Thursday, August 24, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen - The Singapore Education System!
The acadamic rigor that we face here in Singapore is down right sick. Quoting Cheng, "[we] Singaporean students can survive anywhere. And [we] probably can trash the shit out of any American student." Why am I not suprised? With all the competition going on here, how can we not climb over those slackers? And to those who LOVE to compare Singaporean students to those in China - reality check states that we are a developed country passing off as a developing one so that we can enjoy certian extra incentives that the UN may offer. China is down in the slumps - they have to work their way out of it - we don't.
Yes yes.. Singapore is a small nation with human capital as its own natural resource... blah blah blah... we rely heavily on trade (140% of our GDP = exports and total trade, X+M, amounts to slightly less than 300% of our GDP) and all those facts but well, its high time we stopped studyiny so hard and study SMART. I don't see how cramping Mathematical formulas into a person's thick skull helps strengthen the nation's surviving chances in the future. We need entreperneurs and not robots! It is high time the government woke up and revempt (again!) the education system into one that is less taxing on content instead, focuses more on innovation and creative thinking. This is to say, teach us things that are freaking more applicable?
GP is fine. It's good in fact - although I can't really do the subject. Literature is good too. But Mathematics and Economics needs a bit of relooking. Econs is like so myopic - foundation - yea- perhaps. But it needs way more application... the stuff that will be thrown at us in University will probably shock us la! And we need innovation and flexibility - not knowledge on how good the MAS is - propaganda again right? Haix. MOE ar MOE... we all LOVE Singapore to bits le - teach us something useful now will you? Math likewise, is utter crap. Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to apply Integration, Differentiation or Complex Numbers in real life? Food for thought ain't it.
Adaptibility and flexibility as well as the drive to learn and improve ourselves MUST be the focus of our education system. We change to fast - we face structural unemployment all the time - and the education system is developing people who are mere robots in learning and applying - no innovation. In addition, the extreme rigor may be a turn off for some and thus, the ill-will to further their studies or let alone, remain in Singapore. In trying to get us out to the workforce at an earlier stage, the government compromises on our long time mindsets. No longer should stuff be cramped down our throats instead, we have to WANT to find out. Youths are like that - force, we rebel. Don't force but convince us that it is fun and good for us, we'll do it wholeheartedly and given our potential, succeed.
In conclusion, I feel that the government really needs to relook at the education system. With stress levels sky rocketing to take responsibility for over 60% of the depression case, there is a dire need to relook at the system and the mental capacity of human beings instead of the finding ways to force those little minds to absorb more.
Meanwhile, I'm still stuck in this system and yes, I have no choice. Studying is getting interesting though - that I've gotta admit. Starting to see the light to things but still, it's pretty irritating when I find that application wise, I never know how to use Mathematics in the real world. Oh well... I'll just go with the flow for now... succumb to the government's propaganda efforts and abide by the Singapore Education System rigor. =)
