I was watching on cable TV recently about what will happen after humans have disappeared from the face of the  earth. I thought that it would be fun today that we try to imagine Singapore schools without its well-known high stakes examinations system.

What would it be like to be in such a scenario? What will it be like for all the concerned with school and education, namely, the students, teachers, school administrators, parents and even potential employers? What will a day in school be like? What will remain and what will change as a result fo the removal of of high stakes testing?

Will the actors in the educational stage die? Will they change and embrace the absence of high stakes testing? Will the manner of teaching and learning change? Will the teachers be taught new skills? Will they have to unlearn many things? Will they welcome it?

Will what is deemed important for learning in school also change? Will it be the same for all schools? Who will considered bright in such an environment? How will learning be assessed? Will students be happier? Will parents be happier?

Will there be more dropouts or fewer? How will the school leavers find their places in the economy?How will employers choose employees? How will the workforce change? How will the workplace change?

What do you think? These are just some of the questions that come to my mind. You may have more. Do share your thoughts with us.

During the Vietnam War, the Americans used body counts, that is casualty figures for the enemy as an indicator of the success of their war against the North Vietnamese. Numbers are a convenient way to indicate success or failure of almost anything.

The problem is when those people who use such simple indicators begin to believe in that such numbers actually reflect reality. It is made worse when such indicators like body counts, is not used by your enemy as the indicator of a successful war. Ho Chi Minh once said of the French whom he had fought before the Americans, “You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.” Clearly Ho Chi Minh had a better idea of what is real. Body counts were never his measure of success.

Education today is facing its own Vietnam. Policy makers, school administrators and teachers have become obsessed with key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of educational programs. Instead of body counts, we have test scores as our KPIs. The figures from such KPIs have a life of their own. Once adopted, it becomes an article of faith in terms of its accuracy. It becomes hard to let go of such measures because they become dogma. It becomes hard to let go also because the faithful cannot see any other alternative. Right or wrong it is held on to with the fervent of the converted.

So test scores, drop out rates and international surveys becomes part of the liturgy of education today. Never mind if intelligence cannot be reduced to a test score. Never mind too if many pass through these KPIs undetected. What is important is that we think have a measure. Sadly as the Americans found out with the Tet Offensive, body counts don’t count. Will we have to experience our own Tet Offensive in education before we realise this?

“Test-oriented education’ refers to the factual existence in  our nation’s education of the tendency to simply prepare for tests, aim for high test scores, and blindly pursuing admission rates [to colleges or higher-level schools] while ignoring the the real needs of the student and social development. It pays attention to only a minority of the student population and neglects the majority; it emphasizes knowledge transmission but neglects moral, physical, aesthetic, and labor education, as well as the cultivation of applied abilities and psychological and emotional development; it relies on rote memorization, and mechanical drills as the primary approach, which makes learning uninteresting, hinders students from learning actively, prevents them from taking initiatives, and heavily burdens them with [an] excessive amount of course work; it uses test scores as the primary or only criterion to evaluate students, hurting their motivation and enthusiasm, squelching their creativity, and impedes their overall self-development. “Test-oriented education” violates the Education Law and Compulsory Education Law and deviates from our educational policy. Henceforth, we must take all effective measures to promote “quality education” and free elementary and secondary schools from “test-oriented education”. (Guojia Jiaowei [National Education Commission], 1997)

~Quoted from “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization” by Yong Zhao

Catching Up or Leading the Way (Click here to purchase)

In my view, the statement above packs a wallop. Even the Chinese have woken up that their “test-oriented education” (I call it “examinations-centered schooling”) is bad for the students and the country. And this is a country with a a very long tradition of imperial examinations and is still very much a socialist country.

That definition of “test-oriented education” as “the factual existence in  our nation’s education of the tendency to simply prepare for tests, aim for high test scores, and blindly pursuing admission rates” definitely describes Singapore’s schooling system even today. No matter what the claims of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore. So Singapore is no different from China in this respect.

It also unequivocally condemned the test-preparation mind set. It also bravely acknowledges that it “ignores the real needs of the student”. Readers of my blog will know that I have been writing a lot about this, about what the students of today need to prepare them for the real world tomorrow. The statement from the National Education Commission is more brutal in its frankness than anything coming from the MOE. The MOE talks about making small changes most of the time because it is reluctant to admit that today the schooling system in Singapore is flawed fundamentally. Imagine how the teachers in Singapore will feel if it admits to this. Seems like a Communist country is more honest than a democratic one like Singapore. Moreover, it is coming from a country that has been able to put man in space. What about a country that has not, like Singapore.

It is interesting that if you read the statement, it well describes the Singapore system of schooling. Of course in Singapore, there are the elite schools that get to play with the “fun” and “exciting” stuff, like Obama’s daughters get in their elite school. But what about the rest of the citizens? Here again the statement above from the National Education Commission has hit it right on the nail when it said that its system has paid “attention to only a minority of the student population and neglects the majority.” The majority of the Singapore school population is regarded as “not as able” (and that is putting it mildly) as those in the elite schools. The latter gets the exciting stuff while the rest gets “the rote memorization, and mechanical drills as the primary approach” as mentioned above in the National Education Commission‘s report. The “test-oriented education” also “makes learning uninteresting, hinders students from learning actively, prevents them from taking initiatives”. This is from a Communist country where discipline and hard work in the face of traditional teacher-centered instruction. Simply incredible and radical if you think about this. It also shows how seriously aware they are of the shortcomings of their education system. In Singapore, we call it “meritocracy“.

The report also clearly spells out the effects of such a schooling system on the student population. Again, its conclusion is damning. It says that using “test scores as the primary or only criterion to evaluate students, hurting their motivation and enthusiasm, squelching their creativity, and impedes their overall self-development.” This is obvious but nobody in the MOE in Singapore wants to admit to this.

Let us also use that last line of the quote from the report  from the National Education Commission of China:

“…we must take all effective measures to promote “quality education” and free elementary and secondary schools from “test-oriented education”.

PS Prof. Yong Zhao’s book is a great read. Highly recommended. Arne Duncan should read it  too!