An increasingly popular view among local intellectuals. It is still worth the mention here. While we Singaporeans pride ourselves on our 'educational programme' despite our short history, I must first qualify our pride.
There is a difference between literacy and education. There is a difference between being intelligent and being wise. Our educators know this. Many changes are being effected at all levels to recognise the other facets in educating youth and in recognising the other types of intelligences.
Many at my age would agree that paper and pen assessments, talk and chalk practices and direct teaching were about the entire repertoire of teaching for a long time. In fact, these traditional pedagogical approaches intensified during the years of school ranking. As such, our generation focused on elitism. The select few succeeded in this system. Those of us who are stronger in our logical/mathematical, visual/spatial and verbal/linguistics made it to 'better' schools. Those more inclined towards kinesthetics, musical, naturalistic, interpersonal and other forms of intelligences were branded as 'weaker' students. They belonged to the EM3 band. We see many of these elites in our civil service today.
Now, we are suffering for this lack of vision. We are told that our nation needs foreign talent. Talent that includes dance, arts, music and other skills that require the exact intelligences that our past system purged.
Nonetheless, rather than point fingers and regret our choice in leadership, I hope we choose to see that our new leadership has chosen to correct the problem. We see a rise in other forms of education. There is a sports school, a music school and alternative tertiary schools. While our primary and secondary programmes are still pegged to Cambridge, our 'O' and 'N' level graduates have a wider variety of choices.
All these are good news.
Now the bad news.
Even with these new choices, new graduates will find prospects and career paths in Singapore limiting. The problem is not the schools or the curriculum. The problem is our culture. We are a third world people living with first world infrastructure. Our people are pragmatic, insensitive and often uncultured. We are a materialistic, single - minded and narrow - minded nation of bigots. As such, there is little appreciation for the arts, for services, and the finer things in life. Artists and performers are still widely considered foolish career paths. Adam Khoo may have once succeeded in opening a window for intrapersonal development. I wonder why he now has to branch into other forms of businesses like seminars and technical stock market analysis.
The problem is the market. Our best people are still considering traditional roles in engineering, medicine, law and banking. Who is left for the other jobs?
Let's simply acknowledge that our economy and our education are directly correlated.
Take a case in point. We see it a few times a year. Parents-Teachers-Interactions. What do the teachers and parents talk about? Grades. Behaviour. Education is more than mere grades and obedience. In fact, education is growing cognitively, increasing in awareness, building capacity in heuristics and schema. Being prepared for life is about finding a way for oneself, rather than blind conformity.
If we allow this to remain status quo. We are doomed.
Take another case in point. What do the undergraduates talk about? Degrees. Paper qualification. Are our graduates able to perform? If they truely are, companies need not incorporate such extensive on-job-trainings and in-house-trainings. Our undergraduates concern themselves with material gain more than increasing ability.
With such overly - simplistic perspectives and blatant apathy, we cannot progress. Majulah, Singapura? Onward, Singapore?
No. National Education has taken too much of a bureaucratic bent. It is operated now as an add - on. Students see it as propaganda. Teachers see it as propaganda. Already, our educational ministry have taken the first few steps to correct the brutish approach on increasing capacity. The next step is difficult - changing the perspective of the population itself. A population that is the product of the old system: socially engineered to replicate the same errors done onto us.
The GDP per capita of Singapore is US$50,000 (2009). That of Australia is only US$38,000. Despite this, Australia ranks much higher on the Human Development Index than us. What remains to improve life is our social practices and culture.
Can this people be convinced to think differently? Are we sensitive enough to concern ourselves with culture rather than material gain? Are we cultured enough to appreciate the finer things in life? Are we humble enough to admit our flaws?
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