Let me comment about this letter in the ST forum today, the writer comparing Singapore schools with a UK school that she taught in -
- "The United Kingdom education system inspires and enables the child to learn, builds confidence and nurtures creative thinkers. 'Teaching to test' seems to be the objective of Singapore schools."
This is very true! So what can we all do about it? Nothing at all, unless a change of mindset, along with a change of syllabus etc comes from the top. All schools want to do well so that they will be higher ranked, all teachers want good results to get promoted; therefore there is no way things will change.
- "The class teacher spends considerable time planning and preparing lessons to meet the different needs of the children. No designated textbooks are used.
Not possible. As I explained in a
previous post, the time teachers spend on planning lessons is negligible. Again, if we are to put more effort into lesson planning, our work for all other things should be reduced. But then again, schools all want to be higher ranked, teachers all want to excel in their CCAs and committee work etc for better performance grading. Again, things will not be changed.
- "One has to look into how confident, articulate and expressive Singapore pupils are and who does most of the talking in class, the teacher or the pupils?"
Is this a school's problem? I think it is more of a societal problem as a whole. How many of our citizens dare to speak up against injustice, ill-manners, discourteous acts, and wrong-doings? How many of us believe that by speaking out, we can make a difference? The child simply follows what the adults do, which is nothing. School can help to encourage children to speak up, but it will be useless if the rest of society doesn't believe in it.
I like this statement the best -
"I respect the teachers of Singapore who try their very best to deliver the Government's expectations. But it appears that, collectively, society has created a nation that is obsessed with rankings and success."
1 comment:
Interesting post. I think the debate on Singapore's education system is not new. And it will probably take some time to modify.
I had also been thinking about this in the past, and perhaps realised that the education system in the past served the growth of the nation in its founding years. Then the manufacturing industry was key in Singapore's growth and we needed manpower to fuel it. We had the competitive advantage of low wages with high value-add compared to our competitors.
Of course, things have since changed, and now that people have become more affluent, we look to other aspects of development and wonder why our educational system didn't hone more creative aspects of the individual.
I think we are getting to that, but it will probably take some time before we see some radical change. Afterall, it takes time and a huge turning radius to turn a huge ship (Don't ask me where that analogy came from... haha).
Just my 2 cents.... hahaha... sorry for the long reply.
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