Singapore’s education system is said to be of world-class standards, attracting the likes of students all over the world to pursue their studies here, including those from the world’s strongest economies. Having been in this system for the bulk of my life up till now, I have my share of gratitude and grouses. There is little need for me to mention the plus points of our education system which we know very well by now. In this article, I endeavor to explore the limitations of our education system, or just formal education in general.
Going by the books?
Our education system fits us into a mould, shaping us to be homogenous in our thinking patterns. Its because each and every student has to take the exams, supposedly to distill what we have learnt over the course of the semester. The problem with exams is that it makes us all think in a certain uniform way.
Not long ago, I was attending this tutorial class. Prior to it, I have come out with my own set of answers for the tutorial we were told to do. As the instructor was presenting the ‘correct’ tutorial answers to us, I found that one of his answers contradicts mine. I raised my hand and challenged his answers. He took the time to explain to me the rationale behind his answers. However, even though I totally understand where he is coming from, I’m still convinced that mine is the right answer based on my interpretation of the question. We went on with our mini-debate.
What he told me next put a stop to everything. He said that my answer will be marked wrong in exams.
Gradually, I learnt that I have to ‘adapt’ in order to do well in the exams. The adaptation involves adopting what the teachers say as the correct answer and keep producing the ‘correct’ answers in exams, even if it means going against my own beliefs. Therefore, we can somehow infer that someone who regularly scores well in exams as being able to adapt well and fast.
I memorize ‘correct answers’ and produce them verbatim in exams. That practice has made me a top scorer but at the same time caused me to be unconfident in voicing my own opinion as I considered it inferior to the standard answers given in the textbook by experts.
It resulted in a side effect which I am now suffering from upon stepping into the society. I do not dare to raise my ideas in group meetings, seminars or networking events as i was so afraid of being wrong. Because of that, i saw so many opportunities passed me by and landing in the hands of those who are more vocal.
Slowly but surely, I’m learning to listen to my own voice and not just take textbook answer as it is. I felt that our curriculum should really train students to be people who are comfortable with their own ideas, instead of going by the books.
Action-deficient
As part of my business course curriculum, I was undergoing this course known as “Principles of Management.” All throughout the semester, I was lamenting about what has been covered is pretty much ‘common sense’ and not very helpful in aiding us to be real leaders. Don’t get me wrong, the content we are taught was decent and I felt if we were able to apply all of the theories we learnt, we will definitely make sterling leaders in our workplace. The only problem lies in “if we were able to APPLY.“ You see, very often, we all know what’s the right thing to do, but few of us actually do the right thing. That’s really because the right thing is also the difficult thing, or the frightening thing sometimes. As bright students, we have no problem grasping the concept of being a good leader and manager, but taking action is another matter altogether. Hence I brush the course off as being ‘common sense’ as it lacked the application aspect and I also understand that it is difficult to practice it in a class.
Towards the end of the semester, our prof for this module was conducting the course review. The 1st thing he said when he commenced the lecture was , “ do you think this module is very much common sense?” It thrown me off as it was the exact thing I had in my mind all this while! I then proceeded to raise my hands. To my surprise, in the entire lecture theatre of a few hundred students, I was the only one with my hands up. I felt odd, all of a sudden. It surely can’t be just me.
My prof, obviously not expecting anyone to raise up their hands glared at me murderously and probed me. Sensing something wasn’t right, I answered him in the most diplomatic way to take his attention off me immediately. But the truth was that, the course is really just common sense!
The real answer I had in my mind: “ I was practicing being a true leader, by being consistent with my words.” If we want to be great leaders or even someone who can make an impact in the society, taking action has to be part of the routine. Raising up my hand at that moment means being true to myself, going against the norm and standing out among the crowd, which constitutes a form of practice for being the real leader/manager. Given that there were close to 0 hands raised, the course training us to be a leader/manager may have been a failure.
Hatred for learning
After our o levels exam, we had a barbeque session to celebrate the end of our ‘torture’. One of my classmate brought his whole stack of O level notes along, which startled all of us. Exams has just ended and we want nothing to do with academic discipline right now. Yet, this guy is spoiling our mood with the presence of these ‘torture equipment’.
To our surprise, he started throwing his notes into bbq pit to burn all of them! He told us that his wish has finally come true and he has been waiting hard and long for this day to come. I wouldn’t hate exams so much as to burn them! I still have heart for the trees afterall, but I guess my classmate has probably reached the limit of his hatred towards exams for him to do something so radical.
But that incident made me started thinking whether exams do achieve its intended impact of solidifying our learning. When we are forced to learn because we have to score well for exams, learning just isn’t that fun anymore. Take me for example, I always yearn for as little coverage of materials as possible during our lessons, so that studying for exams will not be such a stupendous chore. The lesser knowledge is being taught, the lesser we will be tested for exams and the happier we will be. That has always been my belief all throughout my life as a student. This is inspite of the fact that my love for learning is very strong, I read numerous self-improvement books outside of school and attend seminars by the dozens regularly, but when it comes to learning in school, the irony is that I just don’t want to learn so much.
In the grand scheme of things, I am concerned about the impact of this on our younger generation. These side effects of exams result in young people developing a hatred for learning, not believing in themselves and being mere theoretical expert. What will become of a country with citizens who are no longer innately curious about learning, fervent about applying what they have learnt or able to formulate their own insights?
Despite being able to identify the issues at hand, I am, sadly, unable to offer a viable solution to this phenomenon. There exists no better replacement for exams in distinguishing the best from the better, using the most objective and efficient way possible. I guess we will still have to live with all these unwanted effects, until some genius establish a more robust way of testing our students. Till then, we have to take education into our own hands and explore knowledge on our own.
Ted
*The author blogs at http://digitalsenior.sg/, a portal for university students in Singapore.