Is CCA for students’ development of students or for teachers’ career advancement?

An article from the Straits Times forum, dated 3 March 2008, Don't run schools like a business , highlights how CCA is being used for the glory of the school rather than for the development of the students.

Ms Lee, the writer, laments the fact that CCA is now used as a yardstick to measure how well a school does. She cites the example of how a particular CCA was withdrawn because it was not winning enough awards and glory for the school.

Left unsaid, but implicated, is that teachers and staff, who are from the unnamed school, are seeking personal glory. I believe that this example is not isolated. It will indeed be sad if the education system is used by the staff to enhance their career advancement, at the expense of students.

Excerpts from the link above:

IT APPEARS to me that, increasingly, Singapore schools are being managed more like businesses than as institutions of learning.

I graduated from a neighbourhood secondary school six years ago. The place held many beautiful memories for me, especially of the years I spent taking up gymnastics as my co-curricular activity (CCA).

However, the system has changed. Two years back, my CCA girls' team was disbanded.

This was a sport that the school had nurtured for over 40 years, and which had benefited various cohorts of students over the years.

This was the CCA that had shaped me, and taught me to face challenges with courage, take failures as lessons, and conquer difficulties with perseverance.

I was saddened by the school's decision to terminate this CCA, but what was more disappointing was the reason given: 'We are not winning enough awards for the school, and we are simply not bringing glory to the school.'