Commentary on wikipedia's article...

I admit that its been a really really long time since I last posted anything on this blog. To tell you the truth, I don't feel as much desire or the impulse to blog as much as I used to, partly because I get to talk with more people about the stuff that I observe and also because I don't see the need to worry about these stuff all the time. Also, there's a higher chance of getting into trouble in the current situation I am at so its a good idea to not try anything stupid...

Life's been pretty nice and prelims are coming up... Urgh, another portion of my life is ending...

Anyway,

I was reading wikipedia and I came across this article on National Junior College. As I read through it, I came across some outright flaming and defaming of the college. There is also a large amount of scant attacks on the IP program in the school (not that I am defending it but lets reserve that for another post). Unfortunately, I am not sure how long exactly all those inflamatory content will stay on wikipedia, but you can be sure that the quotes that I raise here are copied directly out of that article on National Junior College.

NJC was also the first junior college approved by the Ministry of Education to introduce a 4-year Integrated Programme (IP) in 2004 to provide a through-train education for capable Secondary 3 students, allowing them to bypass the traditional GCE 'O' Levels and giving them the opportunity and room for more creative pursuits which would be hard to pursue in the traditional GCE 'O' Level path. In practice, the IP is overflowing with sub-par students; and since there are no O levels to remove them, they remain in the college. In a political move to prevent demotion, the authorities have given them the best teachers to save the ailing grades, but efforts are largely unsuccessful. The NJC Integrated Programme disaster was adopted by Temasek Junior College and Victoria Junior College for their own integrated programmes, effectively sparking a chain of catastrophe throughout the nation.

The IP is overflowing with sub-par students? I don't think so (PTM and comparison between JC and IP) It won't be the first time that this thing is raised up by anybody in the JC and this has already become a highly controversial topic for discussion. How exactly do you define a sub-par student? A students who has low grades? or a student with the wrong moral and ethics code? I do agree however that the IP students are naturally getting more attention then that of the mainstream students since they are supposed to be the more important group of people in the school. Judging from the amount of enrichment that they have and the idea that the schools wants to develop them to the best of their ability, you can't stop them from giving them the best teachers.

And who said that the JC teachers are bad? I believe that some of the JC teachers are quite good, and lets face it, teachers who teach the JC will have a different method of teaching as compared to the teachers who teach IP. JC students are already very well-conditioned to doing work, lots of work to achieve the results that is needed while IP students are more conditioned to start debates and do project works. How then can the same method be used to teach the two cohorts? Thus, how can we say that the IP students are indeed getting the better teachers? (In fact, if you aren't even taught by those teachers, how do you know??)

It is interesting to note that IP is basically a rehash of what has been happening in the past, albeit without the O levels as a "method of removing the sub-par students". IP has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the main problem plaguing the IP in my opinion is the way the adminstration is causing conflicts and tensions between the two groups of students, as well as some people in the two groups that believes that their own group is better in some way or other.

Chain of catastrophe? What catastrophe? Results falling? A friend mentioned to me that IP is meant to produce better students, so technically they should produce better A level results from the project works and skills that need to be learned in their syllables. I feel however that these two sets of skills are very different and will thus tend to produce different results at A levels, which has always been more of an academically inclined exam. I don't agree that results falling warrants it to be a catastrophe, but lets see what happens in the long run. Results aren't everything.

The original site which NJC occupied is now the site for Nanyang Girls' High School, which has such architectural beauty and efficiency that it puts NJ to shame.

I'll take this to be outright flaming. Since you hate the current site of NJ now, go be the architect and redesign it. Besides, this is an article about NJC, a comparison with other schools is not needed. Be proud of what you have now. NJ may not be the best, but you know what's called 饮水思源？

Currently, the plot of land along NJC Rise and Hillcrest Road is being developed as part of the College's expansion plans to squander on a hostel, slated for completion in late 2008.

I'll take this to be another outright flaming. Squander on a hostel?! First thing first, this is an encyclopedia and does not require opinions to be included in it. Although seriously, I don't agree on the hostel, particularly as the hostel is meant for the new IP 1 & 2 students(sec 1 and sec 2) when they come into the school. Imagine, a bunch of 13 and 14 year old running amok in the hostel... I can imagine the amount of stories they can start with visiting friends in the middle of the night.... Another good question to ponder, sending this kids to hostel, does it impede with family ties?

NJC was among the first 5 Colleges to be centres for the Humanities Programme alongside Hwa Chong Junior College (now Hwa Chong Institution), Raffles Junior College, Temasek Junior College and rich-brat Victoria Junior College.

The author has something against "rich-brat" Victoria Junior College. Someone should really move this statement to the VJC article... but there's no need to defame any school. Also, why do we always give away prizes while reading things like "We beat other teams like HC and RJ to emerge ..."? I mean, are we enemies? Don't you have friends there? Don't you think its sad that your friends in other JC is now your biggest enemy? Plus, it creates this assumption that NJ isn't as good and that we have to beat other "tougher" opponents to win the award. It seems as though everyone agrees that HC and RJ is good in everything...

Since then, this honour has been overtaken by Hwa Chong Institution, Raffles JC and Anglo-Chinese JC...

Like I said, no comparison needed... Although seriously, a nice question to ask would be how did NJC develop? In the past, NJC was the only college in Singapore, thus all the honour should naturally go to it only (like duh, monopoly). But as the other colleges start to open up in Singapore, more and more of the honour goes to the other colleges. So maybe perhaps NJ didn't really have the merits to win those awards in the first place, but just won them due to the lack of competition? Just a thought...

On some formal occasions though, instead of donning blazers, NJCians simply wear their red tie along with their full-grey uniform. Standing out from the crowd is easily achieved in this case, considering the sharp contrast between the dull grey of the uniform and the bright red of the tie. The trade-off is that such an unharmonious blend of colour makes NJCians stand out like a sore thumb, and they look like a joke with grey matching bright red. Yellow with red looks indignant enough in the case of Ronald McDonald's but grey with red redefines the absolute pit bottom of colour coordination and gives the word "clown" a whole new meaning

This is a very degragatory remark and there isn't a need to go to that extent.However, I do agree that red tie + grey uniform is quite horrible (imagine this coming out from someone who has no dress sense). Sometimes, I just wish that the teachers and event organisers just borrow blaziers for the ushers and the people on duty. Come on, RV forced us to change into blazier everytime a big event comes along, why not do it here too? Or rather, why not just usher in full grey? It looks much much more dignified. The NJ uniform doesn't seem to be designed to go with a tie in the first place, so why force the tie on? I don't feel that it makes them look formal. Blaziers might seem overboard sometimes, but from my experience, that's exactly what we are trying to achieve when we want to look formal.

NJC has received criticism by many for the design of its uniform. Being full grey, water-proof and some say even fire-proof, the fabric is really stiff and rough, something like paper against skin. Because of its highly unpopular uniform design, with many metal buttons in the shape of the college logo (as if the college collar pin is not enough to show the world that one is from NJC), many students have opted for the vibrant and dynamic Victoria Junior College even though they live far from VJC and near to NJC.

Don't worry, NJC isn't the only one. I mean seriously, which group of students doesn't criticise their uniform now? Hmm... can't think of any...
Probably because we want to express ourselves?
Also, is it true that students are opting for the vibrant and dynamic VJC even though they live near to NJC? Where's the proof???
And finally, NJC was born in the era when chinese schools are still found in Singapore (to be fair, there is no such thing as chinese schools left in Singapore) so the buttons could have been influenced by the chinese schools in that period of time. What's wrong with the design of the buttons anyway? Catholic high, River Valley, The Chinese High school all have buttons in the shape of their school logo, so what's with the whole button thing?

Finally, we've reached the end of this rather lengthy commentary. I didn't rebutt every single point (seeing as I have my own arguments against and for various things in NJC). As I was typing this out, I started to wonder if the above comments was written by a current student, an ex-student, a student from another school out to shoot us down, or just what the public thinks of us. Its hard to pin-point exactly, but even as we correct, refute or agree with the points, we have to wonder why these points are made. If made by our own people, what caused these people to react in this way as though they are totally against their own school? Is something wrong with the system in the school? or is it how the adminstrations and the people on top are treating the people at the bottom?

It really begs the question:"Is there something wrong with the school?"

Discmon