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As I have said earlier above, no school is perfect and it is upto the parents to choose one that suits their children most.
It seems that, among the parent population of VSA, there is a significant number of them who have a tendency towards the mode of education commonly adopted in Asia, targeting for quick results arising from keen competition since the early years of a child's education. This mode of education is adopted widely in local schools and, to a certain extent, is achieving good results, particularly in mathematics (maybe upto pre-university level). Good local schools can guarantee a place in one of the local universities for the student. However, it is often at a cost of quality family life and also questionable whether it is still good enough nowadays.
Did university graduates compete for employment as a police constable rather than a police inspector twenty years ago? Should parents target a more long term goal for their children in leading a successful life instead of merely securing their university education?
IB programmes aim at inculcating an inquisitive mind in the student and providing a broad base of education to prepare him/her for the ever changing world ahead. With due respect, I disagree that inquiry-based learning is not suitable for primary students. From research and according to the experts of IBO, young children should learn in an inquisitive environment in order to facilitate the development of their mind which is still in the growth stage. If they cultivate a habit of learning the standard answer to a question (say, simply looking for it in textbooks), they are bound to have overlooked different perspectives surrounding the question. Take the example of Pluto which is no longer regarded as a planet in the solar system, why? We all learned that Pluto was one of the nine planets in the solar system during our school days though it is considered not to qualify to be one any more. In the real world, there are multiple answers to a question, depending on the assumptions and viewpoints, etc. Acquiring a lot of such knowledge in terms of standard answers can only serve short term purposes (say, passing examinations) but, more often than not, will have negative impacts on the development of the child's mind. In the age of information explosion, it serves little purpose in feeding small children as much 'knowledge' as possible in primary years which can be acquired within months in their secondary years, if not updated (depreciated?) like the aforesaid case of Pluto. On the other hand, the learning skills acquired from an inquisitive environment can be carried forward to the university and beyond. Having said that, there are also assumptions and/or prerequisites behind the above viewpoint. Inquisitive learning must be guided and have discipline in controlling time and other constraints in resources so that efforts are concentrated in finding the answer(s) to the question rather than simply wasting time and heading for nowhere. IBO does have stringent requirements on the training of teachers.
I agree that there are a lot of areas for improvement in VSA and it is true that there have been a lot of changes in the school during the last few years. Just like interpreting half a glass of water, mine is that VSA is a glass half full of water with more (changes) pouring in and some (identified as bad practices) seeping out from time to time rather than as a half empty glass of stagnant water. VSA is a new school and dynamic changes (like flowing water) can remove (dilute) bad practices (impurities). Of course, not all changes are good and successful. Nevertheless, a dynamic organisation is more promising than a static one in finding the best way out.
Lastly, I cannot emphasize more but to make it clear that IB programmes may not be suitable for everyone and some children can have better achievements in local/traditional schools, e.g. it has been reported that some UK students having achieved good results in GCE O level could not get equivalent results in their university entrance examinations by switching to IB DP. It is important that parents need to find the most suitable school for their children, according to their character, the family's support and budget, etc.
原帖由 Ving 於 11-6-22 08:46 發表 
其實有一点我真系百思不得其解，如果維小真系甘多問題，点解仲有甘多家長選，以海怡為例，真系好多維小學生，兄弟姊妹一齊讀大有人在。我相信海怡都算中產區，父母就算吾系好有錢都有啲學識，子女教育的選擇都吾会求其，如果真系甘吾 ...
[ 本帖最後由 slamai 於 11-6-23 16:43 編輯 ] |
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發表於 11-6-12 17:23
