She's Got So Much To Say.

I was reading the comments ECL Mommy gave me on the previous posts regarding Secondary 5 students are advised to go to ITE instead.

She was as upset as I am and I think I would need to quote something which made me very touched and I felt this sentence so meaningful. " That is not the way an educator should behave and what she said in defence was all crap."

Yes, Indeed. This is not the way an EDUCATOR should behave and most parents and I (I'm not a parent, just a student) think that we should not tolerate such things and negative attitudes amongst the Education department.

I do admit I am still upset and some of you may think that, Oh come on, What's the big hooha about all these?

It's not a big hooha, but it signifies how much we, Normal Academic Stream are being looked down for. Everywhere I go, whenever I take a cab, the taxi driver asked me, " You study 4 years or 5 years?"

I told him 5. He told me, " Oh 4 years is better." Let me get this very very clear. What we learn and the express students learn are apparently the same. I mean, not talking about subjects like Pure Science or Biology or A-Maths. I was talking about the core subjects like Humanities, EL & CL, E-Maths. Basically, we study the same thing as what those express students did! Just that we need to waste another year to learn those stuffs!

But please, that doesn't mean we're slow, we're dumb, we don't think and act fast, we're not as good as those express students! In fact, my class, known as the BEST NA Class in MJR even won express students in Mathematics! And we're on PAR with the best express class!

It's about our pride and dignity. Even if we don't get the best teaching methods in school, at least we, I mean for my class, we put in extra effort in learning everything. Especially English Language. Not talking about me, Nav & Scott because we're the better ones in English Language. Our class is well known for being poor in English Language BUT very good in Mathematics & Science.

And I can see my classmates working hard for English because they know English is important! They put a lot more effort in Eng than in other subjects! I remembered even before O Level Oral, some of my classmates even consulted me for advises on how to pronounce some words and how to project your voice in a very nice tone, how to speak fluently, how to pause at different times in a sentence etc etc. Even classmates from China & Taiwan made an effort!

All these are little efforts that are being built up within them. Principals don't see the hard work we've put in. Every best teachers and best education programmes are given to the express students FIRST.

Just what we do, to deserve such impartial and different treatment from the schools?

Everyone has this mentality, thinking that Normal Academic Stream is just one level above Normal Technical, which means we are no better than Normal Technical. But please, Ah I don't know what to continue on.

Just hope some of the readers can understand what I'm trying to put across and understand how helpless and devastating I feel when I see such headlines on newspaper.