Primary graduate
published: Thursday | July 6, 2006

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I WAS passing a primary school on the weekend and was awed by the crowd gathered in the schoolyard and the vast number of vehicles parked inside and outside on both sides of the road. I was even more impressed by the smartly and seemingly expensively-dressed little children walking around in the school compound. Then suddenly it occurred to me, is it important for us to have such a lavish graduation ceremony for children leaving basic or primary school?

I am not against graduations and I can understand when a student is about to leave high school or university there is the need for a more than ordinary graduation ceremony, as they are about to face the working world. But why is it so important for us to place so much emphasis on a primary school graduation, where all the children do is look and compare who looks better and has on the best suit of clothing? There are even some parents who hardly monitor their children's progress on a daily or weekly basis and also seldom attend parents and teachers meetings, but come graduation day they are one of the first to arrive and probably the most expensively dressed.

The reality is that a lot of time and effort was not put into the child's academic development, but now the materialistic part is suddenly important.

I am etc.,

WARREN HALL

warway9@yahoo.com