There should always be a need for students to strive and obtain top-level A results. The problem with the Year Six pupils is that they have never been given the impetus needed from the very beginning, when they were in Year One.
‘ What some of the pupils are learning in Year Three should have been taught in Year One when they enter the national school system from kindergarten.
The assumption from the establishment is that in Year One, pupils would not be able to master learning procedures hitherto given to Years Three to Five. I know this to be a misconception.
These post-kindergarten students are regularly helped to understand school programmes by their parents. Many teachers “are put through a lot of stress and pressure for the sake of their children”.
However, this would not be the case if the parents were more involved in their children’s education. Classes for parents to understand what their children are studying will benefit the children, especially in the one to two years before they experience the more complicated sentence compilation needed for essays.
We need to see and know that our children can master essay writing by the time they are in Form One. We must continue “the overemphasis on examination excellence for 12-year-olds”.
This will not subject the pupils to any stress. It will happen because we would have laid a firm foundation from the beginning of their learning to the cementation of a very good primary infrastructure from both teachers and parents. Philip Rashid, Johor Baru, Johor The NST Letters 10 September 2015
