Friday, February 23, 2007

Adapted from a post on Wei Zhong's Online Diary. All work contained in this post that is the original creation of the author is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Editing time: 2 hours 50 minutes.

Kai Qi switched to the RJ uniform yesterday.

I was slightly surprised when I saw a girl in a white blouse and a green flared skirt—the RJ uniform for girls—standing at the end of the assembly queue of my class, before the flag-raising session began today. I soon realised, however, that the girl was just someone in our class who has somehow decided to make an early change to the uniform to which all the girls in our school have to switch eventually.

Rather expectedly, Kai Qi was teased by my classmates when they saw her in her ostensibly different outfit; "Wah, RJ girl!" and similar remarks surfaced. Some pointed out that she's probably the first girl in our batch to make the switch to the new uniform, although she said that there were other girls who made this switch even earlier. We also noted that Qiongye, who was incidentally standing beside Kai Qi for assembly last morning, also made the switch to the RJ uniform.

It seems to me that it is much more common for the RI guys than any other group of people (especially the girls) to switch to the RJ uniform, since the difference between the RI and the RJ guys' uniform is rather small. In contrast, the RJ uniform for girls is hugely different from any of those of the secondary schools to which the J1 girls in RJ belong.

Actually, I appreciate the J1s' wearing different uniforms as compared to the J2s now. I love being able to tell if someone or a group of students I encounter in school belongs to J1 or J2, immediately, just by outfit. In a school where there are only two standards, that's just about the most basic information about any RJ student or any group of RJ people. In addition, if a group of students belong to the J1 batch, I am more likely to look on to spot anyone I might know in that group, for example.

Moreover, I've always felt that the uniform worn by the J1 girls—the RG uniform, for instance—makes them seem more accessible than the RJ uniform. Somehow, the latter makes them seem more adult-like and therefore less accessible as peers. But perhaps that's just me, and perhaps I have this observation only because my peers have been in the RG uniform, and that my perception would change as I see them in the RJ uniform in the future.

The ending of the first two months

Well, the switch to the new set of uniform by Kai Qi (and soon, by her peers) serves as a reminder for me that the first two months of junior college life is ending. Sometimes, I get so engrossed in the activities in and out of school that I need some changes to take place for me to take note of some things, and this is one instance. And that March is approaching has very important implications for all of us RJ J1s, in many facets of our school life.

One of the first that hit me was the fact that changing subject combinations is going to get a lot harder beyond this time. Not only would we face administrative problems when switching subjects (in terms of timetabling after the possibility of re-timetabling to cater to the second intake students, for example), we would no longer have the option of attending remedial lessons that are meant to help second intake students to catch up. The additional content introduced after the second intake students join lessons would also make catching up relatively less manageable. Catching up with the lessons of the new subjects you may take would therefore be more difficult, with only the notes and at most your peers on whom you can rely. Somehow, although I'm rather certain that I won't be changing my subject combination, the very possibility of doing so still matters to me. I think I enjoy the security that arises from having the option to change subject combinations, should you find a subject to be beyond your ability.

It would also be slightly more difficult to change or sign up for CCAs beyond the first two months, after the CCAs close their second intake meant for those new students from the Joint Admission Exercise. For some CCAs like the Interact Club, it seems from their recruitment exercise and apparent exclusivity that joining after the second intake would be almost impossible. For others, it might still be possible to join them beyond the first two months, but you'd be rather alone in being a new member of that CCA, with tons to catch up on and the risk of having a CCA long-term schedule that starts before your entry. (A club may start its training proper from March after the second intake, for example.)

Of course, the end of the first two months also signifies the cessation of the traditional JC honeymoon period, much as some teachers (especially from the Mathematics Department, it seems) have tried hard to destroy the notion of the honeymoon period itself. But I would expect the academics and, for some CCAs, the activity in the CCA, to pick up in terms of requirement or expectation of effort beyond March, after the second intake.

I guess we can't do anything about the changes that would be taking place as the Provisional Admissions Exercise ends, except to adapt and get used to them. I guess it's time to be conscientious students and start to work harder on our subjects and our CCAs. It also seems pertinent to consider our subject combination and CCAs carefully once again, and—making use of the concepts introduced during the two months of Economics—consider the opportunity-cost of your decisions. Accordingly, make a swift and timely change should the costs of continuing with a subject or a CCA outweigh the opportunities.

---

Background: The Provisional Admissions Exercise

What makes it possible for us to wear our secondary school uniforms, at least initially, even after coming to a new school is the scheme known as the Provisional Admissions Exercise.

In Singapore, secondary school students in the Express stream take the GCE O Level exams at the end of four years of secondary school education. Those with an aggregate of 20 or below in the O Level exams may opt to go to a junior college for their post-secondary education.

However, the O Level results are not released until February in the year following the administering of the O Levels. Thus, those intending to go to a junior college are provisionally admitted to a junior college for about two months based on the schools' preliminary examination score. Another admissions exercise (the Joint Admissions Exercise, or JAE), based on the official O Level results, is held after its release, in March.

Prior to the JAE, in junior colleges, students are allowed to wear their secondary school uniforms. The reason is presumably that the authorities do not want those who fail to stay in the junior college beyond the JAE to have to waste money on a new set of uniforms that would last only them two months. Some people, however, may make the switch to the junior college uniform before the JAE if they're confident that they would stay in their new school. This may be because their O Level performance is good enough guarantee their stay, or that they belong to the Integrated Programme and would definitely stay in their new school.

Wikipedia has more information about the Provisional Admission Exercise in general.

Wei Zhong @ 2:48 am