'Sekolah Kluster', can you not?

Recently, my school gained its title as a cluster school and has changed from a double-session school to a single-session school. I never thought I would despise the word "Sekolah Kluster Kecemerlangan" so much until now. Whenever the school principal mentions those 3 words, I can't help but roll my eyes and groan mentally.  Although some people have managed to embrace this new system with open arms, it is no secret that many students remain unsatisfied and unwilling to adapt to the aforementioned idea implemented by the school. Personally, I stand with the majority because of several reasons I am about to delve into.

Firstly, the time period of lessons on certain days has increased as there is no longer a need to release the morning-session students early to make room for students of the lower forms. Although this may easily seem like an advantage to the students, many of us have limited attention spans and are unable to give our full attention for such a long period of time. Besides, students also become weary and exhausted quickly from all the brain activity and work given to them during the long school hours. I don't see the point of extending the school hours when most of us can't pay attention in class after a certain amount of time. In addition to that, afterschool activities now end later as well which adds on to our level of tiredness and increased inability to juggle multiple things on our hands before falling apart mentally. Some of us stay far away and require a longer travelling time to reach home. By the time when we reach home, we won't have much time left to do our homework and revision. Lets not forget additional tuitions as well. Students will be too exhausted and spent to finish their homework.

Aside from that, longer school hours = later lunch times. Most of the upper secondary students' classes end much later. Some classes end as late as 2.40pm from Mondays to Wednesdays. This means that students are forced to eat at irregular times. As we all know, at this age, our metabolic rate is higher and we get hungry easily. Most of us are forced to study with growling stomachs until class ends, only to have the canteen greet us with little food left. Two weeks after the school year started, my abdomen started to hurt and I had to visit the clinic twice. According to the doctor, my stomach ache was caused by my irregular mealtimes. I could not concentrate in class due to the constant discomfort in my abdominal area. You might be thinking, what about recess? Forget about recess. Upper secondary students have their recesses after the lower secondary students. The canteen caterer doesn't replenish enough food for us. During recess, more than 300 students will rush into the small canteen to buy food. The school might have extended recess by a mere 10 minutes, but by the time they land their hands on the food, the bell would've rung. 

Also, afterschool clubs and societies which used to be separated into junior and senior categories have now been obligated to combine into one colossal group of people. While some societies still manage to escape the large swarm of students, there are certain clubs that are struggling to accommodate all their members under one roof.  Besides giving the teacher-in-charge and the committee members another problem to handle, it also causes discomfort to the students who are given insufficient space to sit or move around. It has also become more strenuous to attend to each student personally as the number of new members has skyrocketed tremendously. This situation has greatly discouraged many students to stay back for their afterschool activities as they would much rather be in the comfort of their own home than to take part in this chaos.

  

In a nutshell, the school should remain as a double-session school to be able to boost the productivity of the students. There seems to be absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why the title of a ‘Cluster School’ should reduce the initial two sessions to one. If we were able to obtain that title whilst being a double-session school, then why would we not be able to maintain it under the same conditions? The priority of any school should be to provide an education that will produce students of worth who will eventually benefit the society and the world, and our school has undoubtedly been excelling in that field. However, how will we be able to continue that without a conducive learning environment for the students? Schools are our second homes, so the saying goes. So let us provide a nurturing environment for the young generation of students in order for them to grow and become the pillars of our society. I would like to quote an infamous quote by Simon Cowell, about this whole single-session thing,