To an untrained mind like mine, it could not be any simpler- just enrol the kid into the school nearest to home, like my parents did. The parents save transport money, the kids save sitting-in-bus-looking-out-window time in exchange for stoning-in-front-of-the-telly time and we're all set. Right?
WRONG.
Here I am 3 months away from the start of registration and my browser's most-visited site is the Ministry of Education website. Here's what I don't understand-
1) why are all the schools moving to single sessions?
2) why are all the oversubscribed school double session-ed?
I have a feeling its connected. I mean, seriously, who wants to deal with a 7 year old at an ungodly 6am. Mine won't even volunteer to shower at 8am, she says it will give her runny nose (and I agree). And heartland schools like Northland is oversubscribed by 200%, that's got to be a joke right..
My initial plan was exquisitely simple- we would enrol Arissa in a primary school where me and hubby are alumni. It is 3 minutes walk from Mum's house and has been around long enough (all my lifetime anyway) to be erm..fairly.. reputable. At least among the community living within the 1km radius of it. Hey, I'm not that ambitious and the last thing I want to do is stress my kid out just as she's heading down the long and winding path of lifelong learning. Two of her cousins are also there and they seem pretty well-rounded and what was that damn tagline they were feeding us... oh yeah "every school is a good school", I could.not.agree.more. Its all about the kid's attitude anyway, isn't it. Or so I thought.
Enter the illustrious Rosyth Primary school into the picture, about 7 mins walk from Mum's house and offering afternoon sessions- a very attractive package indeed for someone who lives 20mins from Mum's house and has been dreading the 6am wake-up call. Until 2013 that is, when they move back into their newly-renovated school compound in Serangoon North.
"Rosyth is a very good school tau Rin," says Mum and my MIL.
"Ya every school is a good school but primary school is the foundation aper! If you send them to a crap primary, they go to a crap secondary and then they get nowhere," comments a cousin.
All I'm picturing is Arissa turning out to be a cashier at NTUC Fairprice where the prices aren't all that fair and the remuneration benefits will see living in a cramped 74sqm house in Jurong Extension. Horrors!
I feel obliged as a good parent to start her out right. And stress is part of the Singaporean life so let's start her early so she gets used to it by the time she's 20. True?
So as my whole plan disassembles before my eyes, and my brains tries to come up with a brand new, spanking mad 6-year strategy involving temporarily changing my I/C address to Ang Mo Kio and buying a flat in Serangoon North by 2013.. I am taken aback by my kiasu-ness of this whole exercise. Its supposed to be that simple, why am I making it so damn hard on myself?
The husband used to laughed it off but he's slowly starting to get involved in my numerous mad-hatter plans- A, B, C through F. Lets see how it pans out in July. In the meantime, I could really use this holiday:
