When I was in primary school, there was only one secondary school that I wanted to go to. It was a school that my aunties and uncles seemed to consider a good one and it was also in a fairly good location. It also bore the name of a pioneer in Singapore. Up until Primary 5 or maybe 6, Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School was my dream destination post-PSLE.
Of course, I ended up in another secondary school which shared some characteristics as my original target. Although Raffles Institution wasn’t as near to home as Ahmad Ibrahim was, it apparently was considered even more reputable. I had no idea.
I didn’t know much about secondary schools back then. It was the pre-internet era, and I had no idea that there were secondary schools that were considered to be a cut above the rest. I knew about Yishun Secondary School, Naval Base Secondary School and Yishun Town Secondary School. The last one I knew because my elder brother went there.
I also had no idea of how competitive education in Singapore truly was. You could say I was living in blissful ignorance. It helped that while I was ignorant about real life, I wasn’t too shabby at primary school academics.
The day my form teacher sent me back with the form where I had to indicate my preferences was not a good day for me. I remember there was a booklet which contained a table that listed out all the secondary schools in Singapore as well as other information including the PSLE score that I would have to get in order to gain admission. I couldn’t quite understand it so I did what any kid would have done – I asked my parents to fill it up. First, I asked my late ibu, who flipped through the booklet and told me to ask my ayah when he got home. Then my ayah got home, flipped through the booklet, and told me to fill it up myself.
I was distraught. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with the choice that had been placed in my hands. In hindsight, I was probably too afraid to make the wrong choice and screw up. Also, while I knew that I was likely to get a good PSLE score, I wasn’t sure I would make it into the school that had the highest cut-off point. But hindsight also taught me that my parents had good reason to turn me away in my moment of need. They were not equipped to help me make that choice. As far as I know, my dad attended Monk’s Hill School and my late mother never made it that far. How were they to help me decide which school to go to when they were a) busy making ends meet; and, b) had no relevant experience to tap on? They probably figured that I would find a way to fill up the form.
Thus, on the day I was due to submit my preferences, I walked up to my form teacher at recess and told her I needed help filling up the form. She seemed surprised, as I recall, but she regained her composure quickly and asked me what I had in mind. I told her that I was thinking of placing St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) as my first choice followed by Raffles Institution (RI). She asked me why I was putting SJI ahead of RI and I replied that I thought I had a better chance of making it into SJI.
But I lied. That wasn’t the reason at all. The real reason I had placed SJI ahead of RI was because I thought the name was cooler. It had the word ‘Saint’ in it. And it was an institution, but so was RI. I was also quite curious why these schools had the word institution in their name. I still have no idea why these schools are institutions.
Ms Zarina, my form teacher, pointed out that since RI had a higher cutoff score than SJI, I should put it as my first choice. That made sense. And in any case, I wasn’t going to disagree with the first person to offer me help with filling up that damned form.
And that is the story of how I got into RI. Oh, plus I scored well enough in PSLE to make the mark. Yay.
When my daughter was born, I had to proactively fight off tiger dad instincts and imagining a future where my daughter enters Raffles Girls’ Secondary (RGS). I won’t lie, when she seemed to pick up reading quite fast and had moments which suggested she was of above average intelligence, I could almost hear the strains of the school anthem. Sometimes, I would play the song to her, although I generally did that to annoy my wife.
She is now about to finish her fourth year in primary school, while her younger sister has made it to the end of primary one. I am no longer hoping for her to make it to RGS or any other top school. I’m not saying that I intend to advise her against trying to apply for those schools. Rather, I recognise that when the time comes for her to decide which secondary school she should go to, I am better equipped than my parents were to engage her substantively on the pros and cons of each option.
More importantly, experience has taught me that while there are benefits to attending a ‘top’ school in Singapore, it is not a prerequisite for leading a meaningful life. My circumstances back then were very different from what she has now. My time in RI helped to pave my way out of poverty. Maybe I could have achieved the same goal even if I hadn’t studied there but the story of how RI changed my life is best told another day. The point here is that while the stakes behind the choice of secondary school were very high for me back then, the world has since changed and moved on. If there were multiple pathways to success before, I think that there are infinite pathways today. So I intend to let them both explore their options.
I only hope that neither of them choose a secondary school based on how cool the name sounds to them.
Be First to Comment