Singapore’s superb education system firing blanks

The revelation that 12 year olds are being sent for leadership training like Tanjong Katong Primary offers a glimpse of how intensive, comprehesive and extensive our children are being educated and trained to be useful adults and leaders of tomorrow. And Tanjong Katong is not even a top elite school. You can imagine what those children would be put through in the top schools? Our education system is about producing the best students not only academically but also holistically, wholesome, all rounded in the arts and humanities, sports and yes leadership, and everything you want in a person that is as close to a superman or superwoman. They are going to the champions in life. This is how thorough and impressive our education system is designed and programmed to be.

No one can doubt the quality and how expensive our nurseries and kindergartens are, with the best teachers and facilities. Our primary and secondary schools are the best there is, and our world best universities. The products from such an expensive education system have to be the best or the bestest.

Compare to what our students are exposed to and those from the 3^rd world education system, it is like comparing heaven and hell. Could any of the 3^rd world education system offer what we are offering to our students? Not by your wildest imagination. We are the best, no such thing as second best. Look at the risk the primary schools are putting the children through, climbing mountains, travelling round the world, to learn and be educated. Some even lost their lives in the process of pursuing the best education money can buy. The students of 3^rd world countries don’t even have the chance to leave their little villages, no mobile phones, computer systems and all the modern day gadgetry.

What happens when come to adulthood and employment? The 3^rd world creeps are here dismissing our graduates as dull, daft, not creative, lazy and no skills set. On the contrary the 3^rd world village graduates are the best, talented, clever, innovative and creative and have all the skills sets needed to be top management material.

Is this not puzzling?  Would I be wrong to assume that the products of our superb education system must be the most sought after by the employers? They are all trained to be the best, some even perished at 12 in the pursuit of excellence. Isn’t that so? We can’t be spending so much money and indulging in adventurism to produce useless duds can we?

Let me give you a dose of reality. Our world class education system graduates should count themselves lucky if they are even hired and to work under these 3^rd world creeps. The more unlucky ones could even be working under 3^rd world fakes and cheats that may not even qualify for their 3^rd world average universities or have no degrees at all.

And what do you know? Our world class graduates would not know the difference and would accept when told that they are daft and useless by the fakes and cheats and the 3^rd world average university graduates. Despite all the great training and education, they could not think or question why they were no good or no better than 3^rd world fakes and cheats. Many even think the fakes are really better than them. They would not dare challenge the creeps telling them that they are NG, have no doubts that the creep could be a fake or a substandard product from substandard universities. How could first world metropolitan city folks be conned and cheated by 3^rd world fakes is simply mystifying. And till today, no one bothers to do a stock check to rid the country of all the fakes and cheats and choose to pretend there is no such problem.

Why do we put our students through such a complex and mind sapping education system to be the best only to become unthinking duds, knows nothing and don’t even have any common sense or survival skills? They don’t even believe in themselves and in the fact that they have gone through the best and most expensive education system in the world.

Actually cannot blame them. The most sickening thing is that even our so called worldly wise adults do not have faith in our local talents from our world best system. Everyday, every moment they will cry for more foreign talents. This is now second nature to them. If you don’t believe, just wait for any top management position to fall vacant and see what they would do? They would not bother to look for another Singaporean and would not hesitate to get a foreign search agency to look for a foreigner that they presumed must be a talent, better than a Singaporean. They would go for the unknown foreigners and would not question their certifications, degrees and diplomas and testimonials. They believe the foreigners are all honest and talented people that would not lie or cheat.

And we are ploughing so much money and so much hope in our world best education system to produce supermen and superwomen only to turn out misfits, no skills set graduates, or at best unthinking robots fit only to be taxi drivers.

At 12 years old they are already selected and trained to be leaders. At 18 they are no longer good enough for anything. By the time they get into the job market, they are unemployable, worst than 3^rd world fakes and cheats.

There is hope but also a confirmation that our education system has failed. They have realized that the products of our superb education system are not good enough and are looking forward to train them to be top management material in 30 years time.  How are they going to train and educate them I dunno?  The 12 year old climbing mountain programme is part of the superb system that churned out duds. If they don’t change the system that produced duds and washouts, in 30 years time would the products still be the same as today?

Education – A time and place for everything

National Remembrance Day, half mast, PM and ministers’ condolence messages, support from friends and relatives, kind words, all these meant nothing to the parents that were flown all the way to Kota Kinabalu to identify the bodies of their children and to bring them home, lifeless. This is a tragedy that cannot be described in words. The loss is devastating to the parents and loved ones.
 
Would anyone, any school, wish to continue with such a programme for their 12 year olds or 16 year olds? What is the role and function of a school, a primary school, a secondary school? Is leadership training part of the curriculum, a responsibility of the schools?
 
There is a time for everything, a time to be a child, go to school, be a playful teenager, NS, tertiary education, get a job, settle down and start a family. Schools should not over extend themselves to do things that are beyond their scope of responsibility. Sending children overseas for whatever educational activities should not be the function of primary and secondary schools. Leadership training at 12 is a farce! Go and do well in the PSLE first. Leadership training in an overseas trip is a bigger farce! 2 years in NS may not make any difference in making leaders of NS men. Challenging the 12 year olds to their limits is high falutin. No need to say more.
 
The MOE must re examine the role of education at different levels and keep the eager beavers under control. It is good to want to conquer the world, to be the best of everything. But do it at a proper time. Do not try to over achieve and go astray with fallacious activities not suitable or appropriate for the different age groups. There is no need to prove beyond what the schools are set out to do. Going the extra mile is always good if done within limits and without endangering the safety of the children.
 
Educators are expected to be professionals and to know the limits of what they can do and should do and what is unnecessary and superfluous. Do not expose the educators to do things that they would regret for the rest of their lives. No amount of kind words can bring back the children that were lost. The parents would live a life of painful memories and regrets of their loved ones prematurely taken from them. Can you imagine the grief?
 
I am lost for words to console the victims’ families. The loss of lives is so unnecessary. We don’t have earthquake but have so many earthquake victims to mourn and a day of remembrance for it. So unnecessary.

A depressing day in Tanjong Katong Primary School

A 12 year old girl, Peony Wee, lost her life on a mountain trekking trip to Mount Kinabalu when an earthquake hit the mountain. 2 teachers and 7 more students are still missing. The students were there for leadership training as part of their wholesome education and investment for the future. Our education process is top notched, our students did not just go to school to learn the 3Rs but a lot of other ECA and character development programmes to make them leaders of tomorrow. Only a rich country like ours could afford such a comprehensive and enriching programme unlike the developing countries. Hopefully the product of our expensive education system will produce useful graduates for the economy in the future. If only this comprehensive system was introduced earlier, our PMETs would not be in dire straits today.

While we pray for the safe return of the missing students and teachers, maybe we should take the opportunity to reflect, with hindsight, how much we want to do with our children to make them better adults in the future. Mountain climbing for 12 year olds to me is a bit far fetched though many would thing it is normal and good. The overall picture is that all outings, even within Singapore, would incur some form of risk and could turn into tragedy if fate is unkind.

The Korean ferry tragedy is still vivid to many and still being mourned by the parents of those children that were gone. I thought that would have been food for thought to rein back some of the activities of the schools. Apparently our overseas trips and programmes for students are in full swing and students are encouraged to travel around the world, to many distant countries for all round character development. This is very good if everything turns out fine.

The question is that should schools be involved in such overseas trips that often benefits a few that could afford the cost and many that could not and could only envied? Should such trips be left to the parents and families to their own fancy and not involved the schools? It is good to have such programmes, a great outing, a great holiday to remember of. But as to the real value, it is subjective especially for very young children.

Maybe the MOE may want to rethink and look at the bad side if things did not turn out right like this case. Tragedy that can be avoided shall be avoided. The process of growing up and learning is a life time experience and there is no urgency to do it at the primary or even secondary school level. The biggest training programme and character development will come when the boys get enlisted into NS. That is solid training to turn boys to men at the appropriate time, and if danger is part of the process of growing up, NS training is full of it.

The Mount Kinabalu tragedy is still unfolding and could be worse. 9 are still missing. We do not need a bigger tragedy of the South Korean dimension to regret and think it is unwise to expose our children to it. Let the parents bring their children to Disneyland or the African jungle if they so choose to. The principals and teachers do not need to live with such memories and to regret the rest of their lives.

The Americans are great adventurers and love to go to war to return as victors and heroes. But when the brave young men and women return in body bags, the pain and hurt will last a life time. Having fun is one thing and everyone loves to have fun. Think of the consequences and ask if it is necessary. Is it something that must have or good to have or nice to have but not really necessary?