Are schools today still relevant? In other words, what is the role of schools today? In Singapore, the education system is often seen as necessary to prepare its people for the employment market. The Singapore economy needs them so the schools must produce them. In fact, education today in Singapore schools is really about the needs of the economy. It is not about education at all but rather about training workers. Schools in Singapore have long given up that role as educational centers. They are in reality training schools for the job market.

But what if the economy is going to undergo rapid and constant changes? What if, as it has been predicted that people will have many different jobs (some say up to 16) by the time they are 40 years old? What can the schools teach to keep these people meaningfully employed in their later years?

Can a school system that emphasizes mainly content be relevant in this age? Can a school system that only emphasizes producing exam smart students be relevant? Can a school system that emphasizes giving only “correct” answers be of any use to an economy that requires workers with skills relevant to the 21st century?

Schools need to change their priorities with regards to what is taught if they want to remain relevant even in its narrowly defined role as training ground for the future workforce. In a future (some say even current) environment where content is no longer king, and skills matter more, schools in Singapore, and the rest of the world must move towards emphasizing the teaching and learning of skills. Content must be taught in greater tandem with skills. If this fundamental shift does not take place, then school obsolescence will become permanent.

In the lean times that Singapore is facing, Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced plans to recruit 3000 teachers in 2009. The current Minister of Education, Ng Eng Hen, has moved to assure everyone in Singapore that although that is the target, the MOE will be quite happy if it does not meet the quota it has set for itself. The Minister said:

“We will… ensure that only those with the passion, aptitude and commitment to teaching are selected,”

He also said:

“We would rather hire less to get the type of teachers we want to maintain a quality teaching force.”

He was responding to queries in Singapore’s Parliament by its members about MOE’s recruitment policies. The Member of Parliaments (MPs) were voicing the concerns of many in Singapore that the MOE’s recruitment drive would capture the wrong people for the job in the light of the current depressed job market. But these assurances were already given earlier so why do these MPs still need to be reassured.

Perhaps this is because the MOE has not explained how it is going to “ensure that only those with the passion, aptitude and commitment to teaching are selected.” The Senior Minister of State for Education, Grace Fu added that only half of those applicants who met the academic criteria passed the selection interview. This suggests that the MOE still depends very much on the interview process to select teachers. How the interview panel is able to do this is anyone’s guess.

It is about time that the MOE introduces psychological tests to help it make more informed choices with regards to the selection process for teachers. The MOE also can choose to look for candidates whose views of what learning is all about would be more suitable to producing students for the 21st century. Sure it is perhaps too much to ask untrained people to discuss about educational issues but at the very least, I am certain we can find out if such people are stuck in the old traditional paradigm about what schooling is. The selectors must be brave to select people who, to borrow the Apple tagline,  “think different”. Singapore needs it if it is going to solve the problems created by the old paradigm of teaching and learning.

The psychological tests can also be used to sought such people. People who are creative and dare to take on and bring on change. The MOE must also make sure there are real changes to its schooling system so that such people will not be penalized for trying to be different. Here, the MOE must work harder on changing the paradigms of the teachers and school administrators already in service. This, I suspect, will be difficult for the MOE because how do you tell a group of workers who have always been raised for a wonderful job that a lot of their current practices need a serious revamp? The MOE has always praised its teachers and the pay structure for teachers is one of the best in Singapore’s civil service. But “the times they are a-changin”. They ought to be told and given clear signals that the old ways alone will just not be sufficient anymore for education in Singapore.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

- “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan

The Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore has made many grand announcements about its change of emphasis for the Singapore education system. It has introduced “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN)”, “Masterplan for IT in Education (MPITE)”, and lately “Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM)”. All these initiatives and other pronouncements from up high are supposed to help propel Singapore into the 21st century.

The MOE has also introduced new benchmarks and accompanying awards for schools and teachers to push the education system into the new era. ISOs and KPIs have become the norm in Singapore schools today. These jargons have become embedded into the langauge of the teachers and principals of Singapore schools. They now live, breathe KPIs and ISOs (and the examinations of course). These are now the new measures of progress in Singapore schools. It is the “New Stupid” that I mentioned in an earlier post.

I suggest a far simpler measure or assessment gauge for the progress made by the Singapore education system. MOE will not need a consultant to devise a grand plan and strategy for measuring progress and changes in the schools. All the MOE officials have to do is to listen if students and parents have stopped asking this question: “Will it appear in the examinations?”

When no one asks such questions anymore, then MOE has made real progress.