about SS and SC
haha!... I am not late today!! feel so bad to be late for 2 days in just 3 days!
ok anyway... topic of the day" SS and its relation to SC"
for the information of those that had not yet undergo streaming, SS is Social Studies. so we were learning about governance, what is governance, what is the qualities that a government have to be considered having good governance. let me just summarise it a bit so that thse other than sec 4 will not be lost...
Governance, by definition, is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented(or not implemented)"
In Singapore, 5 principles are crafted to evaluate good governance. they are:
Transparency - open and honest --> information about what the government is doing are easily available
Meritocracy - people are selected base on merit --> not by relationship
Pragmetism - solve problems with practical solutions --> adopt solutions that are concrete and not abstract
Forward- looking - always prepare for the future
Fairness - treats everyone fairly
ok. now the technical part is done, i will like to share with everyone some of the things that i reallise while i was learning the topic.
As i was learning about government, i thought of the student council. Arent we just like a government? or more accurately, the ministries? so does it mean that the 5 principles actually apply to us as well? so i started to evaluate the council with the 5 principles, and my findings isnt very welcoming.
Transparency
no offence, but i reallise the tranparency of the council is really low, or you can say almost opaque. are the students in the know about what we are doing? i doubt. often the students are told about things only in the last minute and if you ask any one of them what we are doing, most of them would shake their head and in some cases, complain that the sc had been doing nothing. yes we might have informed the chairpersons and cca leaders when big events are coming up, but is that enough? does anyone know there is going to be a forum? does anyone know that there is going to be an improved version of SSS? does anyone know that we actually prepared the RV50 hat for everyone? does ANYONE know that disco is doing gate and block duty and cleanliness and welfare is raising the flag every morning? come to think of it....arent we hiding too much from the students? do you ever hear anyone saying to you how effective the sc is and they have done this and this and this and this and that they are grateful for what we have done? i think not many people do. sorry to be so negative here, but i suddenly have the strong feeling that we really should do something about it!
Meritocracy
for this, we can look at how we select our sc. we might have discussed and most people actually agreed, that sc selection is more of a popularity vote. may be this way of selection practises democracy. or does it? about this, i have nothing much to say, because i dont quite see if there is any other better way of selecting SCs. moreover, SCs chosen are mostly pretty good. but i feel that there may be some rooms for improvement.]
Pragmetism
arh...this one i have something to say. a very obvious example. you know we always talk about school spirit and how everything will be solved if the students have school spirit. and... had we ever come out with a PRACTICAL solution to improve school spirit? something initiated by ourself to bond the whole school and improve school spirit? hmm.... just that example i think is quite enough to show that we need improvement on this one
Forward - looking
well...nothing much to say. cause i really not quite sure what this really mean. just....we dont really plan for the future do we? we usually just stick to those standard events like, teachers day, racial harmony day, national day,...all those... and do we often foresee problems and solve them? just something to think about
Fairness
well... only one thing to say, we SCs sometimes have previledges that others dont. is that good or bad its hard to say. is that fair or not fair also hard to say...
so... whats your view? do comment on this....i might sound harsh at some places... sound like i am anti SC or something, but be rest assured, i am not. this is really just some reflection
really, if we cant reach this five principles, its really no wonder that the students dont like SCs.
27th SC ending soon... it might be a good time to do some reflection!
YP
ok anyway... topic of the day" SS and its relation to SC"
for the information of those that had not yet undergo streaming, SS is Social Studies. so we were learning about governance, what is governance, what is the qualities that a government have to be considered having good governance. let me just summarise it a bit so that thse other than sec 4 will not be lost...
Governance, by definition, is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented(or not implemented)"
In Singapore, 5 principles are crafted to evaluate good governance. they are:
Transparency - open and honest --> information about what the government is doing are easily available
Meritocracy - people are selected base on merit --> not by relationship
Pragmetism - solve problems with practical solutions --> adopt solutions that are concrete and not abstract
Forward- looking - always prepare for the future
Fairness - treats everyone fairly
ok. now the technical part is done, i will like to share with everyone some of the things that i reallise while i was learning the topic.
As i was learning about government, i thought of the student council. Arent we just like a government? or more accurately, the ministries? so does it mean that the 5 principles actually apply to us as well? so i started to evaluate the council with the 5 principles, and my findings isnt very welcoming.
Transparency
no offence, but i reallise the tranparency of the council is really low, or you can say almost opaque. are the students in the know about what we are doing? i doubt. often the students are told about things only in the last minute and if you ask any one of them what we are doing, most of them would shake their head and in some cases, complain that the sc had been doing nothing. yes we might have informed the chairpersons and cca leaders when big events are coming up, but is that enough? does anyone know there is going to be a forum? does anyone know that there is going to be an improved version of SSS? does anyone know that we actually prepared the RV50 hat for everyone? does ANYONE know that disco is doing gate and block duty and cleanliness and welfare is raising the flag every morning? come to think of it....arent we hiding too much from the students? do you ever hear anyone saying to you how effective the sc is and they have done this and this and this and this and that they are grateful for what we have done? i think not many people do. sorry to be so negative here, but i suddenly have the strong feeling that we really should do something about it!
Meritocracy
for this, we can look at how we select our sc. we might have discussed and most people actually agreed, that sc selection is more of a popularity vote. may be this way of selection practises democracy. or does it? about this, i have nothing much to say, because i dont quite see if there is any other better way of selecting SCs. moreover, SCs chosen are mostly pretty good. but i feel that there may be some rooms for improvement.]
Pragmetism
arh...this one i have something to say. a very obvious example. you know we always talk about school spirit and how everything will be solved if the students have school spirit. and... had we ever come out with a PRACTICAL solution to improve school spirit? something initiated by ourself to bond the whole school and improve school spirit? hmm.... just that example i think is quite enough to show that we need improvement on this one
Forward - looking
well...nothing much to say. cause i really not quite sure what this really mean. just....we dont really plan for the future do we? we usually just stick to those standard events like, teachers day, racial harmony day, national day,...all those... and do we often foresee problems and solve them? just something to think about
Fairness
well... only one thing to say, we SCs sometimes have previledges that others dont. is that good or bad its hard to say. is that fair or not fair also hard to say...
so... whats your view? do comment on this....i might sound harsh at some places... sound like i am anti SC or something, but be rest assured, i am not. this is really just some reflection
really, if we cant reach this five principles, its really no wonder that the students dont like SCs.
27th SC ending soon... it might be a good time to do some reflection!
YP
posted by joe | 5:13 PM
1 Comments:
well...
hmm...
I guess its a good thing for us all to do reflections.
Since you have realised it, you should also do something about it. Something that could be done is to tell the next batch. For one thing, sc is indeed, as you have said, ending soon. Since it is ending soon, how much time do you think you'll have to change this thing?
So, a possible better solution for now would be to spread your ideas to the juniors. Sort of like a philosophy, so that they would understand the rationale that you are driving at, and thus work out a method to create this "good governance"...
I might sound a bit passive here, but it is indeed a bit too late, though some people might say that there is nothing that is ever too late to start...
zp
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