The question everyone is asking

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One of the clauses for exemption from public school is that the child must for PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) the year the child turns 12. And this year our oldest turned 12 and sat for it.

The whole process started in July when he had to go for a National Education quiz. In August were oral examinations for English and Chinese (Mother Tongue) and in September the Listening Comprehension exams. The written exams were held in October (6th, 7th, 8th and 11th). Only 4 subjects are tested – English, Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue (Chinese in our case).

The week leading up to the release of the results, we received a letter from the Mnistry of Education (MOE), telling us that the results were scheduled to be released on Thursday, 25th November, 2010, after 12noon.

Were we excited? Nervous? Anxious? Hmm…ds was rather excited. Before the letter from MOE came, he kept bugging me to google and find out the date of release since he had heard from his Children’s Ministry friends that it was to be 25th November. Unlike public schooled children, we were not privvy to all these dates. We were only told that the date was somewhere towards the end of November-early December.

The days leading up to the 25th were a l-o-n-g wait for him and we spent the whole week teasing him about it. I was not nervous until the eve of the release. It suddenly dawned upon me that everyone would be watching and waiting to see the results of our “experiment”.

Education in Singapore and most Asian societies is a sacred cow. When we decided to homeschool ds back in 2004 it was met with incredulity and alarm. It is akin to wasting his life away. Or to put it bluntly, our child is going to end up the proverbial garbage collector or garang guni man – whichever is more horrifying to you 🙂

We did not undertake the decision to homeschool likely. It was not decided overnight. The Lord told me to do so years before we actually took the decision because I was arguing with Him and telling Him all my reasons why I couldn’t do it. (See Why Do We Homeschool?)

And so all these nay-sayers suddenly appeared before me and their voices became very loud. I had to turn away from them all and to remember why we are homeschooling. And to remember that to “obey is better than sacrifice“.(1 Samuel 15:22).

We are not homeschooling because we think we can do a better job than the arsenal of experts and professionals and equipment schools have. We are not homeschooling because we are scared of the “world”. We are not homeschooling because we are holier than those who do not.

We simply homeschool because He told us to. We are to obey. Period. And we are not to look at the results as the end all and be all.

No, it is not easy. There’s always a need (subtle) to prove that we are right, that we are doing more than ok. That we have not screwed up our children’s lives. Societal pressure is strong 🙁

To those of you who are homeschooling because of a conviction from the Lord, press on! Our rewards are not earthly, though some of us may reap earthly rewards now.

So how did he do? I’ve been receiving countless sms-es and emails since Thursday 🙂

He did very well in our opinion. We are very pleased with the effort he put in. How well? He did well enough to get into most schools. 🙂

So what’s next? Which school are we putting him in?

…………………………………………………drum roll, please………………………………………………

We’re continuing to homeschool 🙂 We’ve spoken with him and he wants to continue homeschooling. Actually, he’s been bugging since the beginning of the year to continue homeschooling him 🙂

So now, we are exploring our options – traditional route (O and A levels) or the non-traditional route. We are open to suggestions 🙂

To God be the glory!

And may He continue to be our Helper as we put another 6 through PSLE in the years to come 🙂

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