So I saw this the other day:

The life of Amelia, a PSLE student in Singapore. A pretty well made video, a hint of satire, a girl well-cast as the quintessential Singaporean student we see here today.

But, whew, there’s a lot to address here so let’s get down to it.

Amelia

Let’s take a look at Amelia — sweet girl, great with her words and expressions, finding humour in her sad 12 year-old life, absolute sweetheart, right? We can all agree she’s a very eloquent girl for a 12 year-old, but not so much about whether she knows what she’s talking about. She knows how to make fun of her predicament with the host and laugh it off, but if you watch her clearly, you can almost see her laughter is not of positivity, but rather of exasperation. In a way, she doesn’t have a choice in this society we live in now.

Host: Who told you that it is such a big exam? Amelia: Let’s see, every single person about PSLE says that.

Well she hasn’t ask me yet. Because if she did, I would have told her I remembered absolutely nothing about any of my PSLE exams — not the papers, not the exam venues, not the people sitting beside me — nothing, and I’m 20 only, 8 years since my PSLE. In fact, I have a missing reel where my primary education should be in my memory. I didn’t know what I was doing because I was just that — a 12 year-old.

All I remembered in primary school was how I went to my friends house to play Maplestory behind my mom’s back (sorry mom), passing around “chatbooks” during classes — that’s our WhatsApp chat group right there — you know, kids stuff!

Somehow during these past 8 years since my PSLE, it has ascended to the status of an exam that your life depended on it, even though I’m pretty sure you are going to be fine without a PSLE score of 260.

Amelia says she’s stressed because this year is gonna be the second hardest PSLE exam ever (when was the hardest one?). I don’t know what is this going to achieve in letting the students know that, what is the purpose? Make them anxious? Stressed out? Giving them the false belief that if their PSLE score is good they are set on being successful for sure?

All I can see here is a girl doing what she is doing because her parents and other adults tell her what she should be doing. Basically a blank slate with the motivations of other adults scribbled on her.

As mature as she presents herself, she is still a child, she has miles to go before she can truly give a rational judgement on what is actually going on in education systems. Just look at this:

Host: So if you could change something, what would you like to change in the education system? Amelia: I’d like to remove PSLE 100%. Maybe move the PSLE to secondary, maybe I can do that…then at least we are more used to the education system, or something like that.

Here we just see her truly child-like innocence shining through the cracks, from the shell the adults — father, teachers — had built around her, with their ethos indoctrinated into her. She clearly just said whatever was on her mind, which reflected the disdain she has with PSLE.

Amelia, sorry honey, you can’t move it to secondary because you have O levels at the end of your secondary education. And the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) is called the PSLE because you are leaving primary school. What you actually want — what all students want — is a different PSLE system that you are not miserable in.

The Dad

The reason behind his decision to send his daughter to the mental hospital slowly (pardon the hyperbole) is because of kiasuism — which deserves a separate essay on its own — but I’ll just talk about it a little here.

His kiasuism derives from the Singaporean soul that resides within us, the need to out-compete one another ever since our independence day. “If you don’t get ahead, other people will steal your job/placing/whatever!” Basically a do or die choice that is ingrained in the Singaporean mind that no one can shake off.

So naturally he sends his daughter for tuition to help her get ahead and win the race. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, just a Dad who wants the best for his daughter. He says this:

Dad: Is tuition necessary? Some parents might say that the education system forces us to do that. But ultimately if you think about it, it’s really us who want[s] to give our kids these extra lessons.

However, I don’t really agree with him. As much as it is the parent’s decision to send the children to tuition classes, I think the education system has a lot to do with it, and perpetuating it so much till it created a mess that I think will take more than just education policies and reforms to clean up.

Which brings me to…