Dropping a subject?
Grades not the right guide
This is, says FAITH TEO
You
Your parents
Your school
By Faith Teo
March 10, 2007
GRADES alone should not decide what subject a child should drop.
The reason: We are dealing with human beings and simplistic solutions do not often work.
When I was in secondary school, I got an F9 for maths every year until Sec 4. My school could have told me to drop maths and concentrate on other subjects.
But it did not. It kept faith with me.
I decided in Sec 4 that I should somehow master this subject. It took a lot of effort from my maths teacher and also from my father who grilled me on sums for hours each day.
The result: A1 for maths for O levels.
I am not alone in this.
When NUS undergraduate Andrea Francisco, 19, was in Sec 4, her class was asked to drop Additional Maths.
The all-girls' school student said her maths teacher told the class, in the middle of the year, they were all doing so badly that they should just give up.
But Andrea, now 19 and a university student, refused.
Most of her classmates dropped the subject.
'I kept getting F9 for maths, and the teacher said I should drop it to concentrate on other subjects. She said things like 'I think there's no point for you', but I had already taken maths for 1 1/2 years and didn't want to waste it. So I took tuition and got a C5 for the O levels.'
Andrea even used her maths grade to enter junior college, where she did well enough to enter the NUS.
So if grades are not a clear-cut guide in deciding, what is?
To me, the answer is clear - the student and people who know her best, like family and teachers, should make that decision.
In my case, I was motivated. I had the backing of my dad and the maths teacher. In Andrea's case, she got herself a tuition teacher.
Mrs Poon Yiam Kiau, a mother of two sons aged 17 and 21, says the child's voice should not be drowned out by adults either.
'I think the parents' and school's opinion should only make up 50 per cent of the decision and leave the biggest say to the child. And they have to ask themselves how well they really know the child to judge his abilities.'
Canberra Secondary School principal Tan Keng Joo, however, gave us the educator's perspective.
'We (the school) focus on what is best for the child, and we are in a position to assess how well a child can manage the work load.
'Even the definition of 'doing well' should be negotiable. We discuss it with the child and parents, with the aim of relieving the child's burden.
'You need to look at the overall picture. The child should be well-positioned for the next level of education, be it JC or polytechnic. So, parents should trust the school to think for the students and not the mean subject grade (MSG).'
Mr Tan felt that students should be allowed to try out a variety of subjects in Sec 3, and gauged by the end of the year.
The gauge? Anything above F9, said Mr Tan. 'Borderline failure is still good.'
A secondary school teacher, who cannot be named, said that the only time a child should give up is when he gets single-digit grades.
'The child has to fail and fail badly. Even by the middle of the first term of Sec 4 I think there is hope for improvement even if they're getting 30/100. I would advise them to drop a subject only if it's too wide a margin to overcome. This is based on a year's performance, not just one exam grade.'
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Dropping a subject? Grades not the right guide 
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