Former education minister Heng Swee Keat once said “Every School a Good School”, where each school will be evaluated on criteria other than academic results. In this way, schools can be evaluated based on their strengths, instead of purely being assessed on their students’ performance.
However, whether this has been effective in changing Singaporeans’ mindset about schools remain unclear. In the latest primary 1 registration exercise, there were three primary schools which required balloting at what is considered an early phase in the annual registration exercise. These schools are CHIJ St. Nicholas, Catholic High and Henry Park Primary School, all deemed to be “elite” primary schools. Clearly, parents are still very much focused on the brand name and academic track record of schools.
Some parents said they believe that elite schools are allocated better teachers and resources, and they consider that a critical factor which influences their decision to put their child in these schools. These parents feel that being in a elite primary school would somewhat “guarantee” that their child makes it to a top secondary school/JC/University and from there on progress to better places in life. Other parents also cited the “elite” network that form in these schools as a pull factor, as they believe that children in these schools tend to come from privileged backgrounds. They feel that being part of such a network can go a long way in creating opportunities for their child in future.
This begs the question: does the primary school a child attend really impact his/her success later in life? While it is probably true that being in an “elite” (i.e. better teachers, peers who come from privileged backgrounds and are academically inclined) environment would be more conducive for a child, it is not the only factor that determines how well a child performs at school. There are other factors to consider – (1) how nurturing his/her home environment is and (2) how academically inclined the child is. If one of these factors is not present, then being in an elite school will not serve its intended purpose. Also, the thinking that being in an elite primary school would pave the way for later success is too simplistic. It does provide a head start for a child, but there are many other factors that would impact a child’s success in life and an “elite” primary school is probably the least significant of all.
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