Parents bribe for son to get into Selective School (1 Viewer)

[kaz1]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...st-gumps-mother/2008/12/09/1228584799027.html

The parents of a year 5 student at Westmead Public School paid a teacher $2500 to help secure their son a spot at a selective high school, the corruption watchdog heard today.
And the father of the boy told the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he had watched the movie Forrest Gump - in which a mother who wants to see her son at a normal school sleeps with his teacher - and thought that was a good example of parenting.
"I am the victim," Mr Qinghua Pei said.
The ICAC is investigating a complaint about Mr Pei and his partner Xiaodong Lu, who have been accused of giving money to the teacher with the "intention of gaining favouritism for their son".
Ms Lu denied she was trying to buy more marks but said she had wanted to influence the teacher to spend more time with her son to improve his marks over time.
Mr Pei said he wanted justice for his son, who deserved to go to a selective school.
The commission heard today that Ms Lu sought a meeting with the teacher, Jodie-Lee Pearce, on Tuesday, August 5, to discuss her son's progress at school.
After a short discussion, Ms Lu left and handed an envelope to Ms Pearce, containing $2000 in $50 notes.
The envelope also contained a note written by Mr Pei, which said: " ... leading to the selective school exam we hope you could help me him more in all the area especially English reading comprehension. We hope his ability was recognised and he can get a good school marks and also to do well in the selective school exam."
Mr Pei then visited Ms Pearce on Tuesday, October 28, in her empty classroom after hearing that she would be away marking. He had assumed that the marking was for the internal assessment component for the selective schools test. The commission heard that after a short conversation with Ms Pearce, Mr Pei handed Ms Pearce an envelope containing $500 in $50 notes.
A note in that envelope said that his son had a great ambition to become a scientist and for this reason "he must go to a good selective school" and thought that, given his son's trial marks, he was likely to gain a spot at Baulkham Hills High School or Sydney Boys School.
Mr Pei wrote: " ... I hope you give him a favourable consideration in school assessment and report."
Counsel assisting, Don McKenzie, told the commission that Mr Pei has acknowledged that he made the payment in the hope of influencing Ms Pearce with respect to his son's marks for the selection schools assessment process.
He said both Ms Lu and Ms Pei had acknowledged that their actions were wrong.
Ms Pearce reported the parents on both occasions to her supervisor at the school, who then contacted the NSW Department of Education.
Mr McKenzie said the clear message to parents who tried to corrupt the selection process was that there was considerable risk that they would be exposed.
"Ethical teachers will turn them in," he said.
"This commission, once notified, will investigate. It will expose the corruption it finds, and where appropriate it will refer matters on for consideration of criminal prosecution."
This year, more than 13,300 students in year 6 sat the selective entry test but only 3522 students received offers for year 7 at a selective school.
Ms Pearce told the commission that students were under enormous pressure from their parents to get into a selective school and some had told her that they did not believe their parents who value them if they failed.

The hearing continues before the commissioner, Jerrold Cripps, QC.

I loled.

 

[beentherdunthat]

I skipped the article... as i did just now

 

[Peripheral]

I don't know who's more retarded. The parents or the teacher who turned down all that free cash.

 

[beentherdunthat]

Or who wrote the article ... :.)

 

[jessi90]

fucking lol. why do all asian parents think making it into selective schools equate to success in the future

 

[beentherdunthat]

fucking lol. why do all asian parents think making it into selective schools equate to success in the future

its called competition and survival of the fittest

 

[jessi90]

are you saying there's no competition in non-selective schools?

 

[H4rdc0r3]

lol you asian noobs!

 

[beentherdunthat]

are you saying there's no competition in non-selective schools?

typical.

no, it means that there is greater competition in selective schools given that everyone is in the school for the same reason - to get the highest marks... which is what a selective school's main purpose is to do.

trust me, i come from one.

 

[jb_nc]

I don't know who's more retarded. The parents or the teacher who turned down all that free cash.

Yes, how to have your career ruined in the shortest amount of time possible.

 

[08er]

great generalisation there. not everyone's goal will be the same, even in selective schools.

 

[beentherdunthat]

great generalisation there. not everyone's goal will be the same, even in selective schools.

the majority will be. thats the point of the school dude... if ur parents r paying exttra money for ur education, your goal bettter be sumthing worthwhile otherwise ur pretty screwed

 

[lyounamu]

lol, selective school is not really worth this...

 

[08er]

but you said 'everyone'

 

[08er]

also i dont see how parents are paying extra money? there are comprehensive selective schools in the state, unless you were referring to the amount spent tutoring in order to get in selective schools in the first place (and even then, not everyone gets tutoring)

 

[KFunk]

no, it means that there is greater competition in selective schools given that everyone is in the school for the same reason - to get the highest marks... which is what a selective school's main purpose is to do.

While that attitude is certainly quite prevalent I would argue that my year group in highschool was a lot more relaxed than that. It's possible to value learning in itself without being focused on the university-->career gateway offered by marks (which is why I very much enjoyed year 11 but not year 12 - since the latter was dominated by a prescribed curriculum while the former had enough flexibility to allow for exploratory learning).

 

[layzeehbum]

my 'rents dun even bother sending me 2 selective skuls... im not even allowed 2 do the tests!
dey think im dumb enough
so sad ='(

 

[shantu1992]

回复: Parents bribe for son to get into Selective School

what it is ad selective schools is that everyone is at the same academic level or nearly everyone (high) whereas at a public school all different sorts of kids have all different academic abilities (there's a huge range)

this basically means at selective schools it forces everyone to work harder to keep up and plus the cohort does better overall so it is an advantage for each individual come hsc time

 

[shantu1992]

回复: Parents bribe for son to get into Selective School

but haha why would you pay a teacher money
then use forest gump as a reason to get out of it
its hilarious because it's like the stupidest reason

 

[blue_chameleon]

Yep, this is the only time it has ever happened, and it will never happen again. Ever.

Ha. "Bribery" falls under many, many different labels. Those who don't think it occurs [in selective school application] are incredibly naive.

Besides, they are Chinese. Cultural differences ftw.