About Me — Stephanie Gibson. “I’m selfish, impatient and a little…
By: Steph Gibson, She Her
Tags: About Me, Writing, Biography, Autobiography, Life

1990–1995 | Singapore | C.H.I.J. Punggol

That stands for “Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus” — yes this little one went to an all-girls Catholic Convent during her primary school days… complete with a nun for a principal, the blue pinafore uniform with white Bata/canvas shoes, and prayer mornings every Friday.

I’m pretty sure it was also in those very impressionable young years that little Stephanie had an admiration towards her classmate, Genevieve, and one of her teacher whom she wanted to grow up to look and be like. Later that admiration became quite clear that she admired them in a not-so-platonic way. Let’s move on, this got weird fast.

1996–2000 | Singapore | Xin Min Secondary School

This was one of the more prestigious neighborhood schools back in the day. It was also a co-ed school which made my parents rather uncomfortable knowing I was in the presence of the male counterparts… little did they know…

But going to a good secondary school was all that mattered. Sure, I didn’t make the Raffles Girls School caliber but this was second best, I guess. I generally got good grades and I represented the school in sports so I’d say I was one of the girl-jocks.

There were different groups in the school… the popular kids were ranked by how well they did in sports. Volleyball and badminton were the two more popular sports that the school was known for. I was in badminton for a year, did really well but training 6 days a week took a toll on my grades so mommy dearest insisted I choose something less demanding. I became the vice-captain of the Netball team. Still good, just not crazy popular.

Of course there were the nerds, the gangsters, the drama club kids, and so on. I wished I went to drama club… I had always loved acting but sports was more important to me then.

At the end of secondary school and at the mercy of the Singaporean education system, my grades determined the possibilities of my career prospects. In fact, all throughout your primary and secondary school years, the education system categorizes you into predetermined career possibilities depending on your grades.

**Digression alert**

I was going to do a whole blog on this but let me explain here… what this means is that a nine year-old kid who happens to be a little slower in their intellectual development and doesn’t do well in the streaming examinations get put into an “EM3” bucket that inherently predetermines him/her to do more technical/practical careers (like carpentry, etc.). At the age of 12, if you happen to be a little lazy and/or have no motivation and you don’t do too well in the PSLE (primary school leaving examination), you get posted to secondary schools that aren’t too prestigious or don’t generally have top tier graduates.

Then when in secondary school you are divided into the following streams and the number of years to graduation (depending on your exam scores which determine your level of intellect): Normal Technical (5 years), Normal Academic (5 years), Express and Gifted (both 4 years). Normal Academic students have the opportunity to be promoted to the Express stream if you do well in years 1 and 2. The Express stream is also divided into 1–6 with Express1 taking subjects like higher math (A-Math), biology and higher sciences, while and Express6 students would take subjects like commerce, accounting, E-math, and general sciences. Arts was an elective.

I think you’re getting what I’m trying to say. You don’t really get second chances if you are an academic late bloomer or if you suddenly get motivated or see the importance of education when you’re 14! Yours truly was an EM2 primary student and a Express5&6 secondary student. No surprises that I’m not the doctor or lawyer like my parents wanted.

***

Guess what I’m about to say… you got it: depending on your O’level grades, you get to apply to Junior College for 2 years (which then allows you to have easier admission to the government Universities) or you apply to a 3-year polytechnic program in the career area of your choice (if you can get in!) to get a diploma. And thereafter decide if you want to apply to University for a Bachelor’s degree. Normal Technical graduates typically attend technical school.

I went to film school.