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.