GCE

The GCE examinations have long been deep-rooted into the culture of Singapore. This may be due to past times when this land flew the British flag. They were the original English-speaking nation. With this in mind, it was only natural that we moved towards their examination for a good gauge of our english capabilities.

To tell you the truth, that was all a front. Nowhere in my limited knowledge do I understand why the Singapore government is willing to reduce the chinese syllabus again, but yet continue the consistent demands for english. What about the other languages? Must the chinese syllabus be reduced just because the outcry is louder? Must the Chinese be so pampered?

Singapore is an Asian nation, so by tradition, the English should not be taken as a main race. Yet, it has gained an increasing importance, already having overtaken the other languages of this city. As a side note, I obtained an A1 for English but a B3 for Chinese. Yet, it is the already simplified version of chinese that I have scored so badly for. Compared with the chinese-speaking parts of the world, how do I fare? Certainly worse than a B3, but I will never find out.

From experience in taking higher chinese initially, I found the "normal" Singapore's chinese easy when I dropped out. In the same way, spoon-feeding us takes away the drive to learn and do better. Reducing the chinese syllabus gives one the misconception that chinese is not important in today's society, which has, in part, been true. Yet, even with the arrival of China as a major competitor, Singapore still continues to reduce the chinese syllabus. The government, however, has implemented a very contradictive solution. While they continue to lessen the students' learning of the chinese language, they push for total immersion and the speak mandarin campaign.

What they have managed to achieve is a confusion amongst the common men -- are the government for or against a chinese-speaking population? Maybe chinese has to be sacrificed for the standard of english to become better. Maybe the government is trying to correct the mistake they had made in the past by initiating a gradual switch back to a pro-chinese society again.

Whatever the case now is, the fact still remains. GCE english examination scripts are sent to Cambridge for marking, but GCE chinese examination scripts remain in Singapore to be checked by the local Chinese teachers. Strange as this may seem in a democratic nation, this has been a consistent scenario in Singapore.