Posted by theonlinecitizen
on August 8, 2010
Ravi Philemon –
It is the season to celebrate the 45 years
of independence Singapore has enjoyed. Being almost as old as
Singapore, I have lived through the transformation of this
city-state.
I remember sitting on my father’s shoulders to catch the
march-pass along Tanglin Halt Road in the ‘70s. I have never missed
watching a single National Day parade on TV from as far back as I
can remember (except for the years that I was away in the USA).
This is the season to be proud of being a Singaporean.
I pay tribute to my mother this National Day, for she is the
type of resilient, selfless Singaporean, who built the Singapore we
have today. When we were rendered homeless through a series
of unfortunate events, my mother held down three jobs, to put us
three children through school. She knew that education will
provide the chance for her children – her future – to claw back
from the misery we were in.
This National Day, the more I ponder about the kind of future we
will have the more unsure I become of Singapore’s tomorrow.
For one, there is the growing income gap – the gap between the
‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. The root cause of this problem I feel
is the Singapore education system which has disadvantaged the
‘have-nots’.
Even though students in Singapore do exceptionally well in Maths
and Science tests internationally, there are just a handful of them
who turn out to be ‘world-beaters’. To remedy this, we must move
from being an ‘exam meritocracy’ to being a ‘talent
meritocracy’.
We must move from the culture of “Work hard! Memorise!
Test-well!’ to a culture of learning that challenges conventional
wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. Only this shift in
the learning culture will enable our students, who are the future
of Singapore, to be creative, curious, and to have a sense of
adventure and ambition. Streaming which happens at a very
early stage of education in Singapore is a major culprit which
impedes this shift in the culture of learning.
Streaming is a form of social class stratification, where
those in the Gifted Education Programme would go on to be
leaders in whatever fields they might enter, be it government,
medicine, science or anything, the Special students would go
on to earn university degrees and seek well-paid soft collar jobs,
and the Express students would go on to Polytechnics and serve
as associate professionals and clerical workers, and the
Normal stream students would end up as technicians, hawkers,
and road sweepers.
And this segregation by way of streaming happens at a very young
age, based on who is the most ‘exams-smart’. Even those that are
smart, but cannot test well despite trying to rote-learn, are
streamed down. Those without the ’right’ paper qualifications
are labelled as ‘failures’.
According to the year 2000 census, there were 116300 such
‘failure’ families in Singapore, who earn below $1000 per
month. Six in ten of these households are headed by someone with
only primary school education or less. And they work as
cleaners, labourers or as service workers.
The government’s policy of excessively streaming the students at
a very young age and causing unnecessary stress not only
to the students but also to their parents, right from primary
school to secondary school to places of tertiary education, must be
re-looked.
And re-look this policy of streaming we must so that we can go
daringly into the future Singapore, knowing that we have given the
younger generation the gift of being lifelong learners, so that
they can adapt and overcome challenges the future may throw at
them.
Another reason why I look at the National Days of the future
with uncertainty is because of those that are over 40 and are (or
become) unemployed. Unlike the time of my mother, it may be
more difficult for these to get jobs, so that they could be
self-reliant. I personally know some people who despite going
for WSQ courses have not been able to get a job.
Although this problem is found in the unskilled workforce, it
especially impedes the skilled labour force. Ironically, it
is but the skilled workforce that not only has the right education
and skill-sets but also the experience; but there seem to be a
prejudice by the employers in hiring skilled workers who are over
40.
Those that are in the 40s are in their prime and have many more
years of being able to contribute to the growth and well-being of
Singapore. We cannot just expect them to take any job that comes by
their way; a job which may not pay them sufficiently to meet their
burden of living costs and commitments as sons, daughters, fathers
and mothers and becomes a cost of opportunity.
Besides the relevant ministries embarking on campaigns to
educate employers to forgo prejudices of hiring older workers, the
older workers themselves must be given time to search for
appropriate jobs.
Although we see good GDP growth today and seem to have rebounded
from the deep economic crisis, as we go into the future, nobody can
guarantee that there will not be another economic crisis and no one
can guarantee that there will not be another round of lay-offs. The
welfare of the workers must be protected when the next down-turn
strikes.
The government must use part of the CPF restoration exercise for
a national employment insurance scheme, where every worker will be
insured against job-loss or retrenchment. The mechanisms of
such an insurance scheme to benefit every worker, including the
duration and amount of payouts, can be further studied once the
scheme is given approval in principal.
This will be the best National Day gift to the workers in
Singapore, without whom we will not have the Singapore that we have
today.
Happy National Day Singapore!
————
Picture from
jamcansing.com.
