holidays are not holidays anymore!

heard so much from school-going people about how their holidays are going to be burnt out. it's amazing how school holidays are no longer school holidays. every school holiday season, i hear people mentioning that they have remedial classes, extra lessons, rehearsals, cca, excursions, outings, or simply having to go back to school for some mindless issues.

so whose fault is it when MOE declares a school semester to be 12 weeks and the teachers can't seem to finish teaching their curriculum in the stipulated time? teachers have to go back to school to perform their administrative duties even during school holidays because they are after all full-salary earning civil servants. however, who suffers at the end of the equation? the students! their holiday plans get dashed. their after-exam breathing space gets crammed up by (what else!) school again. parents simply have the excuse to pile more revision work on their children at the very reason because school is going on as per normal even during the holidays.

don't people realise that school is getting more and more stressful? it is important for everyone to have some free space to breathe and students need a little more of that. after all, they burn midnight oil trying to cram information, data, formulae, diagrams, graphs and other important details into their already-saturated brains, all for the attainment for a simple piece of A4 paper that has the word "certificate" at the top. at least working people get some time to cool off. either in the night or over the weekend. (don't complain that you don't because if you are working in the nights and over the weekend, it's your fault that you are not lodging a complaint with the ministry of manpower for employers overworking you!)

i have always had this thought, either to write in to MOE or the forum page of the straits times to highlight this issue. i am sure what i have been hearing from my friends are not isolated cases, but i think people are just simply not making a big deal out of it. parents may even be thinking, "good! at least there's something to occupy the kids during the holidays!"

have they stopped to think that suicide cases are on the rise among the youths? have they stopped to think that rebellion is on the rise among the unsettled young ones? have they stopped to think that failure has played such a huge role in the unhappy lives of teens that it may have driven some to leap to their deaths? all this because of the pressure they have been facing from school and home. (note that i put school first because they spend almost effectively 10-12 hours of their 15-16 waking hours on school-related matters, such as lessons, homework and cca.)

does excelling in school matter for eternity? will God be asking for our resumes and portfolios when we reach the pearly gates of Heaven? NO! but spending our time with our families and friends, and being an encouragement to other people will. relationships are more important than results. you can be a scholar, but you don't know how to deal with people. how successful can you be? you can do so well in your academic life, but you have no friends and family to share your life with. then what is the point after all?

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decided to answer my own quiz from a blog entry few posts ago. wanted to shed some light on the real me. =]

4. do you know blogger's birthday: yesterday
5. what is blogger's favourite colour: black (the basic necessity in my wardrobe) but other colours are my occasional faves!
6. what is blogger's favourite food: salmon sashimi and dim sum (i cheat myself into believing that such food are less fattening than big meals!)
7. blogger is a lefty or a righty: my left hand is most of the time quite dumb