It’s all my fault. Today is already day 2 of PSLE and I am shocked at my nerves.
As I ruminated on it, i feel that a major reason is this: I have failed to grasp the incredibly complex educational roadmap here :-
*That your
child should aspire to Higher Mother Tongue because it gives her points which
add to her T-score (the bottomline score when it comes to determining the next
phase of your child’s educational experience)
* That she
should have joined a co-curricular activity that boasts of national-level
excellence which in some way proves she has the mettle for tougher regimes
ahead; and perhaps a Direct Secondary School Admission.
* that she
should have taken every one of those enrichment opportunities from scrabble to
ballet to the hilt to prove that she is among the elite; once again standing
her in good stead for an esteemed secondary schooling experience such as
Integrated Program.
Alas, I just am
not the grand tactician who can grasp this scheme of things but plan my moves
and arrange my resources so. So I had taken the clueless path of making
decisions one step at a time. She’s too tired, choose another co-curricular
activity. Go easy on the purse and the
pressure, so let’s not have too much tuition. Top class or mid-of-the-range?
The latter please.
But now I’m
a bundle of nerves! It’s clear as light to me what my daughter is capable of,
but I just have to hope that this one exam which everything hinges on goes
predictably smoothly. At the back of my mind, a tiny voice kept saying I did
not push her to reach her best; and the more I browse the secondary schools
which all parents aspire their kids to end up in, the worse I feel.
I had vowed
that the exams will be hers, not mine. I went to work, was at a meeting when
she returned home from the first day of PSLE. Everything was cool – except my
nerves!
I just
wonder how many parents feel like I do?
The system is so complicated with the
options and possibilities: IP, Express, Normal (Acad), Normal (Tenchincal), regular
secondary schools, programs in junior colleges, Aesthetics and Music
electives…and on... it really takes a strategist to figure it out. We had
planned to set aside time to consider options and pick the six choices we have.
But I cannot seem to shut the door on the information which I feel so
overwhelmed by. It keeps demanding to be studied more carefully. There go those
nerves again: for someone not known to major on details, I guess I have to bear
with it. It’s two more days (with a weekend thrown in) where the exams are
concerned; but it’s been a long journey and I am tired!
