told you all keling shits like me are poor in maths. "Substantiating its findings are national statistics which showed that a quarter of Indian students failed their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) mathematics exam in 2009 an eight-point difference in relative to the national average.
today Thursday November 24, 2011
A push in education for Indian students, especially in maths
SINGAPORE — Indian students are
still underachieving in mathematics,
resulting in setbacks along their academic
path and later in life, the Singapore
Indian Development Association
(SINDA) concluded from its review.
Substantiating its findings are national
statistics which showed that a
quarter of Indian students failed their
Primary School Leaving Examinations
(PSLE) mathematics exam in 2009 —
an eight-point difference in relative to
the national average.
And although close to 90 per
cent of Indian students enter postsecondary
education in 2009, many
either drop out of school or found it
difficult to cope with mathematicalbased
courses, according to SINDA, as it
unveiled yesterday measures to boost
educational aspirations of the Indian
community within the next decade.
The Indian students’ difficulty
with mathematics could be due to
the lack of participation in pre-school
education, said SINDA, which found in
a survey that 17 per cent out of 400
Indian parents still do not send their
kids to pre-school.
Dr N Varaprasad, who led the review,
said: “We feel that not all Indian
parents are aware of the importance
of pre-school education, of sending
their children to nursery school, to
socialise and to learn basic literacy
and numeracy.”
He added that pre-school education
would also give kids a more level
playing field in primary school.
Still, the Indian community has
seen an improvement in academics
over the years, given that only 54 per
cent of Indian students passed PSLE
mathematics and 40 per cent entered
post-secondary education in 1990.
SINDA chairman and Deputy
Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam
noted that gaps have indeed
been reduced over the years. But he
pointed out that there is still some way
to go to achieve parity between Indian
students and the national average,
especially in the area of mathematics.
“The task is now more challenging”,
he said, as national achievement
levels have also risen.
And while some individuals have
achieved higher aspirations, Mr Tharman
added: “There remains within
the community some segments where
there is a real shortfall in aspirations
that needs to be tackled.”
Besides having to boost academic
standards of Indian pupils, the review
also saw a need to further engage youth
to enhance their motivation and to
strengthen family resilience at home.
Besides increasing awareness
on pre-school education, SINDA will
spend S$1.8 million more on programmes
and services like a new parents’
division to engage parents and an
expansion in its tuition programme.