Tuesday, May 15, 2007
source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2116317.stmThe Head of Framlingham college has attacked the continous assessment of young people of 16-18. Then I question myself why? What does it mean to be overloaded by exams and to what extent do you consider it overloading? Exams have always been a norm in schools, it is one of the most common modes of accessing a student and checking his progress, but is too much exams a bad thing? Well, I am on the side of the Head of Framlingham college, too much exams will stress the average student out, and if you have to be faced with exams after exams, you will just start to lose motivation in education. However i truly believe your environment plays a role too. Life in RI is run by the basis of doing well for your tests and getting good grades, it is because this is the environment, this is an accepted way of life, that we are able to cope with the stress of tests. I have had to juggle tests, assignments and CCA, even though i feel exhausted, I find it difficult to excuse myself from this. This is because everyone around me is doing the same. Thus I believe that the amount of exams should relate to the school environment, if you want to load your students with exams, you must ensure that the environment allows them to. This is where the role of positive peer pressure comes in. If you attempt to implement many exams in a school that does not have a fact paced environment the stress will certainly get to the students. However there will definitely be exceptions, those that do not succumb to this peer pressure and are not motivated to work harder with their peers, these need special attention. However there is a problem of changing the environment, it is difficult to change the environment so that students are able to take the pressure of all these tests, since the students are all so used to not taking so many tests. Thus I believe the only way is increasing the number of tests slowly, though this will take more time, I do not know of any other ways to do so. However despite all my suggestions and assumptions, i may be wrong, as i have had no contact with the british education system or any other education system, I am only basing my knowledge through my own experience. I have been ushered into the Singapore education system, thus without the experience of other educatio systems, i may not fully understand the consequences, and by only basing my views through my own experience may not be such a reliable thing, as i have seen how countries outside Singapore differ so greatly in schooling experience.
i'm emo @ 6:10 AM
