Home school, Boarding school, Goverment school, Private school

Home school is where a tutor comes everyday and teachers you. Very rare in Canada even since it is so expensive.

Boarding school is basically a school where students are lectured/disciplined mentally. They're on their own here.

Government school - I'm not quite sure but I'm assuming it is a school where you are sponsered by an event such as badminton in Asia. Like everything other day you have school and rotate between badminton and work but all your fees are paid by the government. I'm not sure, so don't quote me on this.

Private school is simply a school that is private since it is not being supported by the governement. Really expensive.

I can't really tell you about differences between countries since I only lived in Canada.

 

in singapore, most schools r govt schools, they use govt money to build, u still pay fees, but for singaporeans its highly subsidised. they have to follow govt guidelines strictly. usually for both genders

pte schools would probably have some govt backing but not as obvious.
fees r higher. eg american sch or australian sch in singapore

there is also another type of sch in singapore known as the autonomous sch, higher fees, have more independence from govt, usually have better facilities, they employ coaches, hence standard of badminton likely to be higher.

usually most of the top50 here r govt backed, but in a sense r richer, sort of elitist, single gender, have better facilities,

y u ask anyway, does this have anything to do with badminton?

 

Home school: You receive your schooling at home. Usually your teachers are your parents. There is a curriculum that you have to adhere to. Outside of that your teachers can emphasize any particular subjects they choose. So if your tutors choose to concentrate on badminton and just do enough to satisfy the requirements of the curriculum, that's perfectly OK. It's a form of schooling that is increasingly popular in USA.

Private school: Your parents pay for the tuition. It usually means the school derives its budget from the students and not from the government or some charitable organization. It also means the fees will be very expensive, and your parents probably don't want you to spend any of your time there playing badminton.

Boarding school: Your live at the school. They run your life. The school will tell you how much badminton you can play. In the UK, their private boarding schools are called "public schools". They really mean private schools for the public (as opposed to royalty!).

Public school: For the rest of the world, a public school is usually run by the government. It usually means the teachers don't really care what you do in or outside the school. That means you can play badminton 24/7 if you choose to, as long as you show up at the end to collect your diploma.

 

In NYC, seems the best and the worst are public ones. Most private ones stay in the middle, but most likely above average and even close to the top.

So, if u r not a genius (best public hs needs special exams to be qualified), and don't have $$$, well, enjoy the bottom ranked public education by NY bah...

 

It is true that the quality of education differs from country to country and from the different "types" of school depending on their ownership structure, funding and curriculum.

Singapore seems to be like HK, which kwun describes as the public or government schools are far better than the private ones, unlike say, in the UK where the private schools are normally the better ones.

In the 50's or 60's, many of the so-called private schools in Singapore are usually Chinese-language based run and funded by the clan associations and rich businessmen, with perhaps a subsidy from the government. But they soon lose out to the government schools in enrolment because the parents realized that the standards in the government schools are much better in terms of facilities and curriculum and the teachers are better trained. It has to be because the government has more financial and other resources. Increasingly, parents also found out that the learning of Chinese as the main language is not as commercially viable as English, which is provided by the government schools with Chinese, Malay or Tamil as the second language. Those who passed out from government schools can readily be absorbed into the workforce or continue with their tertiary education in the polytechnics and universities. Only Nanyang University was available at that time for the Chinese-educated both here and in the region as the name Nanyang signifies "Overseas Chinese" but NU's very own existence was threaten and ultimately faced its demise in the 70's, I think. NU is now replaced by Nanyang Technological University, which is English-based but efforts are now underway to retain the name Nanyang University, but with English as the medium of instruction. Whatever the case, most Singaporean undergraduates are bilingual in English and Chinese. Graduates of the old Nanyang University are now spread throughout the world and many are held in high esteem and therefore it is thought that the name should be allowed to continue especially now that China is gaining prominence in world affairs.

The Singapore government has, during the past few years, experimented with educational policies. The better schools, including government-aided schools which are normally the Christian schools, are now given the freedom or autonomy in managing their own affairs like employing their own teachers, deciding on the curriculum mix, which major exams their children should be preparing for, what extra-curricular activities should they be participating, etc. Some of such school, like the Anglo-Chinese Secondary School (Independent) and the Chinese High School, which has Chinese as the first language, even have hostel facilities for their students, many of whom are from overseas. These are also called "boarding schools". That means the students stay and have their meals and other activities there as though they are at home. The advantage is that they have teachers assigned to take care of their needs.

"Home schools" are entirely the choice of the parents, normally without any help from the authorities. Here, for reasons of maybe the parents' disagreement with existing government educational policies regarding the choice of subjects and how they should be taught or because the child is not normal like he/she has a medical defect such as being deaf and/or mute, has a certain deformity whereby mobility is a problem or simply the child is so bright that an ordinary school life will bore him/her to death! So if the parent is able, she is being taught by the father or mother or both, especially if the mother is a homemaker and has the time and ability. It is not uncommon nowadays to find the very intelligent parents, who possess PHD degrees to teach their own children at home. Some such children are so good intellectually that they are able to seek entry to the universities and earn their degrees when they are still very young. The problem, however, can arise when these children discover that they may be able to match their classmates intellectually but not socially.

 

Hmmm, what kind of place do they live in or specifically the environment? Nobody that I know that lives in the US gets home schooled. I guess home school can be worked out between the tutor and the student to see what they want to work on. You must realize that in home school all he has to do is focus on you not the whole class so the class should be alot shorter.

Yodums

 

joanne, it's true that home school kids are less physical active and they will have less social interaction skills. A balanced social experience is neccessary in real life. For example: presentation skills, reading voice tone and facial expression, listening skill, spatial experience of environment, ie real social skills. The reason all of your chat friends in the US goes to home school because they are online chatting with you instead of being outside doing physical activities and interaction with other human beings. Surfing is their leisure activity. Of course, amercian kids are less disciplined, many parents with financial means do home school their kids for fear of drugs, shootings, whether they are warranted reason of not i don't know. But i think home schooling in america is minority than majority.

 

Actually, that's not true. Here in the USA, the ultimate test is, naturally, the SAT and achievement tests, and the home schooled kids tend to do pretty well. The majority of home school parents are very dedicated, and choose to home school because they feel that the public school standard in the US is too low for their taste, or they do not agree with the philosophy of the school system. Academically they do tend to do a good job. One of the "spelling bees" champions recently was home schooled. Unfortunately, their social skills are like my refridgerator's make: "Sub-Zero". I have met a few in my work. They are all, to different extents, weird. These people, unfortunately, will not be integrate into society easily, and they will start to falter once they get to the universities.

 

Yes, Joanne I tend to agree with you that there are great limitations to just learning at home. But as I said, this normally applies to "special" cases and home schools are relatively few. Ideally children should learn to mix and interact with others from different backgrounds so that they can grow to be well-adjusted socially. There seems to be two extremes for home schooling kids - those that are not normal and with birth defects and therefore require special attention to help them learn even at a very slow rate as you have mentioned. But learning still takes place and that is important.

In some countries, home educators can seek out help from the authorities as to what curriculum or special treatment they should give to their kids.
At the other extreme, a kid could be so bright that she is far ahead of the class intellectually. Some kids are only good in certain subjects like maths and are completely hopeless or simply have no interest in other subjects. So a special arrangement like the home school has to be considered so that the child can continue to develop in her area of interest, instead of dropping out and be influenced negatively like taking drugs. Managed properly, such kids can turn out to be brilliant both in studies and in sports, mainly through specialization.

Another special category of home school kids has to do mainly with their parents. Because of their religious beliefs, such parents may feel that their kids will not be getting the right type of education that can conform to their religious backgrounds and teachings, so they rather take them out of mainstream education.

Singapore experienced a dilemma recently when it was found that students in the special Malay religious schools are losing out nationally because they are falling behind in mainstream core subjects like maths, science and English, which is the main language in most schools. Also, while the authorities are emphazing on IT, the religious school students are not as well exposed as others. Additionally, such students concentrate on religious studies and their economic value is therefore restricted in an open economy like Singapore's. The 9/11 World Trade Centre events have also made the authorities here reconsider the hitherto "freedom" given to the religious school management. Graduates of the religious school here can aspire for tertiary religious education only in universities in Indonesia and the Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia. It was reported that some of the universities can be breeding grounds for terrorists activities, depending on their leanings.

 

Everyone can argue a point about home school. I personally think that you don't see what real life is actually like. There's no atmosphere, no competition. Without competition I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near where I should be. That's why people in countries such as Asia are so disciplined. There's so much competition, if you don't compete, you won't be able to survive. My dad told me all. Not even in Asia but at the recent regionals for the badminton tournament, the gifted school was spotted doing their math homework every moment they were off. If you don't get a taste of real life soon, then you will be shocked if you do get into a University here. Some kid who was home schooled is now getting real lost in high school when I found the stuff easy.

I sure as heck know that my dad wouldn't have gotten this far in his life immigrating from Vietnam if it wasn't all that math competition in Asia for him to become a programmer.

Yodums

 

Yodums

I agree with you that fair competition is healthy and tend to bring out the best in us.
And I also agree that most home school kids will find it difficult to adjust to society, whether later in campus life or subsequent working life, unless the home educators have taken this aspect into account and make sure that the kid has an all-round education, including social-interaction with others, especially of the same age-group.

Btw, you seem to talk to your dad alot and take his advice seriously. Quite remarkable! Are you 18 now and do you converse with your dad in Vietnamese?

 

I like to bring it up yes. I'm only 15 but I consider myself doing poorly in comparison with my dad and my bro who seemed to never get any lower than 98 in math. The adrenlaline is what gets me going for competition My dad just seems to get ticked off that I take my education for granted