Yes to Grade 12 but...

The class picture in this blog was my 4th year high-school taken decades ago. We were 49, all came from lower class families with big dreams. I considered myself lucky to be with them, first because they were studious and second because other classes were rowdy due to their number which were more than 50.

We had classes IN the grandstand, UNDER the grandstand and SIDE of the grandstand. We were exposed to the elements that combination of odors caused somebody to faint. It was tough, literally.

Oh yes we have a library. But the books you can count. If there was one available, it was either worn-out or the pages you need were missing. It's survival of the fastest. There was no incentive to read because THERE WAS NOTHING available to read. When the government finally issued books to us, we need to share it to one another because it was only good for 20 students. The solution was to share it because our parents did not have the means to buy these "discretionary" expenses.

To me, and I believed with the rest of my classmates, this experienced transformed most of us to achieved and read more than the norm.

Now here comes the suggestion of having Grade 11 and 12 added to our high school. My personal experienced 20 years ago is still happening in public school in the country but this time much worst.There is no doubt we need two more years of high school, but my argument however is that the government should strengthen the existing basic education first. Build more classrooms,distribute more books and train more good teachers.

Last time I visited my old high school, they are still using the grandstand for their classes but now they divided the gym by installing partitions to convert it for additional classrooms. This is truly not moving forward.

Solve the existing problems first before we add two more years.

It's like putting the cart before the horse and the students sitting on the cart are still thinking "survival of the fastest". The difference? The mode is fiercer.