S’pore Pupils Top Tests, Score Higher In Reasoning. By: Soon Qi Wei

Singapore's primary and secondary school students remain world beaters in mathematics, science and reading, according to two international benchmarking studies released. The test scores showed that not only did Singapore increase its share of top performers, but the weaker students also moved up, improving their scores. And the way Singapore students approached the questions in the most recent tests indicates they are moving away from rote learning and applying higher-order thinking skills.

I believe that this is a very important news as it shows how much Singapore is progressing in our academics. I believe that it is essential as in Singapore, we lack land and manpower. Therefore, it is required for our people to make great discoveries and names worldwide in order to sustain our economic and other needs.  To read more, click here!!

Gifted or well prepared?

The New York City Education Department announced that it was changing part of its admissions exam for its gifted and talented programs last year. The Education Department said it would change one of the tests used for admission to public school gifted kindergarten and first-grade classes in order to focus more on cognitive ability and less on school readiness, which favors children who have more access to preschool and tutoring. The parents of various children prepares their child by using test prep and workbooks provided by  tutoring companies, working on skills like spatial visualization and serial reasoning, which are part of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, or NNAT 2, the new gifted and talented test.

After reading this, I feel that children in Singapore face similar challengers. In the Singapore education system, children at primary 3 would be eligible to take a Gifted Programme entry test. If they were to past, they would be attending classes which are catered to them, providing them a large platform to further broaden their perspective and knowledge. It is a real pity as some children are not truly gifted but are trained and prepared by their parents to be gifted so that they would be able to enter the Gifted Programme courses. Some parents even went to the extend to actually send them to tuition classes which trains and prepares them to be gifted and to ace the entry test. However, when these kids enter primary 4, they would start to suffer as they would not be able to cope with the gifted programme courses and keep up to pace with those children who are really gifted and better in learning. 

China officials caught spray-painting grass green in Chengdu. By Lim Kay Kiat

China officials have recently turned to green dyes to make the grass in the city look greener. The green dye, Top Green Turf Greening Agent, is said by its spokesman to be a non-toxic dye and it does not pollute the environment. Workers have been filmed spray painting grass patches over the city. This is not the first time the government has attempted to make the environment look nicer with artificial means in China.

In my opinion, i think the government of Chengdu should not be spending money to purchase these dyes. Instead the government should be thinking of a solution to solve the root of the problem, which is the badly polluted air in China. Studies show that the air in China contains many toxic gases which are harmful to all organism, this could be the cause for the yellow grass in China. I strongly feel that the government should use this money to build catalytic converters and air purifiers in the city rather than be using it on the grass.

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