Time for peace and quiet

An aside on JC demographics

There is a recent trend on my facebook wall where friends (mostly female) are sharing pictures of orientation in their JCs. Naturally this stirs up the "nationalist-esque" part and HEY MY JC IS BETTER THAN YOURS!!!

This wasn't something we could say 4 years ago, when we were still in school. We barely even say it now. Objectively, we have become better, much better than anyone expected, but we still can't say we're better or even on the same level as most people.

I think it's only natural that we have this inferiority complex. Nobody genuinely wanted to be there during orientation of 2008. During appeal period, we were looking at more people leaving than entering.

Today, there has been a massive, almost stunning turn of events. People actually wanted to be there, for possibly the first time in the school's history. I'm sure it will flabbergast many people if they went back to talk to the students.

It does raise a problem though. (of course it does.)

Currently, we are at 13 points for both arts and science stream. 13 points used to mean a hell of a lot, but what's more telling is that there are now fewer 2-digit schools. Only 3 schools stand "below" us in terms of cut-off points and they all happen to be in the West. There is a seemingly large gap between 13 point schools and 16 point schools. In fact, most schools seem to be clustered around these numbers, 20, 16 ,13 and then 9 and up. I'm sure statistically there is something interesting about this regarding the effect of Higher Chinese being more widespread in schools and CCA points adding up but I'm not interested in that (ok I'm not THAT interested enough to start a new post)

As an alumni member (alumnus?), seeing the alma mater "level up" and be on par with our neighbours is definitely very satisfying. AT FIRST. but then there is a tinge of sadness that people of our calibre today would not have had the same opportunities that we had. Today, if I were to be applying for school all over again, I would more likely be travelling toward the West side to get a JC education.

I believe this is a serious enough factor to consider a polytechnic education as a potential alternative, regardless of how much the kid would have wanted to study in University.

The inner workings of higher management in JCs and the education Ministry in general is not something I am privy to. However, if the principal really does have any kind of influence over the intake of students, it would be a serious time to consider deflating the cut-off for my school.

My conversations with teachers have revealed that there hasn't been a marked increase in intelligence of the students coming in in recent years. Of course this is subjective and should be take with a pinch of salt, but nevertheless, it should be noted that our teachers have been capable to educating those who would be rejects in other colleges to a level that could be a serious competitor on a national level. 

Thus, I feel that it is in fact prudent to lower the cut-off score artificially for the school, not just for the sake of the national population, but for the school as well. I think it's a much more beneficial endeavour to take in students selectively, regardless of their score. Either way, we would be taking students that are on the lower spectrum of students who are eligible for JC anyway. 

In an ideal situation (enough manpower and time to filter through all CCA and testimonial records), I find it much better to accept students who have either shown a serious commitment to either their education or to their chosen area (sports, music, CCA, etc). And I don't mean superficial things like Achieved Gold in SYF. It's more of a soft skills and personality approach. Generally students who have revealed the ability and willingness to persevere and sacrifice for their, and I hate to use this word but, passion.I believe such qualities, even when shown in areas outside academia, can be properly tapped and channelled towards school work and, perhaps even more crucially, create a on-the-whole, more focused student body.

Those are just my 2 cents. Of course in an ideal world, the 4 great wizards would put a bit of themselves in a hat and let that decide after their passing.