It has been 6 weeks since the new academic system has been implemented. 6 weeks of hell. 6 weeks of futile attempts to adapt to the new system. Now, you may ask why I am so pessimistic about the new academic system. And my answer is, I am not. This, is the truth.

Firstly, what exactly is the new academic system? As many of you would have already known, it is a new grading system of students which would be effective as of the academic year of 2010. So, what are the differences between this system and the old one? Let me just briefly explain the points:

- ACE points are now counted as a separate subjects and are computed in a different mean subject grade.
yes, that means your projects can no longer help you pull your grades up
- Students would have to choose from different subjects each term to do ACE projects on
- Oral Participation points are now counted as a separate subject, Oral communication and are computed in a different mean subject grade.
like ace points, do not help in improving your academic grade
-Projects done for the projects day competition are graded and counted in a separate subject, Independent Studies which consists of it and ACE points.
yes, its now as useless as ACE points in improving your mean subject grade.
-The 2 new subjects, Independent Studies and Oral Communication are computed into a separate MSG, Scholastic MSG.
Yes, you know what this means...
-A higher weighage of tests and exams (30% and 70%)

So, now that you have fully understood the changes made to the academic system, let me express my views. The new academic system is useless in improving the quality of students' lives or maybe even does more harm than good. Now that ACE and Oral Communication are counted separately, students could no longer depend on the 2 to improve their grades and therefore have to concentrate more on studying according to the syllables. This makes school life dull and boring for the students after all, we tend to learn more efficiently and absorb more information when working beyond the classroom, as in ACE projects. Furthermore, it increases the burden of the students as they are more stressed to achieve good results in tests and exams as they could no longer depend on ACE and Oral Communication points.

Although the 2 subjects are still as crucial as before as they are required for students to enrol in various courses such as the CSE program, the importance of academic results still outweigh the importance of these 2 subjects. After all, nobody would allow a student which achieved a academic MSG of 3.00 and a Scholastic MSG of 1.00 to enter the CSE program.

However, that was just the tip of the iceberg, to top it up, there are logistic glitches in the new academic system. As students have to select 3 subjects each term to do ACE projects on and they have to do so via an online selection system in the Parents portal, I was no exception and I logged in to do so, only to find various appalling flaws. Firstly, Integrated Mathematics was excluded from the list and that meant that there were only 4 subjects left to choose from as Chinese was compulsory. Of the four subjects, Infocomm Studies was ongoing and therefore had to be picked, I decided to leave English out of the list as I had already done it in term 1 and so, eventually, there were only 2 subjects to choose from to fill in the last 2 slots. Not much of a choice if you ask me. I hope that this is only a technical error and that it will be corrected soon. However, the chances of that happening are marginal as the system has already been confirmed.

To conclude, I would like to say that the new academic system is pointless and should not have replaced the old one. What are your thoughts about this issue? Tell me about them and leave a comment through the comment link below this post. Thanks in advance.