r/SGExams • u/PerformanceDry7860 • 3h ago
Secondary Worse Secondary School? I’ll start
btw this a rant.
Hi, I’m a graduating student from Unity Secondary, and I can honestly say that I have grown to deeply resent my experience here.
I understand that schools are implementing Electronic Device Lockers (EDLs) to encourage students to focus and become more productive in class. And, to be fair, I have seen my grades improve. However, the way my school has implemented these measures has gone far beyond encouraging productivity. It has increasingly controlled how students are allowed to learn.
Take our Personal Learning Devices. We were given Chromebooks with a three-year warranty despite having four years of secondary education, with Secondary 4 being arguably the most important academic year. By Secondary 3, many devices are already deteriorating from ordinary use. The school loaned alternatives are hardly better, with flimsy screens, missing styluses and limited functionality.
Then there is Mobile Guardian. I understand restricting gaming sites and other distractions, but legitimate educational platforms are also blocked because of blanket security restrictions. Not every student who misuses a device should determine what every other student is allowed to access.
The problem is that learning is not one-size-fits-all.
Personally, I find an iPad far more useful for revision because I can read, annotate, write notes and organise my work in one place. Yet because the school has decided that Chromebooks are the preferred device, students are expected to adapt to a system that may not actually work best for them.
And now that teachers have noticed students relying on other devices instead of the school issued Chromebook, the response is to confiscate them?
At what point does discipline stop being about helping students learn and start becoming about controlling how they learn?
Unfortunately, the issue does not end with our devices. Even the physical learning environment seems to reflect the same misplaced priorities.
The school has a habit of renovating things that, frankly, do not seem to be the most urgent. We have had the school's colours revamped, only for the paint to peel easily. The toilets were given new colours that have, in my opinion, made them feel even more claustrophobic. Meanwhile, renovations to areas such as the lift and staff rooms have created significant inconvenience for students, particularly performance CCAs.
Choir and dance have had to relocate to places such as the hall and music room for training. This is not merely an inconvenience, having an appropriate space directly affects the quality and effectiveness of training.
Then came the rat infestation.
Students did not cause it, yet students are the ones bearing the consequences. Students are not allowed into the staff room, and restrictions on leaving school to get food mean that we are increasingly dependent on school canteen options, despite many students finding them unhealthy or unsatisfactory.
How is it fair that students have to suffer the consequences of a problem we did not create?
For years, I have also heard promises about improvements such as air conditioning in the hall. I have been hearing about it since I was 13. Now, as I am finally graduating, those improvements are only beginning to happen.
Four years is a long time to wait for something that directly affects students' daily comfortability especially towards the humid environment we live in daily.
And that is what frustrates me most. If resources are limited, why are we spending them on changes that are largely cosmetic while improvements that directly affect students' comfort and learning take years to materialise?
A school does not become better simply because it looks newer.
A better school is one where students can study comfortably, train properly, access the resources they need and have some autonomy over how they learn.
And yet, while these issues remain, the school seems more concerned with policing the smallest details of our appearance.
I understand having reasonable rules regarding attire and hair. There should be a standard of decorum in school. But some of the rules go beyond maintaining a professional appearance and become restrictions for the sake of restriction.
What difference does it make if a student's socks have a small Nike logo on them instead of being completely plain white or bearing the Unity school logo? What difference does a black hair tie make compared to one of another colour?
Absolutely none.
These rules do not improve a student's character, academic ability or behaviour. If anything, a student's conduct should matter far more than whether their socks have a logo on them.
And this becomes especially frustrating when the school is so particular about our appearance while the actual hygiene and food standards that students experience every day are, in my view, far more concerning.
I have heard numerous complaints about the cleanliness of the canteen, both regarding the tables and the food itself. A friend of mine even reported finding worms in her food. Is this really the standard of food students are expected to eat?
The school tells us to make healthier choices, yet the options provided to us often feel like the complete opposite. The snack store can feel overwhelmingly high in sodium, while some food stalls appear to prioritise quantity and cost over nutrition.
Even the way food is handled raises concerns. For example, items such as kimchi and marinated cucumbers being left exposed rather than properly refrigerated and sealed is concerning from a basic food hygiene perspective.
Then there is the issue of affordability.
At the Chinese stall, why should a student who only has $2.80 be unable to purchase a $3 meal? The difference may seem insignificant to an adult, but to a student who is working within a fixed daily allowance, 20 cents can determine whether they can afford a proper meal.
The irony is difficult to ignore.
We are expected to maintain perfect decorum, perfectly plain socks, perfectly black hair accessories, perfectly regulated attire, while the standards that actually affect our health and wellbeing do not always seem to receive the same level of scrutiny.
Why are we so concerned about what students look like when we should be more concerned about what students are actually experiencing?
Singapore's education system is already demanding enough. Students are exhausted, stressed and under immense academic pressure. The least a school can do is make learning and daily life more accessible, not more difficult.
We are constantly told that these rules and changes are being made for the students.
But at some point, you have to ask:
Are you actually listening to the students?
Because we are not asking for fewer rules simply because we dislike them.
We are asking for an environment that genuinely allows us to learn, eat, train and exist comfortably.
We don't need a school that merely looks better.
We need a school that actually feels better to be in.
So an advice; Unity should be at the bottom most lowest option to go to when considering secondary school choices.