cresting a wave
So I am thinking, this place I am going to work at, it is a bit like a Danmark Seamen's Mission. It is a place for Christian missionaries to take in those who are adrift and give them some compass direction for a life. It is a kind of East-West compass though. I am talking about the things my new colleagues say about the school. Some say it is a school for future businessmen, and some say it is a school for future churchmen, and some say it is a school for entrepreneur scientists.
The head of life sciences is a jolly lady who thinks the future is in gene manipulation. Maybe she should go proselytize her jolly viewpoint in jolly northern Europe. Then we could have Clone Wars like in the United States. The head of my department is a strange lady. She is obviously Asian (maybe they do not trust us barbarians here to be heads, but I reserve my judgements respectfully like a true Hokkien-to-be) with a big heart. And big everything else. She can be very blunt but somehow shy at the same time. Or maybe it is the other way around. I will try very hard to enjoy my life here.
They also have a head of a department of gifted education. This department, it is very different from the ones I have known from my time in København and also in Los Angeles. For a start, I still do not know how they choose the pupils and the teachers. I am sure this country did not become so successful by exporting oil, but the mechanism has much grease in it.
Enough for now I think. I have much thinking to be doing, and I do not want to lose my new job before I am starting. But maybe, maybe maybe, they will think I am Swedish instead. And this post should also maybe be called 'waving a crest'.
The head of life sciences is a jolly lady who thinks the future is in gene manipulation. Maybe she should go proselytize her jolly viewpoint in jolly northern Europe. Then we could have Clone Wars like in the United States. The head of my department is a strange lady. She is obviously Asian (maybe they do not trust us barbarians here to be heads, but I reserve my judgements respectfully like a true Hokkien-to-be) with a big heart. And big everything else. She can be very blunt but somehow shy at the same time. Or maybe it is the other way around. I will try very hard to enjoy my life here.
They also have a head of a department of gifted education. This department, it is very different from the ones I have known from my time in København and also in Los Angeles. For a start, I still do not know how they choose the pupils and the teachers. I am sure this country did not become so successful by exporting oil, but the mechanism has much grease in it.
Enough for now I think. I have much thinking to be doing, and I do not want to lose my new job before I am starting. But maybe, maybe maybe, they will think I am Swedish instead. And this post should also maybe be called 'waving a crest'.
a musing by cunning_nowhere @ 6:00 AM
4 Comments:
At 10:37 PM PST,
toitle said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 10:46 PM PST,
toitle said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 10:48 PM PST,
toitle said…
If you're still wondering about selection for the Gifted Education Program (GEP), perhaps i could shed some light on the matter.
I dont know about the teachers, but students are selected based on the results of a linguistic, mathematical, and general ability test in grade three, which is open to all students, free of charge.
At grade six, if a student performs exceptionally well in the nationally standardized Primary School Leaving Education, he/she is eligible to partake in another selection test of the same nature, although slightly more advanced.
The program admits only the top 1% of participants, and lasts till secondary four, grade 10, when they are sixteen years of age, following which they take the same standardized exam as the other streams. GEP Students are kept together in a single class, and only about 8 of the top schools offer the program. Funding for the GEP is significantly higher per capita than for the other streams. Most GEP teachers are also not hired by the school itself but rather by the Ministry of Education, and are frequently transferred between the GEP schools.
However, in the school you're teaching in (which is also my school), due to its adoption of the IBDP and intake of students from grades 11 and 12, there are plans to expand the GEP to grade 12, although the students will be mixed with the other streams. I am unsure of the exact distinction the school will make between GEP/IBDP and normal IBDP, but i hear it entails additional curricula.
Lastly, members of the GEP also receive a subsidy which reduces their school fees to 12 dollars a month, regardless of the initial starting point, which, for this school at least, can be about 200-400 SGD, excluding miscellaneous fees.
The program itself is being phased out in many schools in favour of the Integrated Program, which exempts students from the O levels and lasts from grades 7 - 12, although students normally have to transfer to an affiliated junior college, which they receive automatic admission to. They then take the Cambridge A levels. The school you're teaching at is one of the only schools intending to offer the Integrated Program (IP) while retaining the GEP. It is also the only local school, both IP and non IP, offering the IBDP, although international schools in the area, such as the nearby UWCSEA (united world college south east asia), have been doing so for some time.
hope that helped, and thanks for visiting my blog.
~toitle.
At 10:57 PM PST,
toitle said…
sorry, i decided to combine the first two posts for ease of reading, (in the form of the third post), so i deleted them. hope it didnt contribute to the mess, haha
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