By: Ho Ai Li
Commentary:
In this article "Reaching out to students at risk of dropping out", Ho Ai Li had written about how the teachers reach out a helping hand to the students when they are not doing well academically. It is stated inside the article that most drop out students have trouble when they continue their studies from the lower secondary levels to the higher secondary levels. If the students had given up on themselves, there was always the school counselors to continuously encourage the students.
This can seen as Michael ( not his real name ), was repeating his secondary 3 life when all his friends had moved on to the next level. Michael was completely stressed out as he had to study the same lessons in a whole new environment with all his classmates a year younger than him. He had started to skip school, that is when the school counselor, Ms Eunice Lim stepped in to help him, Ms Lim were able to support him by the side as Michael went back to school and do his work. "She gave me a lot encouragement" were Michael's exact words as Ms Lim counseled him.
This was just one example from various cases. Mr Kannan Kalidasan, who is the head of student welfare had picked students who were struggling academically and for 10 weeks she asked them to report to separate classrooms during school hours and she will coach them one-to-one. Mrs Lena Ang who put in extra three hours just for the students, although it was tough at first she had gone to the point where the students had started to hand in their work and said this happily, "Teacher, I can finally do something". Some school counselor like Mr Foo Kit Meng uses videos to teach the students how to manage their anger.
What I find heartening is that for some schools, every student is part of the school and plays an important role. For example, when a student of Zhenghua secondary school starts to skip school regularly, the principal or vice-principal and a teacher would be at their doorstep to talk to them and their parents. When this happens, the student who had been skipping lessons would be comforted that no matter how academically challenged he was, he will always be part of the school and that he is important enough for a principal or a vice principal to come knocking on his front door, says Mr Sng, discipline master of Zhenghua secondary school.
However, not all attempts are successful, there were cases when the teachers went out to search for a particular student whom they could not contact after the family moved and not able to get them back to school to study.
Currently a 15-year-old student myself studying in Raffles Institution, I have seen similar trends. It is definitely challenging as I am competing with students who are the top 3% of the 1993 batch during the primary 6 PSLE. However, as the years progressed, the PSLE score does not really matter in the secondary life, secondary studies are whole new topics and you need effort to score well.
I have friends who are right now struggling with the Secondary 3 academic studies. They are finding it difficult to pass Class Common Tests for almost each subject. When they fail, their scores are drastic whereas if they pass, they are just above the line. Some even had trouble in their Secondary 2 life and had to take re-tests for the End-of-year. Some of these students had been sent to the school counselors and seems to be coping well right now. This is just one of the successful cases.
Based on my years of academic experiences, listening to the teachers in class might be the best way to score well in the upcoming tests, but depending on that alone will not help you to excel, one have to put in effort, for the academic results to improve, one have to take action.
Perhaps, our teachers could go on a one-to-one tuition with students who are finding it difficult to cope academically, another suggestion would be to give special classes that go slowly compared to the others so that the students will be able to learn.
Nonetheless, we mus not forget what these teachers had helped us do when we are in need of help.
Commentary:
In this article "Reaching out to students at risk of dropping out", Ho Ai Li had written about how the teachers reach out a helping hand to the students when they are not doing well academically. It is stated inside the article that most drop out students have trouble when they continue their studies from the lower secondary levels to the higher secondary levels. If the students had given up on themselves, there was always the school counselors to continuously encourage the students.
This can seen as Michael ( not his real name ), was repeating his secondary 3 life when all his friends had moved on to the next level. Michael was completely stressed out as he had to study the same lessons in a whole new environment with all his classmates a year younger than him. He had started to skip school, that is when the school counselor, Ms Eunice Lim stepped in to help him, Ms Lim were able to support him by the side as Michael went back to school and do his work. "She gave me a lot encouragement" were Michael's exact words as Ms Lim counseled him.
This was just one example from various cases. Mr Kannan Kalidasan, who is the head of student welfare had picked students who were struggling academically and for 10 weeks she asked them to report to separate classrooms during school hours and she will coach them one-to-one. Mrs Lena Ang who put in extra three hours just for the students, although it was tough at first she had gone to the point where the students had started to hand in their work and said this happily, "Teacher, I can finally do something". Some school counselor like Mr Foo Kit Meng uses videos to teach the students how to manage their anger.
What I find heartening is that for some schools, every student is part of the school and plays an important role. For example, when a student of Zhenghua secondary school starts to skip school regularly, the principal or vice-principal and a teacher would be at their doorstep to talk to them and their parents. When this happens, the student who had been skipping lessons would be comforted that no matter how academically challenged he was, he will always be part of the school and that he is important enough for a principal or a vice principal to come knocking on his front door, says Mr Sng, discipline master of Zhenghua secondary school.
However, not all attempts are successful, there were cases when the teachers went out to search for a particular student whom they could not contact after the family moved and not able to get them back to school to study.
Currently a 15-year-old student myself studying in Raffles Institution, I have seen similar trends. It is definitely challenging as I am competing with students who are the top 3% of the 1993 batch during the primary 6 PSLE. However, as the years progressed, the PSLE score does not really matter in the secondary life, secondary studies are whole new topics and you need effort to score well.
I have friends who are right now struggling with the Secondary 3 academic studies. They are finding it difficult to pass Class Common Tests for almost each subject. When they fail, their scores are drastic whereas if they pass, they are just above the line. Some even had trouble in their Secondary 2 life and had to take re-tests for the End-of-year. Some of these students had been sent to the school counselors and seems to be coping well right now. This is just one of the successful cases.
Based on my years of academic experiences, listening to the teachers in class might be the best way to score well in the upcoming tests, but depending on that alone will not help you to excel, one have to put in effort, for the academic results to improve, one have to take action.
Perhaps, our teachers could go on a one-to-one tuition with students who are finding it difficult to cope academically, another suggestion would be to give special classes that go slowly compared to the others so that the students will be able to learn.
Nonetheless, we mus not forget what these teachers had helped us do when we are in need of help.
2 comments:
believe you'd edited your earlier entry? glad you've related it to your experience; for RI, in particular, it's also not just personal effort or teachers but also the classmates and friends?
thanks for linking so many of your classmates!
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