Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Going private...

No, it’s not about my blog, but about my decision to switch my kids to private school.


When my son was in form one, my registration fee for a private school was forfeited after he insisted to join his friends in public school. At that time, I was still weighing the pros and cons of both types of schools and somehow had some worries about private school (especially about the types of friends they are going to mix with…I didn’t want them to be influenced by the very rich & spoilt kids).

But for the past 3 year, I’ve witnessed the quality of my kids’ secondary school...and got worried and disappointed (AS A PARENT & AS A TAX PAYER!!)

The form 1 classes are facing serious teacher shortage. Some subjects have no teacher at all. My daughter's math teacher never marked the student’s work. There’s no art teacher (too bad that is her favourite subject).

      My son who is in form 3 has better teachers (that’s because he is in a good class). But, not all teachers are “qualified”. His previous math teacher marked his work blindly and never spotted a single error. His science teacher explains in “rojak” languageBahasa Malaysia + English…and he said it is confusing.

      There are many “free periods” without teachers and my kids seems to get use to it…and get lazier & unmotivated to attend school on such days. 
      
Some teachers are very stressful and full of negative remarks on students

I used to think that if a child is good, no matter what type of school he/she goes to, he’ll be as good. It may be true to some point (eg. academic achievement), but I’m now convinced that if there’s a much better learning environment, it will make a vast difference! 


I have seen positive changes in my daughter after she attends private school. Will share with you in my next post :-)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

go for private school,particularly chinese private schools,,they are seriously good.....

YuinTing said...

Hi Eugene, nowadays Chinese private school is getting very popular. However, it is not suitable for my kids because their Chinese language is not good (I failed to instill interest in them!!). They are more suitable for a more "English" base learning environment.

Eunice Tee尤妮絲 said...

云婷, 我了解妳的心情, 身为教育工作者的使命是很大的, 不管是政府学校或私立学校也好, 如果老师沒那份热誠真的不该进這行因我们在做"塑造学生"前途及人格的推手!曾问过回去政府学校教书的旧同事,为什么会迭择政府学校答案尽是:比较轻鬆, 可以不理他们, 不爱读书不管我们的事...apa saya peduli,is not my problem....而且沒有人会督促他们所以可以为所欲为,唉!我听后也很伤感...我们的孩子还会有什么素質呢?

YuinTing said...

雪婉,我在孩子们上华小时已打算将来升中一把他们送到私立学校。但后来想想,觉得当年自己也是读国中,也有一些不算很好的老师,还不是也考进大学,在社会也能生存。我因此认为读书靠自己,读什么学校都一样。甚至认为应把钱存起来用在将来进入较好的国外大学。

但这三年让我发现我们国中的情况比我们当年的糟很多。中学基础很重要,老师的素质更重要。只要老师好,受尊重,孩子们都会很乐意学习。