There are three main themes for 'Tropical Processes': Climate, Water and Rocks. To master this theme, we fit into the greater vision envisioned in the syllabus, we really have to visualise the tropics as an interconnected system of climate, water and rocks.
With the different features of the rocks, we should be better able to explain what goes on in the tropics. We need to understand the different features of the tropical landscape, the natural disasters that are associated with the tropics (floods, especially, what they are, their effects and how they affect us). Unseen in previous syllabi, I also like it that the new syllabus touches on the human-linked issues linked to tropical forests, in particular deforestation.
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| We are not just a tropical paradise (Photo by Julius Silver) |
The new syllabus enables us to integrate the different aspects of the tropical world well. It may be a rather shallow and narrow-based aspect of geography as compared to previous syllabi, however, it is a good start for students to better know their world that they live in.
I think that the student in, say, Jurong Junior College is as equal as the student in Raffles Institution, in terms of being part of the tropical biome that we all live in. Our syllabus should best reflect that no matter what we are, we are living in a shared world. We are affected in unique ways by our surroundings, with a common set of challenges. Any student who does his best in scouring the relevant, annotated and cross-reference sources, along with critical and reasoned insights on his land, while reasonably answering all the questions within limited time, should be given due credit. As the mark scheme is not affected by the resources of the school and its teaching, and I have the belief that every student has the capacity for self-directed learning, I feel that the student from Jurong Junior College can also get the same distinction as the student from Raffles Institution.
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