• Death of boy, 11, who fell 17 floors after failing his exams for the first time ruled a suicide
    48 replies, posted
[QUOTE]SINGAPORE - The death of an 11-year-old boy, who fell 17 floors from his bedroom window on the day he was to show his parents his mid-year examination results, was found to be "a deliberate act of suicide" on Friday (Oct 21).In his findings, State Coroner Marvin Bay urged parents and educators to remind children that "their efforts in study may not always yield a commensurate result, and also that such failures are transient or temporary events". He added: "Parents and educators should also constantly reassure them that they will always be there to help the child through each stumble, winding turn and setback in their education journey." The boy, referred as Master H, was a Primary 5 pupil who had never failed in any of his subjects. But students transitioning from Primary 4 to Primary 5 would generally have a dip in their results. Changes in their examination format are meant to prepare them for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), the court heard. On May 12, Master H got back his examination papers for English language, Mathematics, Chinese language and Higher Chinese. Out of a score of 100, the boy got 50, 20.5, 53.8 and 12 marks respectively. On May 14, his mother bought him a kite, after he told her his examination results were "average". In previous years, he had gotten an average of 70 marks for his subjects. The next day, a Sunday, he went to fly the kite with his father. The court heard that the mother would cane the boy's palm lightly, for every mark he fell short of her stipulated standard of 70 per cent. On May 16, the boy got back his science examination paper. He scored 57.5 out of 100 for it. On the morning of May 18, the mother saw the boy in his school uniform. But he was supposed to go to school in his physical education attire, as he had a Wushu lesson. She asked him to change his attire. Shortly after, when his parents found his room door locked, they opened it with a spare key. But they found the boy missing. They then saw him lying at the foot of the block. A paramedic pronounced the boy dead at 7am.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/death-of-boy-11-who-fell-17-floors-after-failing-his-exams-for-the-first-time[/url] And the most fucked up part: [QUOTE]The mother was seen crying and repeatedly saying in Mandarin next to her son: "I only ask for 70 marks, I don't expect you to get 80 marks." [/QUOTE] Welcome to Singapore/Asia
Sad. Students are increasingly expected to perform as companies have higher and higher expectations for employment. I don't know about the specific situation in singapore, but from what I hear, South Korea is the worst in the world (has one of the highest suicide rates as a result). Meanwhile, in the west, we keep comparing outselves to South Korea and say "The USA is behind South Korea in Math scores!" I'll keep our subpar math skills and keep our sanity
This is some fucked up shit, and yet incidents like this keep happening every time exam results come out purely because the parents try to push children far too hard, failing to realize that everybody has different capabilities, and might not fit your expectations of what you want them to be. I just want to also add that vicariously trying to live your own dreams through your children is a pretty selfish thing to do, and parents need to be more supportive of their children, while telling them that grades aren't the end of the world, there are many who succeeded after being absolute dunces at school.
Getting caned 'lightly' for marks below 70%? Ouch.
[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;51245764]Getting caned 'lightly' for marks below 70%? Ouch.[/QUOTE] I got caned because I didn't pass Maths in school, and the whole deal my mum had to face when meeting friends for Chinese new year and all the parents talk about how good their kids did in school. I was always scared as fuck to go home, because I had to show my report cards and let my mum sign her name. Always was thinking of ways to forge it.
Wait they have exams to pass primary school?
For what it's worth I was terrible in grade school and repeated two years. But now I have a full-time job and, combined with my roommate, we are making a middle class combined salary at ages 24 and 22 respectively. My brother always, always had the upper hand in school grades, and he's a hopeless deadbeat so far. You can memorize and pass, but education doesn't teach dedication and loyalty.
[QUOTE=proboardslol;51245738]Sad. Students are increasingly expected to perform as companies have higher and higher expectations for employment. I don't know about the specific situation in singapore, but from what I hear, South Korea is the worst in the world (has one of the highest suicide rates as a result). Meanwhile, in the west, we keep comparing outselves to South Korea and say "The USA is behind South Korea in Math scores!" I'll keep our subpar math skills and keep our sanity[/QUOTE] It's parents, not companies. Companies don't give a shit about your grade (except maybe when applying to internships?), and increasingly in more liberal areas not giving a shit about even having college
[QUOTE=A_Pigeon;51245788]Wait they have exams to pass primary school?[/QUOTE] We have exams to finish primary here in Estonia too, I'm pretty sure it's very common. Do you not have it in Canada?
[QUOTE=A_Pigeon;51245788]Wait they have exams to pass primary school?[/QUOTE] Yes. At 12, which is primary 6, you got the PSLE which grades you into which secondary school you can get into, and then at 16, Secondary 4, you got 'O' levels which grades you into either Junior college or Polytechnic or ITE, and then you got 'A' levels at 18 in Junior colleges. Your first exams starts at the age of 6 or 7.
[QUOTE=proboardslol;51245738]Sad. Students are increasingly expected to perform as companies have higher and higher expectations for employment. I don't know about the specific situation in singapore, but from what I hear, South Korea is the worst in the world (has one of the highest suicide rates as a result). Meanwhile, in the west, we keep comparing outselves to South Korea and say "The USA is behind South Korea in Math scores!" I'll keep our subpar math skills and keep our sanity[/QUOTE] We can actually have both too. Finland's education system is fucking fantastic and it humanizes students even more than the US's system.
just gonna drop this here.. [url]https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores?language=en[/url].
[QUOTE=A_Pigeon;51245788]Wait they have exams to pass primary school?[/QUOTE] I had exams to pass elementary school here, as well as middle/high school. Now, the final exams didn't count for that much in elementary school, but in middle/high school, depending on the course and teacher, they could count for around 50% of your whole semester grade, or more.
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;51245776]I got caned because I didn't pass Maths in school, and the whole deal my mum had to face when meeting friends for Chinese new year and all the parents talk about how good their kids did in school. I was always scared as fuck to go home, because I had to show my report cards and let my mum sign her name. Always was thinking of ways to forge it.[/QUOTE] What the actual fuck? You were caned by the school? I mean was there a reason you didn't pass Maths, cos it sounds like a lot of pressure put on someone of that sorta age.
I mean.....I had a friend commit suicide at age 14 (not due to school grades), which was fucked up and devastating. But this is very fucked up. I feel the younger a kid is, the worse it is. It's hard to even imagine sometimes, especially when said kids aren't in terrible war-torn and dangerous environments. But even so, depression and anxiety are all relative, and each person who suffers those kind of suicide-inducing pains might as well all be experiencing nearly the same level of pain. Honestly, when I was 11 I'm not sure if I even knew of potential methods of killing myself. Being sad then just meant crying for hours and throwing things, but still eventually returning to a clam mood, even forgetting about it within a few days. That's a general statement, and I know the article said the kid was pressured and hit on the wrists. It's just still hard to imagine that he made that connection to do what he did, and for reasons that probably only make sense when they are slightly older. Makes more sense for a high school kid to do the same because they have a mind that can realize they are working for a future, and what they are working towards is competitive and important. Also, this happened in May. Why is this only now making news? Long investigation maybe?
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51245908]What the actual fuck? You were caned by the school? I mean was there a reason you didn't pass Maths, cos it sounds like a lot of pressure put on someone of that sorta age.[/QUOTE] No my mum
[QUOTE=MrBacon;51245816]We have exams to finish primary here in Estonia too, I'm pretty sure it's very common. Do you not have it in Canada?[/QUOTE] That I can recall going back almost 15 years no, so long as you passed grade 7 you made it to Highschool.
[QUOTE=Xanadu;51245792]For what it's worth I was terrible in grade school and repeated two years. But now I have a full-time job and, combined with my roommate, we are making a middle class combined salary at ages 24 and 22 respectively. My brother always, always had the upper hand in school grades, and he's a hopeless deadbeat so far. You can memorize and pass, but education doesn't teach dedication and loyalty.[/QUOTE] American education doesn't actually teach much of anything, except what you already said: it teaches students how to take tests. "We have an exam in two weeks, here's what you need to memorize to do well on it." It's sad, but I remember having to deal with it back in elementary school when No Child Left Behind was brought in. Unfortunately, even though NCLB has been done away with, it has left behind a rotten legacy from which we probably aren't going to recover for a while yet. It's a system built on quantity over quality; how many students get through and graduate, how well they performed on exams, etc. It doesn't bother worrying about whether or not they actually learned anything and if they know how to think for themselves/use reason, and it doesn't care to. If things look good superficially, then things must be good, and that's all that matters. I'd like a system where things revolve more around hands-on learning and assessment. Experience teaches us better than anything else, and actually having to demonstrate abilities in the field proves whether or not you know a thing and can successfully apply it in a practical way.
Doesn't help that so much of our testing is basically true/false questions. I mean, multiple choice is technically more than 2 options, but usually only one or two are even close to reasonable answers that even in math you could sometimes just guesstimate which answer was correct without even doing any of the math. I understand that they do multiple question because it's super fast to grade it but it's also really easy to pass it with like a day or less of preparation on the subject and then just forget it after. It's terrible for gauging what skills and information you've actually acquired. Though the most annoying was getting vague questions which depending on how you interpret the question could result in multiple answers or the answer you might select might be mostly true but wrong due to a technicality.
[QUOTE=NO ONE;51245979] Also, this happened in May. Why is this only now making news? Long investigation maybe?[/QUOTE] Yes, they just now declared it suicide and not an accident or something
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;51245776]I got caned because I didn't pass Maths in school, and the whole deal my mum had to face when meeting friends for Chinese new year and all the parents talk about how good their kids did in school.[/QUOTE] I think this is a big factor too, peer pressure from family friends to do well. At least the older generation is on it's way out.
[QUOTE=soulharvester;51246429]Doesn't help that so much of our testing is basically true/false questions. I mean, multiple choice is technically more than 2 options, but usually only one or two are even close to reasonable answers that even in math you could sometimes just guesstimate which answer was correct without even doing any of the math. I understand that they do multiple question because it's super fast to grade it but it's also really easy to pass it with like a day or less of preparation on the subject and then just forget it after. It's terrible for gauging what skills and information you've actually acquired. Though the most annoying was getting vague questions which depending on how you interpret the question could result in multiple answers or the answer you might select might be mostly true but wrong due to a technicality.[/QUOTE] You might try writing on your tests out to the side why you answered the way you did. I started doing this last year, and it really seemed like it helped my grades. It also made me feel more confident in taking tests. If I don't know the right answer, then I can at least demonstrate to my professors what my thought processes are, and I can prove to them that just because I might not know one particular thing I still know plenty of other relevant things.
[QUOTE=MrBacon;51245816]We have exams to finish primary here in Estonia too, I'm pretty sure it's very common. Do you not have it in Canada?[/QUOTE] Not here. We have an EQAO test that keeps track of the level of education the schools is maintaining. Happens once every 3 years, but is not a requirement for passing public / grade school.
[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51246759]"Choose the BEST answer" should fuck right off[/QUOTE] Welcome to IT cert tests that are pretty much all "Choose the LEAST wrong answer"
[QUOTE=Shadaez;51245798]It's parents, not companies. Companies don't give a shit about your grade (except maybe when applying to internships?), and increasingly in more liberal areas not giving a shit about even having college[/QUOTE] From what I've heard in South Korea, the chaebol only want to hire the top graduates from the top 4 universities in South Korea, so people who are pressured to get into these universities and don't commit suicide
[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;51245764]Getting caned 'lightly' for marks below 70%? Ouch.[/QUOTE] Getting below a 70 would fail you anyway in a class at any of public universities in my state. You'd get no credit for the class and basically wasted 16 weeks of your life and money.
The only reason I ever got caned by my parents was when I was caught behind the bike sheds with another boy
My parents gave zero shits about my performance, having less pressure helped me get high grades throughout school in retrospect.
I neaely committed suicide due to getting "poor" grades, but i stopped myself. They werent even poor grades, it was B plus to A minus range, yet my parents were always telling me me that i would never be able to enroll in any college with that, that even McDonald's wouldn't take me. When you are told from a young age that a single number determines your worth, can you really be surprised?
I can't count how many times i failed exams before passing them (sometimes i just pass barely). I mean cmon hes just in middle school, it shouldn't matter that mush, am studing at a university on the other hand...
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