For today’s post, I thought that I would just pose a few questions for us, especially those in Singapore, and perhaps, for those planning to follow the Singapore model.

How do you get students to become collaborative workers when all they do in school is compete with one another to be in the top schools, classes, university places, and for scholarships?

How do you get students to become life-long learners when in school, learning is done to pass high stakes examinations?

How do you get students to be independent learners when students, teachers, principals and parents expect that they be fed with lots of notes in order for them to do well in the high stakes examinations? In addition how do you do that when you have an army of private tutors trying to do the same thing?

How do you produce daring, creative and entrepreneurial (in memory of Steve Jobs?) adults when all they do in school is engage in rote-learning and mechanical operations? How do you get them to problem-solve when the only problems they face in school are the problems in their school worksheets?

How do you teach them to be critical adult thinkers when the education system does not encourage critical inquiry?

How do you teach them to be curious and be involve in serious scientific inquiry when all that is supposed to be science in our schools is largely rote-learning and mechanical operations?

How do you get students to move out of a silo mentality when in schools, learning is done in an environment where subjects are clearly demarcated and jealously guarded from crossing boundaries?

These are just some thoughts of mine about schooling in Singapore. Perhaps some of you out there would like to share your thoughts here?

Heng Swee Keat, Minister of Education, Singapore

At the Ministry of Education (MOE) Work Plan Seminar, Singapore’s Minister for Education, Heng Swee Keat, announced that the MOE will move towards an educational system which is more “holistic and balanced”. According to a report from the Today Online website today, it is announced that:

“To achieve a more student-centric culture, a review will be conducted to determine which practices are too achievements-driven, as well as those which generate too much administrative work, bogging down the teachers. These practices will be refined or done away with entirely, where possible.”

The MOE will also “create a new Character and Citizenship Education framework” in response to request from parents to “place a greater emphasis on character-building among the children.”

My initial impressions of this brief announcement is that this new reform will not make much of a change with regards to reducing stress except perhaps for teachers and school administrators by reducing their administrative workload. No mention is made about making changes (much less removing) the high stakes examinations focus of the Singapore education system.

This the main cause of much of the stress that is in the system. School administrators, teachers, students and parents are affected by the outcome of the students’ performance in these high stakes examinations. No mention is made of the removal of the school ranking system either. In short the changes are only cosmetic at best, and at worst it shows that the country is still stuck in its 19th century factory-like schooling system abetted by an Imperial China-style examination system.

Perhaps more interesting is that the lack of real changes reflects the reluctance by the Minister’s bureaucratic advisors in the MOE themselves to rock the boat. Despite claims in the past, of the need to make changes to meet the demands of the 21st century, little has been done except for an expensive cosmetic infusion of money into a massive MasterPlan for IT in Education (MPITE), that has still to show any significant result with regards to how teaching and learning is done differently in Singapore schools. Underneath that ICT gloss, Singapore schools are still stuck in the 19th century.

What do you think of these changes that the Minister has just announced? Let us know your thoughts on these planned changes for the Singapore education system.

Many teachers come into the profession with great ideals about what it means to be a teacher. While many find great satisfaction being in the line, many emerge from the trenches of teaching in schools, shell shocked or even mortally wounded.

Teaching in schools has all too often been reduced largely to getting students to jump over academic hoops which get higher each year. In addition to these academic hoops, teachers are expected to meet the commercialized expectations of principals and parents. Many teachers soon find that much of the ideals of the teaching profession have become subordinated to the commercial KPIs set by school principals and parents who have been fed the idea that education is mainly about getting stellar academic results.

The mad chase after these KPIs have resulted in stressed out teachers, students and parents. In Singapore, there is a rising number of students who have been diagnosed with mental problems with the emphasis in doing well in high stakes school examinations being the number one cause of these problems. Many still have chosen to opt out by their “unconscious yet voluntary’ non-participation in these academic activities through missing school or being simply “disruptive” or “not putting in the effort”. Yet, we all believe that education should make us better.

If education is truly to be a better experience for all of us, then perhaps education should be repositioned as being part of the wellness movement where all who are connected with it, will be in the best of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. The teacher’s position is redefined as someone who makes everyone he or she comes into contact with, healthy. The teachers nourishes all “the sick”, back to health and grows the already “well” to become even healthier in mind, body and spirit. In doing so, the teacher, stays well too rather than become broken or maimed. This is simply because what is done will be more consistent with the ideals of being a teacher rather than just being the producer of economic units that the teacher is generally regarded as today.