This year’s PSLE has just ended, but next year’s exams are already being discussed on kiasuparents.com
EVEN before the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) ended, some parents whose children are taking the exam next year have gone into overdrive.
A group of them had already started an online discussion on Oct 5 about PSLE 2011.
The discussion, on online networking website kiasuparents.com, had a whole load of mums and dads asking for and sharing their parenting experiences on the PSLE, which decides the secondary school and course a child will eventually qualify for.
The thread was started by a parent who admitted to being "a super-duper very, very kiasu parent" whose child will be taking the PSLE next year.
Said the parent: "The countdown starts today, on the eve of PSLE 2010."
This discussion has since attracted five pages of comments, mostly from parents offering "advice" on how to prepare for next year's PSLE.
One netizen, Pen88n, wrote: "Actually, the countdown should start from the first day of Primary 1.
After all, from Primary 1 onwards, the 'target' is PSLE and all teaching is to prepare for the PSLE!
"So on your kid's first day in Primary 1, start the countdown! Welcome to the world of 'stress parenting'!"
Tuition
A tuition teacher even plugged her services online last week.
She commented: "Have you started drawing up a revision schedule/plan for your kids? Consistent hard work will definitely pay off at the end of the day."
So are our stressed-out parents stressing their kids out?
One Primary 6 pupil, who wrote a letter to this paper, certainly thinks so.
The letter-writer, whose views were published in Monday's edition of the paper, compared the PSLE to "the end of the world", and blamed parents for stressing kids out.
His parents apparently told him he would go to a "lousy" secondary school, and would have to live with his grandmother, if he didn't get a PSLE score of 258 and above.
He wrote: "If our parents can help us overcome the stress, life would be so much better."
His views were echoed by a netizen who claimed to be in Primary 6.
Jojothehusky wrote: "Why are you all so kiasu? My countdown only started 40 days before the first PSLE paper."
Another netizen, Leanne, thanked the others for their advice, but added that "a deserving break should be rewarded right after the Primary 5 semester assessment or the race will be too long and draining".
Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist who specialises in treating children and adolescents, was not surprised that a child would feel this way.
"Wanting a child to score 258 in the PSLE is a very high expectation. That score will get you into almost any school."
He said he did not blame parents for having such expectations, because they want their kids to strive for excellence.
But he felt the stress comes from an obsession with getting kids to go into the "branded" schools.
Parents may not be the only ones stressing kids, as another website shows how a Primary 5 pupil is already preparing for the PSLE next year.
Don't go to extremes
Dr Yeo advises parents to moderate their preparations for next year's exams, saying: "It's fine to look at challenging questions that appeared in this year's paper, so as to better prepare for similar questions in next year's paper.
"But I would advise against more extreme measures, such as using the Primary 5 year-end holidays to teach the Primary 6 syllabus."
Full-time tuition teacher Zhou Shicai, 26, who has been teaching for the past seven years, said that the online discussions were a "phenomenon" that had developed over the last two years.
Previously, he said parents would exchange hard copies of past PSLE papers.
But now, questions and solutions are being posted online.
"These forums are a community of parents, their children, and teachers," he said.
"Everyone has their own ideas, and each person tries to enrich the discussion with them."
This article was first published in The New Paper
Benson Ang & Bryna Sim | The New Paper | Thu Oct 14 2010
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