The great debate on DSA and PSLE.

I read with interest the forum articles in the Straits Times today. An article, Accept place offered or take a chance later? caught my eye. However, the more I read the article, the more incredulous I became. Here are some choice excerpts from the article in bold, and my comments in italics:

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Like my daughter, some students who have been offered a place in a school now has (sic) to decide whether to accept or reject the place. Unfortunately, the school which offered her a DSA place does not offer the IP, and she was unsuccessful in getting a DSA place in a popular school which does. Hence the dilemma.

If she accepts the offer, she would not be eligible for the Centralised Secondary Schools Posting Exercise when the results are out.

Yet she and other students in a similar situation may find when the results are out that they have done much better than expected, and that they meet the criteria of a more popular school which offers the IP.

Apart from the grammatical error, isn't that the way the world works? Apart from the obvious other side of the coin, which is that the students may conversely do worse than expected and now do not qualify for the school which offered them the place.

If they reject the DSA place now, they would have to take their chance with the Secondary One posting later on, and live with the outcome.

Duh.

This is not just a big decision, but a big gamble for a child of 12 to take.

The sky is blue. The water is wet. You're very tall. Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a 30-foot well, are you alright?

The Ministry of Education should not place such a burden on such young shoulders.

That's what parents are for. Any document signed by a 12 year old is not legally binding (correct me if I'm wrong), which is why a mature adult (parent or guardian) is required to endorse the child's decision. Trying to blame the MOE for your own shortcomings is like scoring own goal.

I hope MOE will review the system immediately so that it is really one of meritocracy rather than of taking chances.

Isn't this a convenient scapegoat? If your daughter were to be offered a place in a IP school based on direct admission you would be the first to sing the praises of the DSA, and commend the MOE for this brilliant initiative. Instead you're bitter about your daugher not meeting the standards of the IP school you want for your daugher.

Face it, does your daugher really know what she wants in the next 6 years of her education? Or is it you who makes the choices for her? You who dare not gamble your daughter's education on the DSA?

Fact is, the school which is offering students places based on other factors than the PSLE results is itself taking a gamble on the student. By accepting the student based on non-academic achievements and talents, is not the school taking the gamble that the individual student will turn out well?

Maybe I'm just skeptical, but all too often it happens that all good things are attributed to oneself, and the frustration of realising our shortcomings is conveniently taken out on the nearest hapless victim?

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That was a lot more than I originally wanted to say. Comments are welcome.