I guess after today's release of PSLE results, there will be 3 groups of parents. First group will be those elated parents who share the joy of their child's fruits of labour. They have scored well above your expectations. Second group involves those who have children that did reasonably "ok" to your standards. Maybe you were planning for your kid to enter the top school but your child didnt do as well but still manage to secure a place at a reasonably good school with an aggregate of above 240. However, this blog post is targetted to the third group of parents who feels disappointed at the results. It is like the higher the hopes for your child, the higher the disappointment if he or she fails. You are worried of your child's future in secondary school. Well of course people say primary 6 is still too early and PSLE is too minor to direct your child's future. But certainly the PSLE result is sure to make an impact of your child's education. Your child has just lost an edge to the better students who is able to go through IP without taking O lvl and even have one more extra year to complete secondary school if he or she scores below 200. The nightmare of your child entering N level has arrived.
It is true when they say children are just sad over their results for a few days, but parents worry over many months and even a year. Well even though it is your son's future that is beyond your control but at such a young age of 12 taking its virgin national exam, you can't help it but to worry what to do. Well the thing about PSLE is this that there is a score range that is commonly referred to as the "taboo" range(210-235) where scoring within this range leads you to nowhere. Your score is just a couple of points away from the eligibility to enter the decent autonomous schools. But the score is too high for the next tier schools which may not sound so pleasant. This is repeatedly one of the flaws of our PSLE.
You just feel defeated and dejected at your child's plight. It sometimes feel as if you have failed as a parent. Did i spend enough time coaching my child? Was i too busy with work? The lasting agony often goes to the parents for a reason. They are faced with dozens of friends, relatives and colleagues that are eager to know your child's results. Who doesn't want to feel proud of your child's outstanding results? But also, when your child is performing way below expectation, your pride will shatter if you have to reveal the inconvenient truth about the results. Avoiding phone calls and visitations, it is just so uncomfortable to talk about it even months down the road.
Well dejected parents, I empathize with you! i have been that, done that three times after my youngest son have crossed the " PSLE regime". Wish you all the best in choosing the right secondary school for your child.
