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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Sharing on Winchester College and British educational policies and practices
All of you are welcomed to post your thoughts, comments, views, opinions, feedbacks, etc on the sharing of my learning journey with you at the start of our course. Being the colonial power it was, the educational practices and policies in (Great) Britain, in general, and Winchester College, in particular, has made an impact on the former British colonies. It would be instructive, if not instinctive, for us to examine some of the educational practices and policies in Winchester College with a view of gaining a deeper appreciation of their evolution, significance and implications both for the school system in Britain as well as post-colonial societies like Singapore.
In my sharing with you earlier, I have touched on some aspects of Winchester College pertaining to its original medieval foundation and its evolution into the present boarding school programme. In addition, I have also discussed with you the many aspects of life in the college, including its rich and long history and traditions spanning some 630 years since its founding by the William of Wykeham (Chancellor to Richard II) in AD 1382. Through my ethnographic narrative, I have also shared with you the various aspects of life in the boarding school, some of which may appear rather quaint and antiquated. Do you see them of any relevance or significance for Winchester College or, for that matter, for schools in Singapore?
Please pay particular attention to the similarities and differences between the schooling system in Winchester College and Singapore. As a young post-colonial nation, Singapore needs to forge ahead with a new national identity for itself. It is thus inevitable and necessary that Singapore would adopt and adapt some of these educational practices and policies in order to take into account the local culture and conditions. What are some of these modifications and how have the modifications and amendments been achieved?
As an extension to the topic of discussion, you may also wish to explore some of the possible implications of general British educational policies and practices for its former colonies like Singapore and Malaysia. In recent years, there have been some heated controversies surrounding the relevance of the GCE “O” and “A” level examinations in Singapore. Some quarters have charged that these examinations are an anachronism, a somewhat vestigial colonial educational practice. To lend support to their argument, they pointed to the fact that England has abolished the GCE “O” levels and replaced it with the GCSE examinations since the early nineties following the implementation of its National Curriculum in 1988. They proposed instead a local examination board in Singapore to take over the external Cambridge Board. To counter this argument, there is another group which showed their steadfast faith and loyalty to the Cambridge GCE “O” level examinations. Their main argument is that the GCE “O” level is an international examination with a long, respectable and honourable history. They believed the strong prestige and reputation associated with the Cambridge GCE “O” level examinations would stand our students on good stead. What are your views on this? Do you think there should be a local examination to take over from the Cambridge Board? What are some modifications and amendments which might be necessary in order for this to occur?
On the topic of examinations, we could perhaps take a step further in our exploration of related issues pertaining to the relevance of British educational policies and practices to a post-colonial nation like Singapore. For instance, for many years after independence, many post-colonial nations like Singapore, Malaysia and other Commonwealth countries still closely follow the educational syllabi of Britain. It is not uncommon to find a substantial part of the syllabi devoted to the glorification and deification of the Colonial motherland which was Great Britain. As a young student then in the post-colonial sixties and seventies, I remember that we had to study the works of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. In geography, we had to study and memorise the many features and intricacies of the Scottish glaciers and mountains of the Lake District. (To be honest, I failed badly in my geography as I had no inkling how a glacier looked like, let alone how it was supposed to work. I only managed to see the first signs of snow some 20 years later when I made my first tour to Britain in 1988).
In history, we also learnt of the heroic conquests of the Great British Empire and its many far flung colonies around the world. We were reminded that the “Sun never sets on the British Empire”. As a young boy, it was our favourite past time to watch our Sunday matinee and the most memorable matinees were movies like the “Battle of the Great Britain”, “The Longest Day” and from her Majesty Secret Service, “James Bond”. Many of my friends would stinge and starve for days just to save enough money to watch our favourite movies. Boy, you know what we would do after watching them? We would start acting like those courageous British commandos in the movie and go after the Baddies, believing blindly that the British were almost like demi-Gods, with its invincibility and invulnerability. As young and impressionable nine year old boys, we had never stopped to think of how such war movies could serve as powerful propaganda tools for the Empire in subjectivising and influencing our young and pliable minds. No where in our history books was it ever mentioned the violences and atrocities committed by British armies. We only discovered much later the Opium War in China and how millions of Chinese died as a result of it. Some of the excesses and violent history of the British Empire are only now beginning to emerge from its dark and shady past. In recent years, both the Australian and Canadian governments have come to terms with its colonial past and have made apologies to its natives for the cruelties and ill treatment towards them. Just across the causeway, a government minister has very recently urged the authorities to look into some killings committed by British soldiers during its colonial rule there.
I hope you would be able to appreciate the impact of British educational practices on post-colonial societies like Singapore. As the former colonies strive to forge ahead with their own national identities, they would endeavour to replace the old colonial syllabi with something which is more attuned to the local customs, culture and conditions. Instead of studying the mountains and glaciers of Scotland, say, Singapore students would instead study our equatorial rainforests in MacRitchie and Bukit Timah hill. What is more problematic would be a subject like history with some versions of it being contested. For instance, the British have never fully and formally admitted to its atrocities and violence in the Opium Wars. To be fair to the British, they are not the only colonial power who have committed crimes and violence in their colonial campaigns. I believe you must have heard of the many atrocities and cruelties committed by the Japanese during World War II both in Singapore and around the region. Until now, the Japanese would still insist that they came to help liberate South East Asia. In their liberation campaign here, the lives of many thousands of innocent young men and women were sacrificed. Do you see their campaign as a liberation? Have the people in the region been better off with their so-called “liberation”?
P/S: As an aside, to help you in doing your research, you may wish to refer to the Lexis-Nexis search engine which is available under the e-database on the bottom right hand corner of our NIE library homepage. It allows the researcher to search for any related articles from some 5000 newspapers around the world going as far back as 10 to 20 years ago.
In my sharing with you earlier, I have touched on some aspects of Winchester College pertaining to its original medieval foundation and its evolution into the present boarding school programme. In addition, I have also discussed with you the many aspects of life in the college, including its rich and long history and traditions spanning some 630 years since its founding by the William of Wykeham (Chancellor to Richard II) in AD 1382. Through my ethnographic narrative, I have also shared with you the various aspects of life in the boarding school, some of which may appear rather quaint and antiquated. Do you see them of any relevance or significance for Winchester College or, for that matter, for schools in Singapore?
Please pay particular attention to the similarities and differences between the schooling system in Winchester College and Singapore. As a young post-colonial nation, Singapore needs to forge ahead with a new national identity for itself. It is thus inevitable and necessary that Singapore would adopt and adapt some of these educational practices and policies in order to take into account the local culture and conditions. What are some of these modifications and how have the modifications and amendments been achieved?
As an extension to the topic of discussion, you may also wish to explore some of the possible implications of general British educational policies and practices for its former colonies like Singapore and Malaysia. In recent years, there have been some heated controversies surrounding the relevance of the GCE “O” and “A” level examinations in Singapore. Some quarters have charged that these examinations are an anachronism, a somewhat vestigial colonial educational practice. To lend support to their argument, they pointed to the fact that England has abolished the GCE “O” levels and replaced it with the GCSE examinations since the early nineties following the implementation of its National Curriculum in 1988. They proposed instead a local examination board in Singapore to take over the external Cambridge Board. To counter this argument, there is another group which showed their steadfast faith and loyalty to the Cambridge GCE “O” level examinations. Their main argument is that the GCE “O” level is an international examination with a long, respectable and honourable history. They believed the strong prestige and reputation associated with the Cambridge GCE “O” level examinations would stand our students on good stead. What are your views on this? Do you think there should be a local examination to take over from the Cambridge Board? What are some modifications and amendments which might be necessary in order for this to occur?
On the topic of examinations, we could perhaps take a step further in our exploration of related issues pertaining to the relevance of British educational policies and practices to a post-colonial nation like Singapore. For instance, for many years after independence, many post-colonial nations like Singapore, Malaysia and other Commonwealth countries still closely follow the educational syllabi of Britain. It is not uncommon to find a substantial part of the syllabi devoted to the glorification and deification of the Colonial motherland which was Great Britain. As a young student then in the post-colonial sixties and seventies, I remember that we had to study the works of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. In geography, we had to study and memorise the many features and intricacies of the Scottish glaciers and mountains of the Lake District. (To be honest, I failed badly in my geography as I had no inkling how a glacier looked like, let alone how it was supposed to work. I only managed to see the first signs of snow some 20 years later when I made my first tour to Britain in 1988).
In history, we also learnt of the heroic conquests of the Great British Empire and its many far flung colonies around the world. We were reminded that the “Sun never sets on the British Empire”. As a young boy, it was our favourite past time to watch our Sunday matinee and the most memorable matinees were movies like the “Battle of the Great Britain”, “The Longest Day” and from her Majesty Secret Service, “James Bond”. Many of my friends would stinge and starve for days just to save enough money to watch our favourite movies. Boy, you know what we would do after watching them? We would start acting like those courageous British commandos in the movie and go after the Baddies, believing blindly that the British were almost like demi-Gods, with its invincibility and invulnerability. As young and impressionable nine year old boys, we had never stopped to think of how such war movies could serve as powerful propaganda tools for the Empire in subjectivising and influencing our young and pliable minds. No where in our history books was it ever mentioned the violences and atrocities committed by British armies. We only discovered much later the Opium War in China and how millions of Chinese died as a result of it. Some of the excesses and violent history of the British Empire are only now beginning to emerge from its dark and shady past. In recent years, both the Australian and Canadian governments have come to terms with its colonial past and have made apologies to its natives for the cruelties and ill treatment towards them. Just across the causeway, a government minister has very recently urged the authorities to look into some killings committed by British soldiers during its colonial rule there.
I hope you would be able to appreciate the impact of British educational practices on post-colonial societies like Singapore. As the former colonies strive to forge ahead with their own national identities, they would endeavour to replace the old colonial syllabi with something which is more attuned to the local customs, culture and conditions. Instead of studying the mountains and glaciers of Scotland, say, Singapore students would instead study our equatorial rainforests in MacRitchie and Bukit Timah hill. What is more problematic would be a subject like history with some versions of it being contested. For instance, the British have never fully and formally admitted to its atrocities and violence in the Opium Wars. To be fair to the British, they are not the only colonial power who have committed crimes and violence in their colonial campaigns. I believe you must have heard of the many atrocities and cruelties committed by the Japanese during World War II both in Singapore and around the region. Until now, the Japanese would still insist that they came to help liberate South East Asia. In their liberation campaign here, the lives of many thousands of innocent young men and women were sacrificed. Do you see their campaign as a liberation? Have the people in the region been better off with their so-called “liberation”?
P/S: As an aside, to help you in doing your research, you may wish to refer to the Lexis-Nexis search engine which is available under the e-database on the bottom right hand corner of our NIE library homepage. It allows the researcher to search for any related articles from some 5000 newspapers around the world going as far back as 10 to 20 years ago.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
This Blog Site is inspired by Mr Gary Lit, our tutor (or for now instructed), who is leading us in our one of outr education diploma programme:
THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
Dear Tutorial Mates,
Let this 12 weeks of exploration, not only bring us to have a better understanding of the interesting (and pretty broad tat may just give us some headaches and even nervous breakdown??!!) topics given to us, but also let the exploration bring us to know one another better : )
San
12 Aug 2008
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