Why I did not enrol my son in ACS

Plus ça change...


Why I did not enrol my son in ACS

LAST Saturday's report, "Carnival tickets: Students feel sales 'pressure' ", brings back memories of my secondary school days at Anglo-Chinese Secondary School (ACSS) in the late 1960s.

There was a funfair that was meant to raise funds for the school. Each student was given two booklets of funfair coupons worth $10 each.

We were told by our class teacher that we were not allowed to return any of the coupons. As our family and relatives were not well-to-do, it meant that I had to sell the coupons somehow or had to get my parents to buy them.

In the end, my parents bought up the coupons even though $20 was not a small sum to us then.

When my son was about to start his primary school education, I decided not to enrol him in ACS, as I did not want him to go through the same stress I had experienced as a student. I also did not want to go through the same pressure my parents had felt.

In the latest incident over the sale of carnival tickets, it appears that after so many years, ACS (Barker Road), which was ACSS during my time, has not changed as far as fund raising is concerned.

ACS (Barker) vice-principal John Wu said that "there is no compulsion for students to sell or buy up all their coupons". But he did not say whether there was compulsion for the students to sell or buy some of the coupons.

This is still not right. There should be no compulsion for the students to sell or buy even a single coupon.

If the school's intention is to make sure that every student puts in the effort to sell the coupons, there are many other ways to do that.

Steven Lee Thien Poh