rest

sunshine takes a well deserved nap after the exertions of this morning. He spent most of last night tossing and turning because of his fever. During his mathematics exam this morning, he was put into an isolation room with three other boys who also had fever. His form teacher told me that the supervising invigilator would make an official note of the boys who were taking the exam whilst sick. Hopefully this will be taken into account when tabulating their results.

Most of you who commented yesterday were not in favour of so much pressure on 12 year olds. I totally agree with you. The PSLE has actually been around a long time, I took it, my older sister and cousins took it, and none of us felt the sort of stress the kids of the past 10-15 years have felt about it. Over the years the stress levels have increased bit by bit by bit, so what started out as a simple, and on the face of it, laudable, exercise in meritocracy has evolved into this high stakes exam now.

The Ministry of Education is said to be looking into ways to tweak and modify the system to alleviate the immense pressure faced by 12 year olds, but whatever modifications or alterations are proposed will take some time to be implemented, and then even more time before the effects are felt.

Hopefully that can be accomplished, because there is a lot of good in the education system here - the fundamentals are sound, most teachers are dedicated and well trained, the basic education that all primary school children receive is excellent, and that education is practically free.