With reference to a series of PSC/MOE courses and seminars being held from 10 Jul - 22 Jul 2006.
The PSC PDC (policy phase?) included all other Ministry-level scholars this time round (including 49 of us from MOE) and I’m pretty sure both PSC and their scholars felt pretty odd about it.
We were given a series of presentations by various ministry representatives: MFA, MTI, MCYS, as well as sharings by a few VERY senior civil servants such as Mr Kau$isan and Mr Alber+ Chua. Not forgetting Dr. ^my the mayor. To be frank, not all of them were fantastic speakers, though MFA speakers never disappointed.
Apart from the talks and stuff, I requested to be given a chance for the tours that the EMS and other scholars were going for. The large number of people in the group made every tour a big mess to be honest, and the quality of questions from us were not really THERE. But nevertheless, I did pick up a thing or two here and there, and I guess that’s all that matters.
Last but not least, all the last day, when we were requested to summarise our learnings from the PDC, we were grouped by our presentation topics, and all of a sudden, it became natural that I was to chair the whole thing in the group since I’ve been high-profile in TSPC anyway. Which was ODD. Anyway, I think our group did the most actual discussions and stuff, the rest were pretty much chit-chatting and playing with harmonicas =P BUT, it doesn’t mean our presentation was good. It was in fact, quite bad. A humbling experience, I admit.
One regrettable thing though, was that we missed the tea session with the PS of PSD due to OBS. I’d love to hear what the PS has to say.
**OBS, as illustrated in the previous post**
The MOE induction course was held for all 300+ teaching scholars and awardees. Ice-breaker games didn’t break much ice, considering how passive some of my group were, or then again I’m overly enthusiastic. After which, there was briefing by AD(Plans) regarding all the changes in the education fraternity, which was heavy on content, but not really as candid.
The highlight of the day, I felt, was the sharing session by Mrs Chua, the appointed principal of North-light school. She impressed not only me, but also the entire floor, with her wry sense of humour as well as inspiring stories of her experiences through her education career. Everyone’s a star she says, and the fact that she gave a well-deserved 2nd chance to a student deserted by society, swept me off the floor. Will I one day, be such an inspiring and captivating figure? I can only hope and work towards it step at a time.
The afternoon programme was the curriculum briefing, where I met all the 16 other teaching scholars/awardees doing Chinese language and literature. The speaker was a curriculum spec from the HQ, and I was impressed by how she prepared all the necessary information and placed them into a neat binder. The briefings were relevant, kinda heavy on the factual stuff, but I think I could make do with it considering how the other curriculum briefings appeared to be less engaging.
I think I was feeling particularly lonely, when the lady asked the floor "who is against the education system dropping the Chinese syllabus standards?". I was a lonely voice, my hand the only one in the air. Was I chasing after an irrealistic dream? Were my peers all numb and indifferent to our deterioration? I didn’t know.
Where is the Chinese language heading to in Singapore? Where am I heading towards? Let time tell.
The following day, the overseas scholars had a full day of seminars relating to drugs, safety as well as overcoming psychological barriers and culture shocks. They were generally interesting but perhaps dragged across too long a period of time, they lost quite a lot of attention from the floor.
The briefings from the seniors regarding overseas life and the relevant preparations were good, but perhaps overly repetitive. I was particularly disappointed with the China one as I was hoping to hear more scenarios relating to the Beijing culture and practices, but then again, I doubt the rest of the overseas scholars really need to know.
The day ended off with interaction with the MOE seniors in the respective countries, seeing yingyi again was great, but the turn-out of the Beijing seniors were less than I thought, and the 3 ladies were all occupied with programmes too that night, so… oh well…
22 Jul morning as a lot of fun. Cooking classes in RGS. The teachers were very nice and patient, and they made the lessons very relevant by relying mostly on kitchen equipment that we could afford in our future hostels/dormitories such as microwave ovens, thermal pots. We cooked rice, steamed fish, vegetables as well as pan-fried eggs. Simple? Indeed, but learning how to do them the hassle-free way was the important take-away of the day.
To conclude, the pre-departure programmes were Helpful. The bonding between friends was even more valuable.
