MOE puts out a social media post telling parents not to fret about kids knowing to read & write before P1: https://www.facebook.com/moesingapore/posts/10160381576627004 I have some thoughts about this.

Yes, pushy & competitive parents exist. We've all met some.

But the far bigger thing I'm seeing over & over is parents who say they wish to relax, they want their children to have fun times, they don't want to push... but feel they can't. That it takes an effort to hold back.

Anecdotally, it seems to me that claims in MOE's post are at odds with actual practice of teachers & principals, who do seem to expect reading & writing, or who sometimes tell parents to get tuition.

It's at odds with the practice at preschools, which presumably MOE can change.

It's at odds with what parents & children say about the syllabus they encounter, the way teachers teach, & the high-stakes testing they start to encounter just a little later in primary school.

Talking to parents, it seems like a nightmare of guilt all ways: guilt if you don't join arms race, guilt if you do.

Message that it's "better" to relax, somehow ethically or morally or socially "better", is already out there.

People don't feel conditions permit them to do so.

When there are feelings of stress on such a scale, when there is widespread sense of pulling in differing directions, does it makes sense to simply point the finger at parental "culture" & exhort better "mindset"?

Something is pressuring people to act against their inclinations.

This is not inevitable. It is the result of policy choices: to have an intensive syllabus, to have certain class sizes, to have tests. To keep the PSLE.

When these practices remain, social media posts like this may feel more like simply paggro blaming & guilt-tripping parents.