Co-curricular activities
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What’s the use of having CCAs in school? MOE believes in students getting a holistic and well rounded education, but many like myself think otherwise.
In primary schools, having CCAs after school is fun. I agree. But what about secondary school students who have more than enough workload, not to mention attending CCAs? Another thing about CCA is that a student might not be assigned to a group that he/she does not like. An example would be uniformed groups. Deemed as the “rubbish bin”, students with no talent in other fields are dumped into those groups that neither provide them chances to win competitions (except for those more or less retarded games day), nor give them the chance to grow as a person. Yes yes, physical training…campcraft and the rest for the respective groups. But what the fuck? Can’t physical training be achieved by the NAPFA assessment? Most students would definitely want to excel in the NAPFA just for the sake of “face”, or to show off. If MOE is unable to save all, at least save some. Not every single person is as ambitious or a high-flyer as his/her peers, right?
But, that’s beside the point. What I am trying to say here is that CCA is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME. This is especially so when time is of the essence for the young growing adolescents. I can say confidently that at least 95% of students do not take pride in CCA trainings as compared to students elsewhere. However, many students would go for the trainings reluctantly just for the sake of getting nice testimonials, which is indeed important in the context of Singapore’s working world.
This resentment towards CCA is further worsened by the compulsory nature, especially when it is carried out in mainstream schools as points can be deducted from their “O” level scores. It is appears to me personally that this compulsory nature is just to console the higher ups of MOE themselves into thinking that “I did all I could to give the students the best education”. Some even consider it as a violation of personal liberties such as the right of choosing what they want and not want.
If they had really wanted talents to be nurtured, why not make it a non-compulsory thing? In order for a person to excel in a field, I strongly believe that both the heart and body has to be involved. The person has to like what he is doing in order to expect the commitment required to develop his talent and abilities to the fullest.
All in all, such attempts would be futile. Singapore has a naturally small population and therefore a smaller talent pool. What they are doing right now is as good as wishing an ostrich could fly by forcibly “nurturing” talents.
Kindly share your thoughts and opinions here.
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school is a complete waste of time. 95% of the skills you learn in school is not used at all. when was the last time that knowing that sang nila utama founded temasek is useful? and have you feel the need to calculate the area of a triangle lately?
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PRECISELY SKY!
that is why i was tempted to make the same thread about school as well...
it is true what we learn in school is completely useless and grow obselete depending on our choice of employment..
but its the government's choice, so we lan lan
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Damn... CCAs are a waste of time...
What's wrong with my mind when I took up 4 CCAs in J1, and continued with 3 in J2
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the purpose of the school is not to teach you 100% the academic stuff. but more of the learn the social stuff, like mix around with people, so when you go out to work, won't be totally lost. or else your social circle will be quite small.
the academic stuff also help to identify the future scientists, engineers, so it's also sort of useful that way.
CCA is to further enlarge your social circle and learn more about stuff, on how to work with other people, how to sian cha bor.
waste time yes, totally useless, depends on you.
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it is useless..for some
like musical groups, i see people who used to be in say, choir etc, and grow up to be doctors and lawyers. what relavance is there?
social circles is a fair point. but what about the compulsory nature? do students really have to give themselves that burden that they do not want?
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can play guitar to sian char bo.
you join and be phantom also no one will blame you what.
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agreed ... school no offer what we like ... where's my bass club ?
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therein lies the problem...
the system is too biased, this is even more so when a person is unable to do something he likes for a CCA...
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But, that’s beside the point. What I am trying to say here is that CCA is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.
I don't thing CCA is complete waste of time.
Too much CCA is complete rubbish of course.
Part of the intent behind CCA program is probably to socialise the students and to occupy their free time, make them busy, so they can't make trouble elsewhere.
But I do not think that it is correct for schools to monopolise the time of young people from age of 13-16.
In the old days, there is still kampong for students to go back to.
But since all kampongs had already been destroyed in Singapore, there is a vacuum in student's lives.
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CCA is a waste of time and its graded as well
and i got E8
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I only play basketball and i get B3.
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In Sec sch, i was in chinese orchestra and multimedia club, and got A1 :D
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it is true what we learn in school is completely useless and grow obselete depending on our choice of employment..
What is the purpose and function of education?
...Education, correctly defined, means training toward growth and maturity to prepare a person to deal, in a flexible and successful way, with the problems of life and of eternity.
It does not mean, as it increasingly is taken to mean by the educational operationalists who now control our educational bureaucracy, obtaining a ticket of admission to some other bureaucratic structure, however large and rich that may be
Education in operational terms has no meaning (as all operational definitions have no meaning) because it has no reference outside itself, and all meaning must be based on reference to something outside the object being defined...
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to the TS, so what are u going to do about it?
swallow it hook, line and sinker? tolerate it? or just packup and go? come on, make a decision.
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I believe I had made my stand very clear. I am against the idea of CCAs actually being compulsory. Sure, it helps people to get a bigger social circle, but at what cost? It gets even more irritating when we decide that enough is enough, and that actually going for something seemingly boring to a tortourous extent. This is not adding in the fact that not many people actually get what they like, especially so in more renowned schools like RI, HCI, ACSI. Students have to take tests to see if they are even able to excel at the area before being given a chance at doing something they actually like. For the rest, they are dumped mercilessly somewhere else where they are expected to be enthusiastic and active. Ridiculous isn't it?
Yes, education is there to educate people (duh), to prepare them for the problems and hardships that they would face in life, but how are we going to use logarithms to solve a problem, say a family crisis? Since the employment pre-requisites usually involve that damned sheet of paper (diploma, degree w/e), it is neccessary for us to be educated to obtain a job. This is even more important if we work in a sector that say, involve mathematics and the sciences. Obviously the level of education and proficiency in the subject would reflect on a person's ability and merit and therefore worthiness to be employed for te particular position/job. On the other hand, jobs like cleaning require merely a PSLE or slightly higher level of education, because scientific knowledge and mathematical skills is irrelavant.
Being a doctor in Singapore does not make use of maths. Neither does it make use of sciences. Even people who I've known in the medicine faculty admits that whatever they had learnt when they were younger were either all forgotten or unused. Such is the side of irrelavance in schools. Education as a person, of character and maturity is definitely important, there is no debate about that.
And fishbuff1, I have no choice but to "swallow it hook, line and sinker" like a fish since there is nothing I can do about such a major segment of education in Singapore. I am merely a student who is trying to understand the need for CCAs. Thanks.
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I am also very unhappy with Singapore edcuation system.
Large parts of it is bullshit in my view.
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Meritocracy itself is bullshit. Arguable anyway, since Singapore's governance is based on it anyway.
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ECAs are good... but only if they are E....
To make them compulsory will only make them more repulsive to the rebellious teens. -
Originally posted by donkhead333:
Meritocracy itself is bullshit. Arguable anyway, since Singapore's governance is based on it anyway.
wait. meritocracy is bullshit because the government is based on it?
or is it the other way round?
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nono, its bullshit because of the way it is practised.
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so what's TS's CCA ? ...
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uniformed group.
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Originally posted by gunner77:
CCA is a waste of time and its graded as well
and i got E8
we are same in many ways man! me also kana E8. lol, go for sec1 only.
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march around, learn useless uniformed group stuff. unless you are in st john's.