I chanced upon this on a singtel website. 'Get your hands on examination papers from top Singapore schools. Sign up now'
I begin to think how being a student is really tough. Being a Singaporean student is much worst. An examination is supposed to be a measure of how well you have understood the work for the term or for the year. Rather, it comprises of prestige, even if it were at a face-value, monetary incentives that extends beyond what your parents give to you in lieu of your results and the list goes on.
What is wrong with our education system? Often times, we hear of students and parents-alike mumbling about how stressed up they are and how our education system is not one that is enriching and diversified in it's entirety. Yet, who gives these people the stress?
Stress is an innate feeling. There is no negative connotation to it either. It is a perception; it is a way of thinking; it is fundamentally dependent on your upbringing. Stress and pressure are two synonymous words. They are often placed together in the same sentence and especially so when one is explaining the either. Stress is something that people give themselves as either a motivational push or as an excuse for their appalling or in their own opinion, an unsatisfactory performance. It can be derived from external sources and your environment but the ultimate decision to embrace stress still lies in your very own hands. This same principle applies to ones attitude towards his or her education.
Singapore's education system is indeed not as diversified as it claims to be. As much as we are pragmatic and realistic people who are market-driven and somewhat of an economist, our education system is slanted towards fulfilling the economic needs of our society. Singapore is a small nation with its people as its main source of resource. In many parliamentary speeches made, the debate was always about the people. In fact, about selected groups of people who are somewhat not on par with the government's expectation of its people. The debate was and still is today, people-oriented.
Singapore's education system has its merits and its demerits. While flexibility and diversity may be its pitfall yet, if one were to analyze our education system in its entirety, one would see how structured, perhaps a little rigid and how inclusive our education system is. Of course, with streaming and bench-marking, our education system comes across as one that is elitist but everyone is of a different calibre. That is a said and given fact. What our education system is attempting to do is to group people of the same calibre together and allow them to have an education that best suits them. It sounds very much like a propaganda but it is a fact, and a well-received fact too. Think about it, if you have people of wide spectrums of calibre in one class, how do you expect yourself to be taught such that it is advantageous to everyone in your class and for yourself. How do you expect yourself to teach such a class? Will you think of segregation or still hold on to this tight rein even though it is highly possible that you may leave some students out?
It is not the best but neither it is the worst. Our education system has rooms for improvement and mindsets to change too. Expectations of our education are indeed high and that is also why parents are willing to invest their confidence in our education system.
Give our education system some ounce of hope!
---till later ---
