SBB – 2 years on (Post Secondary 2 reflections)

Two years on after ending the series of subject based banding, Tiger girl is now halfway through her secondary school education. Time has really flew past and she is now entering upper secondary. Two more years and she will complete her secondary school years as the last batch of O-Levels students.

This week the Secondary 3 subject allocation has been announced. She didn’t really get the subjects of her choice. It was not that she didn’t meet the mark to take the subject but rather the school had insufficient students to make up a class for the subject that she chose. She is still taking triple science but one as a pure subject and the other as combine. Weird isn’t it? They weren’t able to offer her both Pure Biology and Pure Chemistry but gave her the combination of Pure Chemistry with Combined Physics/Biology. Apparently Physics is a compulsory subject in her school and not Chemistry. I do know from before that Chemistry and E-maths are compulsory for other schools. This is the first time I heard about compulsory Physics. I guess it is because of a lack of sufficient Chemistry/ Biology teachers in her school.

There is really a lack of Science teachers in her school I really feel. QUALITY science teachers to boost!! This year I was really shocked when her science grades took a real nose dive. I didn’t blame her for the bad grades as I was extremely skeptical of the current year’s science teacher’s teaching. Being a straight A student like her brothers there is no question about her ability to excel academically. Just as I expected that teacher really did a bad job with slip shot teaching, insufficient explanations and not completing the syllabus as scheduled. Many questions which came up during the examinations were not taught in class therefore it was impossible for her to score and the whole class failed badly during the mid years as a result of poor teaching by the science teacher. Seeing the E8 in her report book I told her that she really need to do something about it and don’t bother “trying” to follow what the science teacher is teaching in class as clearly he doesn’t even know his stuff as evident by the whole class failing badly for the midyear exams. Tiger girl did remediate her poor grades through intensive tutoring given by Monkey boy. During the end of the year exams her science grade returned to an A1. It was clear evidence that the teacher was the one hampering her stellar performance in school as with her elder brother’s coaching she was on track with her academic grades.

Being a tutor myself and having secondary school students to coach I do note that the standard of teaching in schools have drastically dropped these years. The basics are not thoroughly covered as before and the students do not get enough practice before moving on to new components. There has to be a lot of drilling done privately for them to really grasp the concepts that are suppose to be learnt. Unfortunately even those branded schools fall short giving adequate help to students to survive through their secondary school years. It is impossible for one to do without extra help these days to survive the system. Most of the good teachers have left and the ones left are mostly half baked. I really pray for the youngsters today. They are being shortchanged by a messed up environment.

December 21, 2023

SBB – One year on (A reflection)

Dominique Education, Reflections Secondary one, Secondary school

The academic year has just come to a close for Tiger girl. She has successfully completed Secondary 1 under SBB. It has been a rather interesting year for her being in this new integrated class. The school that Tiger girl is in had been chosen as one of the test centers for this new scheme and it has been a full SBB school for two years to date. Come 2024 all schools will be SBB and it will certainly be interesting to see how more students fare under this new banding system . I will be sharing her personal thoughts on this later on in this post together my personal opinions on this banding system.

The Good about SBB

It is all inclusive under this banding. The weaker systems (formerly classified as Normal Technical or Normal Academic) are now given equal chance to bond and mix with the Express students on a day to day basis. Having such a classroom creates a more level playing feel for the mixed ability students to gel and associate with each other. The weaker are allowed to advance while the more academically brilliant students are not held back as they study the key subjects – English, Math , Science and Mother Tongue (2nd language) at a higher level. The whole class is only together for non -core subjects like Geography, History, Art, Music etc.

The BAD about SBB

There are more disruptions in the class due to bad behavior from classmates. Less academically inclined students tend to be more rowdy and active in class which can cause major distractions to students who are trying hard to pay attention and study in class. Tiger girl had complained to me on more then one occasion that classes get disrupted as the teacher has to pause teaching to discipline misbehaving students in class. Having taught in the classroom before I personally know how exhausting it is dealing with behavioural issues what more from hot headed teenagers. Due to all these unwanted disruptions she doesn’t get the full benefit of the lesson.

Even in a class of all G3 students there can be a range of ability it can be difficult for the teacher to get everyone to follow on with the lesson what more when you have a mixture of G1-G3 students within the class. As a result I personally feel that it is quite impossible for the teacher to deliver a lesson which is really tailored to Tiger girl’s academic level. Being a G3 student in a mixed ability class she found many lessons boring and very dull and would often “switch” off in class as there wasn’t really much added value to her for listening attentively. Fortunately for her she is independent in her studies and is able to self study to maintain her grades. She managed to get a Edusave Scholarship this year for her Academic performance which shows that she is ranking within the top 10% of her school’s level and course in terms of academic performance, and had demonstrated good conduct. I’m hoping that she will be able to receive Edusave Scholarship for the next few years too that she is in this school just like Monkey boy and Doggie boy did when they were in secondary school.

Socialising in school

Tiger girl also mentioned to me that she mixes better with other G3 students and seldom mixes with the G2/G1 students as they do not really communicate along the same bandwidth. She has made a few new friends since entering this secondary school and still keeps in contacts with the primary school friends she had in her previous school.
I feel that it has been quite idealistic for the designers of this SBB system to think that everyone when forced together in a melting pot will be able to associate well and get click with one another. There are still cliques and groups forming in the class to date. The vast differences in personality, intellectual ability and interest make it hard for everyone to get along with each other.

My gripe about this setting is that she is not in an environment that will push her to excel as it does not stretch her potential at all. Her current classmates will be following her up to Secondary four as there is no need to swap in and out of classes as there is NO better class with every class being a mixed class in the level. It could be a real torture for the student if he/she is place in a class where classmate as not conducive to learning.

Lucky for Tiger girl she other resources out of school to aid her learning and she can still be able to be improve on her potential. She is also not too bothered about school and steers clear of any chaotic or problematic student around her.

Final thoughts

I guess there is no “perfect” solution and that as a parent one can only do the best with the resources we have to create the most “ideal” environment for our child to promote their learning in and out of school.

What are you thoughts on SBB?