Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Secondary school

What else... JE has started secondary school.  

Impressions so far:
Since her primary school was a Chinese one, there are obvious differences compared to the new 'kebangsaan'/national school. Now the students are predominantly Malay, over 90%.  Religion takes quite a centrestage - 'doa'/prayers are offered at the start of announcements and assembly, there are dedicated time periods where Malay students go off for prayers e.g. before recess and before school dismissal and of course there are the usual 'agama'/religion classes.  I'm not sure if the focus on religion is more intense due to the fasting month which started 3 days after the first day of school.  

Discipline is more lax.  One of her classmates apparently spends a lot of time in the toilet, meeting friends from other classes.  From the whatsapp group, quite a number of students miss class each day due to medical and other reasons.  

Most students came from the feeder primary school down the road.

JE seems ok so far considering her old friends aren't in this school. I imagine it's tougher to make friends due to the language barrier as her BM has never been strong and spoken BM is different as well.  There are a few students from her previous school but apparently she doesn't like them haha.  Hope she will have enough friends not to be lonely. 

Pics below are from the Form 1 orientation session which was held in the morning.  SE was sleepy and not keen on being photographed.

Me with Penguin and Duck

And Yaya 
(which is what she calls the small sis)

6 comments:

  1. SE sure looks sleepy. All the best to JE! I don't know much about the school system now. Are there still remove classes for students to transition to government schools in secondary schools?

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    1. Remove class is still there for students who didn't achieve the minimum grades. JE's school had a remove class with only 20 students, but it seemed they have all managed to appeal their way to the normal Form 1 classes.

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    2. Ya I guess the teachers also don't want to specially prepare lessons for a separate group of 20 students.

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    3. End up the whole concept of remove class also gone haha.

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  2. Ooo....another historic moment in her life chapter. I still remember my 1st day in school, despite almost 3 decades ago.

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    Replies
    1. It's nostalgic for me to walk through schools like this too.

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