Today I surfed the Net for information about the current news of the changes in the CCA and CIP points-oriented system. To my delight, I chanced upon this article. This is only one of the two wrongs the MOE committee corrected this year.

The revamp of the CCA system is absolutely necessary. Most JC students are more concerned about the points that they will be getting after the end of their 2 years in JC more than anything else. The students expect equivalent returns in their sacrifices made in setting aside time for doing community involvement programmes and co-curricular activities. By the year 2007, students will only be granted eligible for admission to universities through academic achievements. Students will then have to have the initiative to take up leadership positions in their respective CCAs. However, they will only do so if and only if ‘they want to or feel passionately for a particular activity’. From these, I am sure only a small percentage of the student population will ‘bravely’ take up the role of a leader and spend time on planning activities and organising competitions, without expecting any returns. This is guaranteed so because there is no free lunch in this world, and few people will do things intrinsically for the benefit of others without expecting any form of returns in any form. With such a heavy and taxed syllabus to study for the A levels examinations, it is impossible to free up time to spend on other activities such as CCAs or doing CIP. Most teachers also agreed that A levels examination is actually the most difficult to sail through and is the toughest compared to PSLE and O levels. A lot of time is needed to set aside for revision of the entire A level syllabus and this cannot be done in just a few days time. Thus, the proportion of time used by a JC student must be correctly channelled to his/her studies and not to waste time in developing their potential by involving themselves in CCAs or CIP. All these are redundant at this particular stage of a student’s life. If you really want to discover your latent potential and really spend time in an interest you like, then this should be done at a later part of one’s life where one had already passed the stage of acquiring knowledge and information---education. After completing education then can one have the free time to invest in their interests and fulfilling themselves by attaining the final stage of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs---self-actualisation.

Some of the students who got leadership posts in their respective CCAs are suffering impact from the revamp. The CCA points they have earned for themselves will amount to nothing in the end. Eventually, students will lose the passion and drive to initiate school activities, organise outings or class CIP projects. However, it is just two months away from the stepping down of CCAs for the JC2 before they prepare for their Prelims and A level examinations. In actual fact, abolishing the points system for CCA doesn’t affect us directly. JC2 students will still be able to credit the number of CCA points they earned towards ‘5 per cent of the admission score at NTU and NUS’. In a different perspective, you have to know that there is actually another 95 per cent, which will be counted towards the admission score at the NUS and NTU, and this 95% will depend largely on the academic grades a student gets for his/her A level results. On the whole, it can be noted that the percentile weightage of the CCA is still considered relatively insignificant compared to the heavy weightage of the academic results.

However, CCA is still relatively important when applying for scholarships. However, one of the disadvantages of getting a scholarship is that one gets ‘bounded’ to a lot of ‘hidden’ terms and conditions. From my knowledge of a credible and highly reliable source, one of my seniors from VJC got excellently good academic results in her A levels examinations. She succeeded in obtaining a scholarship, however, the scholarship required her to study abroad for a period of 5-6 years and an immediate notice was given to her to prepare for her flight the next day. She declined the offer given to her and lived life as per normal, a potential scholarship holder who has no scholarship.

There are also incidents of cases where a sum of scholarship fees is paid for the applicant to undergo this programme for a period of 5 years. When this applicant comes back from the scholarship programme, he/she will have to sign a particular job contract, which makes him/her bonded to this particular company for a period of 5 years. However, during this period of time, you (as the applicant) will notice that there will not be any form of increment in your salary for this period of 5 years in working with this particular company. At the same time, if you are observant enough, you will notice that your colleagues (of the same position as you) actually have a much higher starting salary compared to yours. You would then think: I am a scholarship holder, why should I be getting a lower amount of salary compared to the newbie? This is very true of scholarship holders nowadays, during the job contract of 5 years, there will be no increment in your pay and this is true. This is because part of the salary is being underhandedly credited into ‘repaying’ the scholarship fees that the particular company sponsored you earlier on.

Let’s get the Maths started: Let’s say you gained $20,000 of scholarship funding from ABC company. If you get a monthly salary of $4000 when you start the 5-year job contract with the company, and your colleague have $4500 as his/her starting salary.

Then in 5 years, the difference in the total amount between you and your colleague earned in 5 years = ($4500 - $4000) X 12 mths X 5 yrs = $30,000

This means having after working for 5 years in ABC company, you are actually paying back the scholarship fees the company helped you paid earlier on. The percentage interest per annum is { [ ( $30,000 - $20,000 ) ] / $20,000 } X 100% / 5 years = 10%
This is really absurd and ridiculous, isn’t it?

Think about it. Is it worthwhile?

Involvement in CCA must be out of interest: That is the aim of the change
By Sandra Davie
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT

SINGAPORE'S universities will scrap awarding points during admission to students for taking part in sports and for taking up leadership positions in school activities.

The points system has been given the boot after the Education Ministry received bad feedback about calculating students.

So, from this year, if junior college students want to take up sports or lead the debating team, they will do so because they want to or feel passionately for a particular activity.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will look at their co-curricular activity (CCA) record only when their academic results are not good enough for them to gain admission into the course of their choice.

Also scrapped is compulsory community service for JC students. Now, when they sell flags for charity, they will be volunteering, rather than fulfilling the minimum six-hour requirement.

Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced the changes in Parliament yesterday during a debate on his ministry's budget.

He said: 'Our basic approach as we go forward is to go for more quality and less quantity. We will focus on quality of learning, quality of CCA and community engagement, and the quality of the whole school experience that the student goes through.'

His announcement pleased Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) and Mr Gan Kim Yong (Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC). Madam Ho said the system 'served to inculcate and perpetuate a paper-chase mentality, except that this time the students literally chase points and their passion in CCA is driven by points'.

The change, from this year, will be implemented in 17 JCs, plus the Millenia Institute.

These points now count for 5 per cent of the admission score at NTU and NUS. But both universities will scrap it from 2007 when the current group of first-year JC students are knocking on their doors.

They will look at the CCA record for such qualities as leadership only when the student's academic achievements are not good enough.

With the change, the two universities will use CCA as a 'qualitative' criteria for student admission - as do Singapore Management University and many reputable universities abroad.

The CCA grading system, introduced in 2000, is called Pearls for participation, enrichment, achievement, representation, leadership and service - the six categories used in grading students.

Students are known to badger teachers to guarantee the points before they agree to take part in any activity.

Mr Tharman hopes the change will see students and schools taking 'greater ownership over these activities'.

However, the CCA grading system will continue in secondary schools. Also unchanged is the minimum six-hour requirement for community service for primary and secondary students.

Younger ones need some structure and guidance to ensure they receive a holistic education, said Mr Tharman.

JC principals and teachers cheered the change. Temasek JC principal Lim Lai Cheng said that even before the grading system was introduced, most students were active in sports and various clubs.

Universities too welcomed the change. NUS dean of admissions Tan Thiam Soon said the new arrangement was more meaningful, as it didn't reduce the applicants' non-academic involvement to a single score and the university would have the flexibility of giving the CCA more weight.

Students are glad community service is no longer a must. Said Sheryl Lim, 19, who completed her A levels last year: 'Some of my classmates left it to the last minute and, in the end, just sold flags for a charity. Even then, they spent half the day in a cinema, watching movies.'

Source: www.straitstimes.com.sg

28.02.05
Maths Test
Topics: Functions and Complex Numbers
Time: 7.30 - 8.30 a.m.
Seating (for 04S210): At the front row!!!
Things to bring: Compasses, Protractors and the usual…

01.03.05
Physics Test
Topics: Electric Fields and Capacitors
Time: 7.45 a.m.
Seating: As usual…

Let’s face the fact! (personalised comments after reading the article)

Rnw@y x 4:40 pm

University entry: Activity points out

Rnw@y x 4:38 pm

------ ` now I find myself in question + ------

Preparations for Tests

Rnw@y x 12:44 am

------ ` now I find myself in question + ------