Korkor going to secondary

I always feel it's just crazy why parents these days need to plan and work out where the kids going to study for their secondary years. Didn't we last time just used to move from one section of the school to another and it was, like, no worries for our parents that time? How come things are so different this age?

Well, perhaps that's also the difference between Ipoh and KL, and 80s and current times. Education becomes so competitive that top or controlled schools only accepted straight As students from Upsr and the rest have to scramble around to look for private, international or private independent chinese high school. Then, if all else fails, there's still the national government schools to fall back on. But these days, parents aren't so confident in those school like those days anymore. Or is it just the few of us?

When korkor started schooling, some people had already asked me the weird question as to where I want him to put him to when he reaches secondary. I didn't think of that a big deal, until the time was really here. Damn! Their primary school just reaches pri 6 and after that, we had to decide where he goes to next. Only in this last few weeks, we finally figured out how the school system works!

OK, so being in a WP school, we couldn't apply him to any other schools apart from this state. And then, there's the controlled schools, namely all top schools, only accepting straight As students, or the least, 6As and 1B. Bugger!

Private and international schools are definitely out of reach for we surely can't afford to send all 3 of them to one, and we couldn't be so unfair to send one and not the other.

That pretty much left us with either private chinese independent high school or the national schools.

The top 4 chinese high school accepts students with average marks of 80 and above in their schools' mid term exam. damn! joe mm kong! nah.. don't say I didn't tell you. I regretted not to push him to study harder during the first half of the year, thinking that the UPSR is all that matters. His average was only 78, just a mere 2 marks less. *thump fist*

Well, fret no further, he can still apply for a placement but needs to sit for entrance exams. You say stressful not? UPSR also not that stressful, man!

It was wonderful news when he learnt that he was accepted today! Hurray! I can't describe how proud, relieved, joyful I felt for him.Although I also have doubts about our plans for him, but I think being in a top reputable school with good extra co-curricular activities, he's going to have some good and fun schooling years in front of him. Lots of people say it's gonna be stressful studying, but I believe, stress sometimes do come from parents themselves. And it's how they manage stress. And also, it's good to give them some level of stress as well.

So, oh well, it's just the beginning. He's gonna sit for another entrance exam anyway and we are also going to try and apply him to a controlled school which accepts students from "niche area". Whatever it's gonna be, I'm so relieved now that I know the worst thing that would happen to him is him studying Remove class for 1 damn whole year in a sekolah kebangsaan, won't be happening.

It's a good enough reason to celebrate, don't you reckon?