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Shouldn’t pricey supplementary items for school be subsidised?

Recently, my child came home with a letter from his school that listed co-curricular activity (CCA) items to be bought, totalling about S$100. Last year, we spent about S$60 on another item.

Recently, my child came home with a letter from his school that listed co-curricular activity (CCA) items to be bought, totalling about S$100. Last year, we spent about S$60 on another item.

My first concern is that such purchases are normally made through the vendors conducting the CCA. Is there not a conflict of interest when these vendors have made arrangements with the external agencies to supply bulk purchases for their students?

The teachers in charge, because of lack of expertise, usually agree with the recommendations made by the CCA conductors and coaches.

My second concern is that parents are left with no choice when schools simply inform them to buy whatever the coaches and conductors request.

However, in my case, I find those items unnecessary, as there are simpler, cheaper ways to train my child for his CCA.

But in order not to put him in a difficult position, we agreed to the school’s requests.

My third concern is that schools and educators are relying more on expensive gadgets to perform simple tasks. For example, are e-dictionaries really better than the hard copies? How about spending S$25 on an incentive spirometer only to train breathing?

Finally, at an age when they have to spend sparingly, it makes it tougher to instil a sense of thrift in children and educate them about the worth of money, especially when schools and educators do not share such values.

We pay for subscriptions to e-learning platforms and buy newspapers to supplement learning in schools. If many other items are needed to supplement classroom learning or CCAs, should not the schools or the Ministry of Education pay for or subsidise these?

If not, these should not be made compulsory for parents to buy.

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