Why my bank account is always empty!

I didn’t get good grades in school but I did passed all my examinations and tests and obtained several qualifications. Yet I still cannot afford to retire here but to keep working for money to live. No matter how hard I work, my bank account is always empty at the end of the month. Sometimes it’s already empty before month-end. So I concluded that a single income stream is not enough for anyone to retire here unless you have huge reserves somewhere. Better if you have a few incoming streams flowing in without any need to perform any real work like those 1% of really smart people. I realized this concept too late in life. Sigh!     

Love for learning without examination. Really?

IMO, removing tests & examinations in our education system is a step backwards. There are other ways to reduce stress and pressures in our students and parents. Just reduce the no. of subjects to be tested and lower the passing marks. Students must learn how to cope with tests and examinations at a young age in order to judge their competency and performance. 

In our context, grades and qualifications do matter a lot when it comes to job hunting. Just read the recruitment requirements and the recent news about “invite-only for top-graded NTU students to career fair”. You see, potential employers want only the best and the elites!

Moving away from grades won’t succeed in changing people’s entrenched mindsets. Let alone, change our public and private sectors’ perceptions to base on other criteria other than qualifications and papers. Sigh!

Assessing performance without tests and grades?

The bold changes made to our education system seem to be a hasty one as they are to be implemented in 3 months’ time. Other urgent policies’ changes are not implemented as fast. 

Anyway, most students are now jumping for joy as there would be no more examinations for some! 

When I was still in school, I tried to convince my parents to look beyond my grades. I told them exam results written in blue ink didn’t really mean good and those printed in red-ink didn’t mean really bad. My parents were not so savvy yet they had never believed what I told them. So I always had that fear when I need to get their signatures on my report book when it was filled with red-marks. The good thing was, my parents had never lectured or asked me to explain my poor performance in school. I never need to attend tuition classes & continued to play more than study.

 

Today’s children are not so fortunate. Many pressure themselves or by their parents to do well in their studies to get good grades. Can today’s savvy parents accept these changes in our education system and look beyond the grades of their child’s progress?

I seriously doubt so!