Every parent wants the best education for their child. Picking the right secondary school will help students mature academically and mentally. It has become important to have some support from a tutor because whatever that is being taught in school is insufficient; the syllabus demands much more from students. However, though there is an option of good Secondary school tuition, it is important to ensure the right school is chosen.
Firstly,
The distance between home and the secondary school matters. It is important to put a lot of thought into this aspect. Sometimes going to a school even though it is more than an hour away can be worth it because of the quality of education there while in other cases it can be a complete waste of time. Parents need to understand that this extra travelling time to get to school can instead be used for study and even play.
Thus, it is important to understand the quality of education of the chosen school to determine whether it is worth it for the travel time. It is important to discuss this with the child too as he or she may want a long travel time either. In the case where you want to pick a school that is close by, it will be much easier to narrow down the good secondary school choices as any school that is far away does not need to be considered.
Secondly,
It may be hard to understand the school’s student culture and how conducive the environment is for learning just from researching online or browsing through the school’s website. However, parents should not ignore this while making a decision. It is important for the child to enjoy his or her time in school and at the same time have fun learning.
Parents, along with their child, should go to open houses to look at the school in person instead of just trying to research online. This will help parents see the condition of classrooms, auditoriums, etc. and will help them make a more informed decision on whether the school will be appropriate for the child.
Thirdly,
Parents need to understand their child’s academic capability. It is important not to subject their child under unnecessary stress by enrolling them into competitive environments. It is ok to be in a school that a lot of people consider subpar as the quality of education will not differ a lot from elite schools. The only difference is that elite schools will provide an environment where students are highly encouraged and almost forced to perform well in academics while other schools will not have such an environment.
The PSLE score is a good indication of what the child is capable of and it is better to enrol based on this score. For example, if the child can go into the express stream, parents should not try to enrol their child in normal academic streams in more elite schools in the hope that one day they can be promoted to express stream as this is unnecessary stress for the child.
Lastly,
Parents should focus on aspects other than academics, especially in co-curricular activities (CCAs). If the child has a keen interest in a particular non-academic activity, parents should try to see whether the school provides a CCA that can manage this interest so that students can have fun outside of learning in school. CCAs are generally time consuming and a lot of effort needs to be put in for the 2 points reduction in O level which makes it important for the child to be interested in at least one CCA so that they will be committed without feeling much mental burden or stress.
IN CONCLUSION
It is important to weight the pros and cons in order to make an informed decision. This way, children will be able get into the secondary schools which fulfill their preferences and which is most convenient for them in order to study well!