Quite a few of you came to my post, “A rose-tinted view of Singapore’s education system”, from a link that had this comment:
“Just because many enrolled in extra tuition doesn’t necessarily diminishes contributions made by teachers in schools.”

I think the comment is off the mark. If he had just bothered to read carefully, the point I was making was that too much credit has been given to the Singapore school system by far-away foreign observers.

Our teachers are hard-working. Quite a few are too hard-working for their own good. Some time ago the local paper, The Straits Times reported that teachers made up the largest group of professionals who visited the local Institute of Mental Health (and I am not even suggesting that they are lunatics because of this). The local teachers’ union when asked if teachers were coping well with the work load would always claim that their members were coping well despite this piece of evidence, not to mention that many of the older teachers trying to get out of teaching through “early retirement” on medical grounds. The latter is another open secret of the Singapore education system. So our teachers do work hard.

But in all honesty I think the school system in Singapore is unable to cope with the high stakes exams as it is now without all these extra-school “assistance” like private tuition. The school hours have also been extended yet there are still lots of extra classes. Why is there a need for this if the system is so good or if there is sufficient time? Talk to teachers and they will tell you that they are always in a mad rush “to complete the syllabus in time for the examinations”. Why must learning and teaching be in a rush? In such a “rushed” situation, do they really teach conceptual understanding properly? The focus in our schools is not the mastery of such things; it is the mastery of the examination questions that is sought. Now if these are not evidence of an overloaded, unrealistic exam-oriented syllabus, then I don’t know what is.

Do we want to own up that teachers and students “officially” work longer than the official school hours designated for lessons that we want to tell to our foreign audience. I know of schools where principals close a blind eye to teachers carrying out “illegal” classes on Saturdays in school even though Saturdays are supposed to be off for teachers and students. That would be more honest. And if we do that would our system look as “great” in the eyes of foreign observers? Our education system is pretty good. But let us not go overboard with its achievements.

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