By Maureen Koh and Veena Bharwani

SINGAPOREAN students, it seems, try too much to be jacks-of-all trades, juggling enrichment courses in ballet, martial arts, music and art, to name a few.

And this is among the reasons why their foreign counterparts here, who do not have similar burdens on their time, are at the top of the pecking order when it comes to exams, parents and principals said.

Related link: » Foreign students do better?

The debate over Singapore versus foreign students has been heated since results for the PSLE and O levels were released over the past few months.

While Singaporeans made up a large proportion of the highest scorers, the top student in both exams were foreigners - a Chinese national for the PSLE and a Malaysian for the O levels.

One reason for this could be that foreign students are more motivated to focus exclusively on their studies, instead of going for enrichment courses.

Mrs Lee Hui Feng, 48, principal of Nanyang Primary, told The New Paper on Sunday: "They (foreigners) know that their parents have invested a lot in them, so they work harder to make their parents happy.

"Some of them are the only child in their families and so their parents shower all their attention and guidance on them, so they're able to stay focused on the goal of doing well."

Added Mr Yong Cheng Huat, 53, principal of Stamford Primary: "Usually, these (foreign) students come here with one parent who works hard while they go to school.

"Naturally, the kids will be more focused and work harder - it just makes their situation more urgent."

A teacher who is the head of the department of English at a secondary school in the West said that most foreign students do well because they don't have parents who molly- coddle them all the time.

Focused

Being uprooted from their homeland also spurs them to "put everything else aside", said Madam Wang Ou, 38, whose daughter is nowin Primary 5.

The Chinese study mama, a hawker's assistant, said: "My daughter knows it was not easy for us to send her here."

In contrast, Singaporean parents seem to want their children to experience a well-rounded education, encouraging them to participate in school CCAs and taking on other activities such as music lessons and swimming.

Singaporean Pamela Chee, 33,an accountant, acknowledges that her sons, 11 and 9, have a busy schedule.

Other than school, the boys' schedule includes going for wushu training and attending art and abacus lessons.

However, they also have personal tutors for English and maths, and group tuition at a Chinese language tuition school.

Mrs Chee said: "It's not that I'm being kiasu - I just want to ensure that my boys receive holistic learning."

Teachers say that some parents whose children are involved in several activities start to panic once the exams are around the corner.

One teacher, who declined to be named, said she has had Singaporean parents ask for their children to be taken out of the school's prefectorial board just before the exams.

Age is another reason given for foreign students being able to do better than their local peers.

Nanyang Primary's Mrs Lee said: "Some foreign students are a year or two older than the Singaporean children, and so they tend to be more mature.

"They know what they want to achieve."

Mrs Lee also pointed out that foreign students who come here and do well are gifted.

They would have done well in their home countries too.

Mrs Zhou Keqing, 43, from Malaysia, said her son was "among the top three students in his school" in Penang before moving here.

She added: "And because of that, it's relatively easy for him to catch up with the high standard in Singapore."

Mrs Zhou, a former administrator, tutors her son herself.

And, not all foreign students who come here excel.

Forced

An Art teacher from a secondary school in the East told The New Paper on Sunday: "I have had some foreign students who were forced to come here to study by their parents."

Added the 30-year-old teacher who asked not to be named: "The students fail miserably because of it. So, it's not true that all foreign students do well."

Stamford Primary's Mr Yong, too, had a foreign student who did very badly.

He said: "When I told the student that his parents had given up a lot for him to do well, he broke down and cried.

"After that, the student bucked up and his grades picked up."

This article was first published in The New Paper.