A new system in school

Beginning this year, Wyng's school implemented this system which Mom cringes as this was exactly the system which made Mom decided not to enrol Wyng in his older brother's primary school.  This system, which is implemented by most Chinese medium schools, requires their students to stay back after their normal school hours to attend tuition classes.  Depending on school, some schools require them to stay back until 3.30, 3.15 or 4pm.  Wyng's school chooses to dismiss them at an unearthly 4 o'clock.

At only Primary 3, I strongly disagree that he attends all those tuition classes for an additional 3 hours after school.  Already exhausted after 5 hours in school, packing another 3 hours (what! eight long hours) in the same environment, with almost the same teachers is not proven to have any positive impact on the children's learning capabilities.  In view of this, I promptly went to see the Assistant Principal of the school to submit my application to have him exempted from the classes.

It wasn't difficult for me to convince the school that Wyng is better guided by his Mom as he is an above average student, being in the top 25 in his school.  According the the school, the system is started with the aim of keeping the students occupied productively after school hours.  But, why only curriculum is emphasized in this system?  There is only an hour of co-curriculum in the entire 'extra' classes.

I am not sure if the school has conducted any research to prove that the extra after-school hours can actually help students to excel.  Whatever it is, I don't doubt that the school has failed to consider the fact that not all students need to be 'educated' the same way.

Now, instead of clocking in 7.20am to 4pm on a daily basis, Wyng can be dismissed at 1.10 pm on Mondays to Tuesdays and 12.40pm from Wednesdays to Fridays.  He has his hearty lunch, finishes his homework after that and for the rest of the day, he either watches television, plays, does his reading or attends his Chinese or Kumon classes.

What's wrong with this? Nothing wrong at all and he will continue to enjoy such routine at least for another two more years.