When school officials from across the world come here to learn why Singapore's students score so well on international science and math tests, it doesn't take them long to discover the secret -- a national obsession with education.
It even shows up on its dollar bills. While U.S. and Latin American currencies portray images of national independence heroes, Singapore's 2-dollar bill -- the most widely circulated since there is no smaller denomination -- shows students in a classroom listening to a professor, with a university in the background. Underneath, there is just one word, ``Education.''This is a piece from the Miami Herald about Singapore's education system. Despite the positive light shown on our public education system, I find myself troubled by some of the opinions given.
At the Rulang Primary School, a 2,100-student public elementary school specializing in robotics teaching, teachers looked at me somewhat puzzled when I asked whether letting a 7-year-old child know that she is the worse of her class isn't putting too much pressure on her too early in life.
``No,'' school principal Cheryl Lim shrugged. ``We rank them in a way to tell them that this is their ranking at this point in time, and that they can do better next year. It's not to tell them that they are the worst in their class.''
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``By the time you are 10, you are put on a stream,'' says Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and one of the country's best-known intellectuals. ``No brain is wasted in Singapore.''If I was in a race and my results were open for the world to see. And it showed "Adam Chan. Last out of 40 in Division 3". How deep within must I search myself to find motivation to win the next race? Honestly, if I wanted to protect my self-worth, I'd just quit and find some other activities that I'll be better at. Now that's from a 26 year-old but what about a 7 or 10 year old kid? Would they quit even faster? And what options of other 'competitions' do they have but the PSLE?
No brain is wasted in Singapore. Is the human brain's only function to pass exams? I think not. And I think we are wasting our most precious resource doing things this way.
What a great find! But I'd caution against including an image of our currency. I think that is it against the law.
ReplyDeleteA visiting journalist cannot experience and describe what we go through in Singapore. The labelling and the shaming (as mentioned in the latter half of the article) do leave deep impressions that most students do not seem to recover from.
The sad thing is that most parents and teachers do not know any other system of schooling (I say "schooling" and not "education" because they are different).
Our model of schooling may have produced results that look good on paper. But the model is certainly no guarantee that it will produce results in the future. MOE knows this. NIE knows this. Any well-informed principal and teacher will know this too or simply feel it in their bones. Our students are no longer competing with one another in class. They are competing with students in China, India and the US.
Furthermore, I think that if other countries adopt Singapore's strategies, they might stand to gain only short term benefits and they do so at their peril. I also think that if we continue to rely solely on streaming and exams, we will not survive the challenges of our rapidly evolving world.
That is why Singapore has alternative schools like SOTA and the SST. That is why there are constant revisions to the schooling system, e.g., PERI's recommendations to the Primary school system. I am happy to note that many of the changes include emphasis on the humanities, experiential learning and kinesthetic learning.
But whatever the changes, teachers must respond. In fact, I see a few of them already responding even before the calls are made. It is this ground up effort that will better ensure that our schooling remains relevant. And perhaps one day we will have what is a real educational system.
I suppose the phrase 'no brain is wasted' is an apt description of Singapore's meritocratic system. It is effective in getting the good ones, and channeling resources to these 'great finds' so they can further excel.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree that we could be wasting much of our human resources this way, especially those late bloomers who unfortunately have internalized their perceived intelligence, and consequently underperform.
What struck me when in a module I took last yr was that we tend to concentrate on the top (best students in elite schs) and bottom (typically the NA/NT students). But what about the middle lot, the express students in neighbourhood schools? Are they provided enough push and resources to excel and realize their potential?
But of course resources are scarce and the authorities probably think that investing in the best will assure higher returns.