Saturday, August 25, 2007
Dear All.
Singapore has been recognized for her achievements in terms of Academia as compared to our neighbouring countries. Sheets of papers known as 'certificates' are issued year in and out to 'certify' people of a certain level of education. However are we really educated people or 'educated' people? The rationale behind education is so that we could lead a better life in the future. To many, a synonym for 'better life' can also be known as 'happier life'. However , a few months ago, a survey had been conducted and statistics had proven that Singaporeans are one of the unhappiest people of the world. Countries which led simple life such as The Phillipines had proven to be much happier than us. Does that mean that we are less educated than the people from The Phillipines? A definite No. To ensure a happier tomorrow, now, lets have a close up study of our Education System.
Primary School juveniles are required to take at least 4 subjects & 5 for a minority. When they progress on to Secondary Education the number of subjects doubles, from a 4-5 to a 8-11. It is simply putting a tremendous amount of pressure on these students. 7 days per week & there are 8-11 subjects to handle. How is it possible for an adolescent to condone information of 8-11 subjects altogether. Even if only 4 subjects are based purely on memorizing, it is practically impossible for a child to memorize and fully understand the contents of each and every of the 4 subjects.If i were to throw some Geography Questions at my principal now, would she be able to answer every one of them accurately? No. Whats the point of learning so much and forgetting practically all of them except for one subject. I believe if there is a reduction in the amount of subjects that we take, we'll be able to excel in most of them and we'll definitely understand better as more time now are spent on fewer subjects.For a child to really learn, it requires fully understanding, memorizing is only short term. I find it rather amusing that the school wants us to memorize , go for exams and score As and claims that we are 'educate' people while on the other hand, if u go for exams and score Bs & Cs, you'll be categorized under 'uneducated' . Schools are no longer any different from robots producing factories where they produce batch after batch of 'educated people'. My point is, are schools really educating us or are we blindly memorizing?
Anyway, when we get into the University., we are only to major in ONE subject. What for learn so much during secondary school & forget most of which after a few years. If you were an employer of a logistics company and you were to choose between 2 employees, one who does average for all his subjects or one who excels in maths and does slightly below average. We'll definitely choose the latter, he may not be good in other areas but when it comes to maths, he is able to help calculate our amount of goods, cost prices, profit etc. Also , knowing his strength it is much easier to delegate jobs to him, instead of the former employee where you have no idea of where to put him.I believe in life, as long as we speialize at one area, its good enough to lead a happy life. Back to my point again, why not allow us to make our choices early to choose subects that we want to take instead of taking all of them and forgetting what we 'learn' later on.
Point : In life, we only have to excel in one area, why cant we choose the area we want to excel in at a younger age than to study so much and put on stress to yourself?
In Singapore, the ability to socialise is takeen too lightly. Kids usually start education at 4 where they attend Nursery. 1-3 years of a child's life is taken to adapt to the country,climate etc.. At 4, kids starts receiving education and books invaded into the little world of their own. Once when children thought that ants were the smallest thing one earth were then rectified to atoms being the smallest particle on earth. Books, books and more books, killed creativity. 'Stress' was introduced at an early age , when they grow up, memories of their childhood are none other than books. Our product: mundane, boring & stressed kids. On the contrary, in America, kids only start studying at the age of 7-8 years. The first 7-8 years of their life was spent interacting,socialising,playing, fooling around. Their Product: charasmatic,fun-loving,creative kids and at the very least they have a memorable childhood. Having a memorable childhood is definitely vital to everyone. May i ask if anyone of you has had a fantabulous childhood? Even when these kids enter adulthood, they are very different. In america, statistics show that out of every 10 household, 6 of which organises social events every once in awhile, they have alot of fun, yet they are very serious at work. On the other hand, In singapore out of every 10 household only 1-2 households organises such events for interaction. Their path of life is very different from one another.
Point : No emphasis on socializing, singaporean becomes very boring people.No Childhood.
Much unlike in Singapore, where everyone follows a standard path. From the Nursery to Kindergarten then to Primary School then Secondary School followed by Junior Colleges, Polytechnics or ITEs , University then on to work for at least 30 years.. After retirement, we get our CPF, 'enjoy' life for arnd 10 more years and off we go to the deathbed. Thou it may not be prominent, we seem to be a 'Uniformed Country'
Point: Since when are we so Uniformed!
To sum up, i believe immediate actions should be taken to address these flaws of our education system, hopefully,soon enough there would be a long term plan for a happier nation, brighter country and a better Singapore!
Thank You.
Ming Jun
ps ( sorry for the late work Mr Tan. I actually finished this quite a while ago but due to unforseen circumstances where i finish typing and the moment i attempt to copy my speech, it magically disappeared. I AM NOT KIDDING. thank you)
