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Nigel and his grandfather
having a stretching good time.
[Picture by Stephen Chong]
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Looks like Secondary Schools, at least Nigel’s, like to have their exams really early and then let the kids (can you still call them that) out to “do nothing” for almost 2 months. They get the hard part out of the way, and then leave it to the parents to figure out what to do with these restless youths for weeks and weeks? I think if they squeeze more syllabus into extra weeks and months they set aside early after the exams each term, they could get the entire secondary school education down to 3 years – then again, some would argue that it would be adding too much stress, taking away the time needed for play and bonding with classmates, and I would agree. Kids these days already have a lot of their plate (like rice, chicken) and do need downtime for rest and relaxation.
For some of the schools, they would organise learning journeys, extra projects or even overseas trips – for the rest, it’s just do what you like, play soccer all day or perhaps lessons as usual to prepare for next year? No, I doubt you’d find such hard-working educators.
So sometimes you would have to call in the grandparents.
