This morning, Dad and I accompanied Ah Boy to his new Secondary School today. When we arrived, we were greeted by young counsellors (hmm, that's my job when I was in school too - recall with fond memories). I didn't find the counsellors smart-looking even with the tie on, this was probably due to their uniform design where the shirt was worn in the tuck-out manner. Anyway, we proceeded to check out the class that Ah Boy is in. There are two express classes (two only? puzzled!). My first reaction was to look at the list of names on 1E2 (not that I look down on Ah Boy lah but his score is really not that high mah)... huh, couldn't find? Eh, how come? Then I look at the list of names on 1E1 and finally found his name. Hmm... I continued to kaypoh and found that there are a total of 28 students in his class – 15 girls, 13 boys – and out of 13, there are 3 Indians, 4 Malays, and 6 Chinese).
Then we proceeded to the hall. As usual, it began with the unavoidable "sometimes-very-long, and don't-know-talking-about-what" speech by the principal. This is a young school with a relatively young principal. Their principal looks approachable but I am still unsure if she has the “in-control” look and voice to match her post. Well, this may be the “new-generation” principal that the students can associate with – I guess I will find out more in time to come. After her speech (I'm glad it's short and sweet), she tripped and fell. Oops!
As Ah Boy proceeded to do his registration at some level 2 classroom, I couldn't help but noticed the contrast in height. But luckily there's another Malay guy who's sama sama, else he'll definitely feel bad.
The school is young (only 5 years old). The exterior façade looked new and okay (but I am not fascinated by its color combination even though it is much better in comparison to my previous Sec Sch). In my opinion, it does not have an amazing layout, could have been better. I also cannot find the basketball court (maybe it's at some hidden corner which I've not explored – I mean I didn't really walked around much) and the soccer field seems out-of-bound, with gates just like that of the stadiums (Why must it be locked up? Shouldn't it be free for all at any time of the day? *Puzzled*). The classrooms are not impressively equipped either.
I guess I haven't been buying school textbooks for too long but frankly speaking, these books are getting more and more expensive. I don't think I need to fork out up to $300+ for the textbooks during my days. Two sets of uniforms and PE attire will set you further back by perhaps another $80. Wow! And I have yet to include other things such as pens, pencil, liquid paper, eraser, ruler, pencil case, bags, socks, shoes, etc...
Frankly I don't enjoy the curriculum in Sec Sch. I think they tried to force-feed us too many things within too short a time frame... Imagine from four subjects, you switch to more than double... English, Literature, Chinese, Maths, Science, Geography, History, don't-know-what Technology, Art, PE, etc... alamak!
Btw, Ah Boy is my bro, NOT my son hor!