I remember the stress I went through with Annie, trying to decide between:
- a traditional, strict Chinese medium school,
- a private school which follows the national curriculum and some of the UK equivalent
- or an international school which is very relaxed and stresses on all round achievement instead of the academic aspect only.
Being Chinese, we of course would like our children to be fluent in the mother tongue, especially when we ourselves shamefully are not! China is also developing into a power to reckon with, so mastering their language would be a definite plus.
The cons however would include the fact that both mummy and daddy would not be able to help with homework, thus attending extra tuition classes would become a necessity! The strict, academic-centred, fact-cramming style of Chinese schools also do not nurture creativity and originality.
The private school in question produces very good public exam results. They happen to be top in Sarawak, results-wise. Children follow the government's standard curriculum and also stay back in the afternoon for further enrichment, using Singapore and UK syllabus. They sit for the usual public exams like PMR and SPM and are also afforded the option to sit for 'O' Levels. They are also loaded with tonnes of homework. Thus the children have little time for anything else.
This would be the obvious choice for parents who want academically high achieving, straight 'A's children.
However, after much deliberating, we decided to send Annie to the International school, where they only follow the UK syllabus and homework only starts after age 9! We decided that it was unnecessary to put the children through the stress of studying the local syllabus and the UK one. Especially since our local syllabus is nonsense to say the least! I do not want to leave the fate of my children's education to some fickle-minded education minister's whim and fancy.
Sometimes I worry that we made the wrong decision. I worry that Annie is too relaxed and is falling behind academically, compared to her peers in other schools.
However, she enjoys going to school every morning (mostly) and that in itself is already priceless, says Hubby. She also has plenty of time to discover other activities, like music, squash, ballet, swimming, tae-kwon-do and even hip hop dancing!
She is also doing well in school and feels proud of her achievements. Her confidence is also boosted as teachers encourage and praise her artistic endeavours as well.
I came across this quote in The Reader's Digest, which assured me we made the right decision:
"Education is not the filling of the bucket but the lighting of a fire."
W.B. Yeats
Well, I seriously hope their fires are being lit, because the "matches" sure are expensive! :)
Here's another quote on education which I find funnily true:
"Sixty years ago, I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
Will Durant, philosopher.
Hear, hear!
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