily score well compared to students from neighborhood schools. There is hope for me! Haha. I really agree with your post. My mother is okay with me going to a neighborhood school. But my dad thinks, “you should go to a “good” (branded) school because the teachers are better”. I personally don’t think that going to a “good” school would guarantee exemplary results. But I am intimidated by the elite students and students from the GEP, simply because they are “smarter” than me whereas I am just an average student. Well, since I have been given lemons, I’ll just make lemonades.

And about the issue on bad influence; we just need to know which friends we should mix with. My best friend was amongst the top 3 in the whole level last year.
So just because you go to a neighborhood school, it does not necessarily mean you’ll turn out to be some lazy, foul-mouthed student.

These are just my personal opinions. Cheers everyone