PSLE Results: What Next?
I pause every time someone asks, “Which school were you from?” I knew what the response would likely be. And surprisingly by my standards, I also knew what my response to their response would be.
“Woah Hwa Chong one, no wonder so smart!”
“No la, it just shows what I did when I was 12.”
I needn’t rehearse it because that’s what I truly feel. I’m proud of my experiences in every school I’ve been to, but with schools like Hwa Chong, the stereotypes can be very strong. And so my first instinct is: For better or for worse, don’t judge me by my education.
PSLE: A New Beginning
The PSLE results release this year has been greeted with more cyber encouragement than I can remember. In equal measures, there are don’t-lose-hope shoutouts to students and don’t-make-them-lose-hope shouts at their parents. It’s nasty at times, but well-meaning.
Woah chill bro! [Credit: Mothership]
We shouldn’t blame anxious parents too casually though. Even if every school is a good school, some schools will always be more equal than others. Good teachers can save the day, but it’s a game of chance. Which parents would prefer to leave their kids to chance if they have the chance of consistently better-performing schools?
I know too well from my sociological training that what I do at 12 does have a great bearing on where I end up at 24. Systems of classification do put us on different trajectories and towards different outcomes. And not everyone can turn out to be established artists or entrepreneurs, though it’s a good story to tell.
With the PSLE results cast in ink, all that can be done is making the best choices from those available. In less than 2 months, these children will be faced with a steep transition. Instead of fretting, consider how we can help them adapt to entirely new environments and peers. Consider CCAs.
CCAs are Opportunities
I know… many parents regard CCAs as hindrances to studies. In Pri 6, my classmates and I left the Robotics Club. It was the natural thing to do, to focus on the be-all and end-all that is the PSLE. In Sec 1, I was advised not to join the athletics team, because it’d require 4-5 trainings per week. I obeyed. My results did tank anyway.
What the PSLE does is to essentially sort students into narrower ranges of academic ability. This means that even the best performers in Pri Sch may fall below average in Sec Sch. Like… me. Moreover, it’s not easy to move from 4 subjects to 8 subjects, and from 4 teachers to 8 teachers (or thereabouts). Fret not. In a longitudinal study in Michigan, US, Eccles et al. (2003)^ found that most CCAs promote better educational outcomes and protect against risky behaviors.
I can hear the stampede of parents towards the “best” CCAs.
PSLE does not define educational success. [Credit: The Straits Times]
A Key Source of Identity
But this would miss the point. CCAs don’t just lead to all those benefits; we only need turn to our own experiences to know there are complex mechanisms involved. Some are practical, like getting to interact with adult mentors or with more academically-inclined peers. Others are more personal, like identity formation.
The study found that two self-identified types – jocks and criminals (=/= actual criminals) – with similar alcohol consumption rates, the jocks fared much better academically. What distinguished them? Jocks were most involved in sports, while criminals mostly quit midway. The lack of a school-based identity is likely to reduce school attachment, leading to worse educational outcomes.
Thus, if an adolescent is struggling at Sec 2 or Sec 3, it would be wise NOT to haul them out of all their CCAs. Doing so might mean robbing their burgeoning identities and crippling any lingering interest in schooling.
Moving Forward
Adolescents need space to build their fledgling identities. And it will be difficult to sustain a purely academic-driven identity. Not that it’s healthy anyway, because school ends at some point. They can’t always win, and parents can try to be more sensitive. Sometimes you have to step in to push them forward. Sometimes, you have to step back so that they can step forward.
Nowadays, I see lots of NUS students from other JCs and polytechnics. We are attending the same classes. Many of them are smart, and certainly more socially involved than me.
They must have gone for their CCAs.
References
Eccles, J. S., Barber, B. L., Stone, M., & Hunt, J. (2003). Extracurricular Activities and Adolescent Development. Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 865-889.
^By APA conventions, I should list the names. But not by my conventions, haha.
