Current Singapore Ed System is far too inflexible and
short-sighted.
Our system fails to
recognize late bloomers. I personally feel that too
much streaming sidelines too many late bloomers and deprives many
of these otherwise bright children of chance to fully develop their
talents. Albert Einstein was one such late bloomer.
There's also poor emphasis on, and acceptance/understanding of, the
Arts in Singapore's schools..
Singapore still has no idea
what Art is about and it shows in the way they Arts students are
still bound by the basic maths requirements whether or not the
subject is relevant to the course at all.
Singapore's opened its doors to the Arts Scene, but so far our
initiatives have been extremely superficial, and our local arts
students lose out. One cannot hope to properly nurture Arts
students if there is little support available for these students in
the 1st place. Most Arts students simply go abroad to receive
adequate opportunities to develop their talents, instead of wasting
it here.. those who cannot afford it, and did not get the
opportunity to be discovered, lose out.
The current system of
streaming also creates unnecessary segregation and a class divide.
You would be continuously told "you just aren't good enough".. and
even you knew it wasn't true, you would begin to lose faith in
yourself when frequently and purposely denied the rightful
opportunities to shine, out of sheer bias. A normal
(A) student, compared with an Express student in the same school
can tell you of the biased treatment received at school. The
students of the "better" streams are not the sole perpetrators of
this discrimination.. it is even observed by teachers, principals,
parents, the government. There is little or no encouragement or
nurture for those of the "lousier" streams. If you produced a quality of work considered
beyond your stream's capacity, you'd be likely to be regarded with
much suspicion and hostility, even from your
teachers. Few chlidren climb back up in this
situation.
People who top such a rigid
system usually cannot tolerate failure. They tend to become
arrogant and look down on others. They would have
had been told that they are the best, been given the best, received
heaps of praise, and therefore are likely to react poorly to
criticism or "feedback". They would be proud that they have emerged
the "fittest".. and believe that those less successful are simply
the lazy rejects of society who dug their own graves. As the living
success stories of Singapore's education system, they would have
almost full support it and be skeptical of any calls for
change.
A recent, famous product of our "perfect" education system is
Wee Shu Min, who upset many
with her elitist comments.. her MP father later added salt to the wound by apologizing for his
daughter's tone but not for the contents of her writing.. this
created an uproar.
