We all know that that the Singapore education system is rigid, competitive and stressful. It's also good by international standards: We are indeed well-recognised by the world, often described as "world leading" and we were even praised by Michael Grove, the Education Secretary of British.
But I feel that we streamed our young people an age too young. This creates different paths for us all, from the time you take your PSLE, you either go to Express, NA, NT or you retain. For the story of the person who went to RI and the one who goes to a neighbourhood schools, they will hold different life stories, route and experiences. As for those thrown into the Normal Technical, their life's choices is thrown away by the people around them who meant "good" for them, and chances that they will ever climb up to a normal academic is low. We don't acknowledge the fact that there are late bloomers, and personally, I feel that the
age 12 is too young to be judged on ability. People in Singapore might label these late-bloomers as "lazy", "un-concerned", "stupid" and in many ways in order to "persuade" these kids into producing results. We stream because we want to delivered results, not let the children find joy in learning.
Take a step into any Primary school in Singapore and you first want to take notice of how their students scored for PSLE: How many made it to express, how many repeat, how many made it to Normal stream. It has become our culture, that's to delivered good results and not care about the processes of the good results.
The reason why our education system is result-oriented is fairly simple: We have an education minister who has never been a teacher before!
Mr Heng Swee Keat, who works as a civil servant since 1983, had never served a year as a teacher before. Frankly speaking, he's a good leader, for one example is that he served as Managing Director is MAS ( Monetary Authority of Singapore).
That's the problem. He is selected by the PAP because he can deliver results, but not cannot see the importance in the learning processes as he had never been a teacher before. Expected to develop the education system into "the best", he neglected and destroyed the joy of learning by leting examinations even in Primary 1,and allowing an important exam to take place at the age of 12. The parents, the children, the teachers and the school, would instinctively put results before learning, and to the extent of becoming a tuition nation in order to deliver the results. I believe many of the children see no joy in attending tuition, it's an extra load, eats up so much of their time and they simply cannot find the motivation and joy in learning because it had become a chore instead of a gift.
Education itself is a wonderful gift. Examinations at a young age just destroys the joy we once had in learning: Do you remember your first few honeymoon days at schools? It was fun, not a chore and worth looking forward to? Now, it has become a chore for many students, as young as 7 and maybe as old as 16, instead of a gift to developed them intellectually.
AC
TRS Writer
Article first appeared at:http://teengirlandpolitics.blogspot.sg/2013/06/why-singapore-education-is-so-result.html