It’s the exams, stupid!
Another well-known secret of Singapore’s education system is that schools tend to pack their best teachers to teach the best classes. This practice is so prevalent in Singapore because of one important reason. The Singapore education system is very examination focused. The Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore has introduced project work for the Junior College level and alternative modes of assessment recently to reduce the emphasis on examinations.
One wonders where these alternative modes of assessment were placed before they “officially” introduced it. Still despite the introduction of alternative modes of assessment, all parents, teachers and principals know that at the end of the day to paraphrase a Clintonian era catch phrase, “It’s the exams, stupid!” It is the high stakes PSLE, GCE “O” and “A” levels examinations that really count in the Singapore system.
It is the examinations that drive the schools. All teaching is geared to the examinations. Anything else that is added is just pure lip balm. It is the examinations that has caused schools to start programs earlier than the official 7.30 “start” time of schools in Singapore. It is the examinations that has caused the schools to provide extra classes even though the teaching official hours has already been stretched till mid-afternoon. It is also the examinations that drive the lucrative private tuition industry in Singapore.
Is there time to teach for deep understanding in Singapore schools? Just listening to teachers in Singapore, one would know that there almost isn’t any. Teachers almost unanimously moan that they hardly have time to “prepare the students for the exams.” This is a refrain you will hear often from Singapore teachers. What they mean is that they don’t have enough time to “cover” the examinations syllabus, and to drill their students to answer the questions in the examinations. Everything else is secondary. There is no time for students to learn to think. “Just do it” (for the examinations), would be an accurate description of the teaching and learning processes in schools in Singapore. To be sure the government has talked many times about the need to produce workers who can work in teams, learn independently, think and problem-solve. But obviously, these messages have not sunk through into many bureaucrats in the MOE and also the principals and teachers in SIngapore schools. Those in MOE give mixed signals to the schools and the schools are quite happy to remain in their hard-earned area of expertise: preparing students for examinations.
