AT EXACTLY 6.14am on 22 Dec, my wife was woken by the frenzied opening guitar riff of the song Wonderland by Big Country from her handphone. The 1984 hit meant that she had received an SMS.

In a way, we had been waiting for this moment for six long years - from when we balloted for the place in my son's primary school to agonising over whether his PSLE score was good enough to get him into his first-choice secondary school.

The message: 'From MOE: S97XXXXXJ is posted to BUKIT PANJANG GOVT HIGH SCHOOL, Exp course. Please report to the secondary school on 23Dec 2009 at 8:30am.'

Apparently, Bukit Panjang Government High School is a 'good' school, though as a casual parent, I had never heard of it until three weeks ago, when my son applied to go there.

For one thing, I didn't know it's not in Bukit Panjang, but actually in Choa Chu Kang.

On 23 Dec, my wife and son returned from the school with a folder containing several lists of things we had to pay for.

Apart from the usual uniforms and textbooks, there were two name tags ($5.40), a school tie ($7.40), a yearbook, an organiser, a locker, a padlock and passport-size photographs.

I'm glad I'm a citizen, so at least I don't have to pay higher school fees from 2011.

Also in the folder was a flyer promoting a blood donation drive organised by the school. Talk about bleeding us dry.

At least, we didn't pay for the folder.

My wife then told me that she found out Bukit Panjang is The National Science Challenge 2009 champion - after beating Raffles Institution and NUS High School on TV!

And that somehow made it all seem worthwhile.

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