The editorial of the Straits Times applauded the new measures to protect students from premature closure of private schools. The additional requirements by the MOE will give students some peace of mind, at least they would not lose all their money, and there is an option of placement in other private schools. What was not addressed is the time and effort lost while being a student of fly by night schools or con shops. The other good things are Singapore's reputation as an education hub and the Singapore Brand which will be protected in some ways.
Looking at the other side, a lot of people will lose their jobs or income. The ST editorial says it is a good thing to let the weaker private schools close shop. When that happens, the teaching staff and administrative staff will lose their jobs if more private schools find it difficult to operate here. The landlords will not be able to let out their office space, and all the people in the supporting industry will be affected. The value of commercial properties will go down as well. That is bad for those who have plonked their money in such properties.
What will happen is that with more controls it will restrain the entrepreneur spirit of the businessmen to make a quick buck. Don't forget that this is one of the secrets of our success story. Entrepreneurship will be curtailed. This is bad too as we are promoting entrepreneurship for those who have lost their jobs. Making money opportunities will also be limited. This is contrary to what private education is all about. The private educationist and entrepreneurs will disagree with this. They will definitely insist that private education is about education. Is it or it isn't is subjective. I concede that the good private schools are doing a good job in providing the opportunities for students to get their education when the public schools could not offer them. This is a very good cause and reason for private schools.
We have a conflict of interest don't we? We want to provide education and also make money but we can't have it all with more restrictions on the entrepreneurs or cheats. A possible solution to have the cake and eat it is to have two kinds of private schools. One will have full govt endorsement and abide by all the good regulations. In another sector, let it be free for all, no regulations and students beware, caveat emptor hor. And I think many would love that, including some special groups of students, and the cheat operators of course. There is a market for bogus schools, really, no bluffing. Not a bad suggestion isn't it? Catering for the good, the bad and the ugly. And we will have a very vibrant education scene and more foreign students will come to our shore.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Monday, December 07, 2009
Protecting fees of private schools students
The Ministry of Education has come up with new regulations under the Private Education Act to protect students from losing their tuition fees paid in case of the schools closing down. The change means that private schools can now collect only two months of fees in advance or 6 months if they purchasing a fee protection insurance. With these changes private students can at worst lose a few months of their fees. What a big help. Is money the only thing that needs protection? What about the wasted time, the anguish, and the psychological consequences of a young student being caught in such a dilemma? Hehe, we can only think of money. Money is our culture.
Then students were told to be vigilant. It is still caveat emptor! Does the authority think that the culprits or cheats that caused the mess need to be punished as well? Where is the big stick? They should have learnt from the stock exchange where little human mistakes of a few hundred dollars can result in thousands of dollars of fines. Mind you, it is human error and not fraud or bad intention. The punitive penalties have struck fear in the remisiers for making mistakes. But mistakes they will make as they are not demigods or immortals. And they will be very very careful.
The MOE should adopt a similar policy and strike fear among the fraudsters and cheats in the private education industry. Make the punishment punitive and fearful enough to keep them away. Here we are talking about crimes and bad intention and these must surely deserve more severe punishment than pure human errors. Without such punishment, the lure of easy money from innocent and vulnerable foreign students will be too attractive for the cheats to continue what they are doing. The MOE must send out a strong signal that they mean business and has the resolve to want to clean up the industry of such pests.
The above article is copied from Asian Correspondent.
Then students were told to be vigilant. It is still caveat emptor! Does the authority think that the culprits or cheats that caused the mess need to be punished as well? Where is the big stick? They should have learnt from the stock exchange where little human mistakes of a few hundred dollars can result in thousands of dollars of fines. Mind you, it is human error and not fraud or bad intention. The punitive penalties have struck fear in the remisiers for making mistakes. But mistakes they will make as they are not demigods or immortals. And they will be very very careful.
The MOE should adopt a similar policy and strike fear among the fraudsters and cheats in the private education industry. Make the punishment punitive and fearful enough to keep them away. Here we are talking about crimes and bad intention and these must surely deserve more severe punishment than pure human errors. Without such punishment, the lure of easy money from innocent and vulnerable foreign students will be too attractive for the cheats to continue what they are doing. The MOE must send out a strong signal that they mean business and has the resolve to want to clean up the industry of such pests.
The above article is copied from Asian Correspondent.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
1 D and 2 ungraded subjects for A level
A blogger from UK posted a comment in www.mysingaporenews.blogspot.com that a student with the above grades was admitted for a degree course in management by a 'university'. He could not confirmed the name but thought it was unlikely to be SIM or SMU. He did mentioned something like SUM.
Would there be any university or 'university' in Singapore admitting students with such grades? The fact that this piece of news travelled all the way to UK speaks a lot about the going on's in the education scene here. And it cannot be good news. People are starting to raise the red flag, questioning the quality of our education hub.
Would there be any university or 'university' in Singapore admitting students with such grades? The fact that this piece of news travelled all the way to UK speaks a lot about the going on's in the education scene here. And it cannot be good news. People are starting to raise the red flag, questioning the quality of our education hub.
Friday, December 04, 2009
The Singapore Education Brand - Does anyone bother?
This guy handed me his name card and it read, Dr Boh Tak Cheh, CEO, Karanguni Enterprise. He gave me that big and confident smile, telling me that he had arrived. He owned a very big and successful business in collecting old and secondhand goods and resell them for profits. He had done well. He told me that his good friend, the headman of Sungei Road Thief Market, as it was well known for selling secondhand and stolen goods, has also acquired a doctorate from a foreign university which he did not know where. Many successful Singaporeans are now flashing their doctorates in their name cards. For these new towkays, they have done exceedingly well in their businesses. I always tell them that they don't need that stupid degree to be respectable. When Dr Boh Tak Cheh parks his Mercedes 400 at the entrance of the hotel, the doormen will all rush to open his car door. I have to quietly sneak in myself without anyone noticing that I have been there.
People like Dr Boh would probably be directors of several companies and chairmans of many social and business organisations. We should salute such men and women who have done well and contribute to society in their own ways.
What is troublesome is that there are many unaccredited colleges that claim to be universities and setting up shops here to issue degrees to the point that Singapore has appear in the infamous list of unaccredited institutions and degree mills of the Oregon's Office of Degree Authorisation. The six Singaporean institutions named in Sandra Davie's article in the ST are Cranston University, Templeton University, Trident University of Technology, Vancouver University Worldwide, Westmore University and the last one, with the gumption to call itself Lee Community College, also set up business here.
For several years since the liberalisation and the ambition plan to turn Singapore into an education hub, the education scene is like no man's land. Quite a number of private schools have failed and left students, both foreign and locals, stranded, wasted their time and money cheated. As if these were not enough signals to warrant some kind of enforcement, things seems to go on as per normal. Nothing happen leh.
Other than the diminishing value and credibility in the Singapore Education Brand, the saddest part is that innocent students came to be swindled off their hard earned money, and some wasted years all for nothing. Anyone feeling guilty or responsible? In a hotel when there is no ownership and everyone only thinks about his big bonus and holidays, such neglect is a likely outcome. When will god get angry?
Despite the setbacks, there are many honorable people who have came into the education scene and have filled a gap for the hungry students who wanted to further their studies. They have done a noble job to provide the opportunities that are otherwise not there, for students to chase their dreams for a better education and a better life. The works of these honorable people in providing education to those who needed them could be tarnished and negatively affected by the sheer lack of enforcement to ensure that the black sheep are weeded out.
When education is not about education but making money, indiscretion and fraud are bound to be occur. This is not restricted just to this industry. Medical health, insurance, legal services, the financial industry etc etc, are also victims to this profit making mindset, when making money supercedes all considerations, even ethics and morality.
How long will the Singapore Brand be battered before it goes into the gutters? Who is responsible?
People like Dr Boh would probably be directors of several companies and chairmans of many social and business organisations. We should salute such men and women who have done well and contribute to society in their own ways.
What is troublesome is that there are many unaccredited colleges that claim to be universities and setting up shops here to issue degrees to the point that Singapore has appear in the infamous list of unaccredited institutions and degree mills of the Oregon's Office of Degree Authorisation. The six Singaporean institutions named in Sandra Davie's article in the ST are Cranston University, Templeton University, Trident University of Technology, Vancouver University Worldwide, Westmore University and the last one, with the gumption to call itself Lee Community College, also set up business here.
For several years since the liberalisation and the ambition plan to turn Singapore into an education hub, the education scene is like no man's land. Quite a number of private schools have failed and left students, both foreign and locals, stranded, wasted their time and money cheated. As if these were not enough signals to warrant some kind of enforcement, things seems to go on as per normal. Nothing happen leh.
Other than the diminishing value and credibility in the Singapore Education Brand, the saddest part is that innocent students came to be swindled off their hard earned money, and some wasted years all for nothing. Anyone feeling guilty or responsible? In a hotel when there is no ownership and everyone only thinks about his big bonus and holidays, such neglect is a likely outcome. When will god get angry?
Despite the setbacks, there are many honorable people who have came into the education scene and have filled a gap for the hungry students who wanted to further their studies. They have done a noble job to provide the opportunities that are otherwise not there, for students to chase their dreams for a better education and a better life. The works of these honorable people in providing education to those who needed them could be tarnished and negatively affected by the sheer lack of enforcement to ensure that the black sheep are weeded out.
When education is not about education but making money, indiscretion and fraud are bound to be occur. This is not restricted just to this industry. Medical health, insurance, legal services, the financial industry etc etc, are also victims to this profit making mindset, when making money supercedes all considerations, even ethics and morality.
How long will the Singapore Brand be battered before it goes into the gutters? Who is responsible?
Friday, November 27, 2009
Singapore on list of ‘degree mill’ countries
SINGAPORE, Nov 26 — Degree mills that churn out ‘graduates’ at the drop of a hat are the sort of dodgy outfits we link with shadier parts of the world, but the problem is a lot closer to home and threatens to harm Singapore’s name as an education centre.
Small as it is, the country appears six times on a list compiled by Oregon’s Office of Degree Authorisation (ODA).
The American state has strict laws regarding the use of qualifications from unaccredited institutions and those dubbed “degree mills” or “degree suppliers”.
It requires that a person’s business cards, CV and letterhead declare if his degree is from an unaccredited university.
The term — degree or diploma mill — has been used in the United States and around the world to refer to “substandard or fraudulent colleges that offer potential students degrees with little or no serious work”.
They range from those which are simple frauds — an address to which people send money in exchange for a degree — to those that require some nominal work from the student but do not require the college-level study normally required for a degree.
Oregon’s laws make its list one of the most comprehensive compiled by a state government body in the United States.
It names six institutions here as offering unaccredited qualifications: Cranston University, Templeton University, Trident University of Technology, Vancouver University Worldwide, Westmore University and Lee Community College.
Names of institutions go on the list if there are queries made by members of the public. Checks are carried out on the status of the university both in the US and with foreign governments before they are put on the list.
Checks by The Straits Times found that Westmore University’s website is hosted by a company operating out of Science Park.
Vancouver University Worldwide, which was ordered to be shut by the Canadian government two years ago, had offered its courses here for a few years.
Several insurance industry professionals have MBAs, while some even have doctorates, from the university.
A few Singaporeans were also found to have degrees from Cranston University and Templeton University. Both are listed as online universities, based in Singapore and possibly Nevada.
The Palin School of Arts and Design in Bras Basah lists Trident University of Technology degrees, but Palin officials say that currently they are not offering the degree programme in advertising and design.
ODA’s list says Trident was denied approval by the state of Wisconsin and it was never legal in New Jersey as claimed.
But what was surprising was the presence on the list of Lee Community College. The private school has a CaseTrust for Education quality mark and is popular for its diploma courses in counselling and psychology.
The Straits Times found that the school, in Maxwell Road, also offers a degree from the American University for Humanities (AUH), which a staff member said is accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education.
ODA’s website has this to say about the American university: “New name for American University of Hawaii, which was closed by court order. Operations claiming accreditation from The American Academy for Liberal Education in Lebanon do not meet Oregon legal requirements and degrees are not valid here. Degrees issued from Delaware are not valid in Oregon.”
Although the school has been offering degree courses for years, a check with the Ministry of Education (MOE) revealed that Lee Community College is not approved to offer any external degree programmes.
An MOE spokesman said the matter would be investigated.
It warned that new regulations require all private schools to seek permission from the new statutory board, the Council for Private Education (CPE) before offering external degree programmes, including online programmes.
Non-compliance may lead to deregistration of the private school and prosecution of its officials.
Lee Community College’s chief executive, Dr Frederick Toke, said the school spent over US$100,000 (RM338,000) to seek accreditation for the degree programme, which was from the American University for Humanities in Tbilisi, Georgia.
It was accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education, a recognised accrediting agency in the US for liberal arts institutions, but was rejected by the MOE.
Toke did not explain why the school continued to offer the degree despite the MOE rejection. He would only say that the school is now seeking MOE approval to run other degree programmes from the US.
Alan Contreras, the administrator for Oregon’s ODA, said Singapore never used to feature on the ODA’s list.
“The problem Singapore has is that it opened the door to private post-secondary education without establishing a serious governmental oversight process to make those providers prove that they are legitimate,” he said.
“In effect, your government has allowed its name to be used inappropriately because only government authorised colleges can issue genuine degrees.”
Contreras also warned: “Without enforcement of standards by the government, anything goes. This is why the reputation of degrees issued in Singapore is falling.”
The MOE said that under the new laws that will come into effect by the end of the year, the Council for Private Education will run checks on these claimed partnerships.
“These measures will help ensure that dubious programmes offered by degree mills will not be permitted by CPE to be offered in Singapore,” said the spokesman.
But the new laws have come too late for a 26-year-old who attended evening classes and did course work for over three years for an AUH degree from Lee Community College.
The administrative manager hopes the new laws for private schools will ensure that only valid degrees are offered here.
“I took up the degree because I was interested in a counselling career. I spent more than US$20,000 of my hard-earned money to study for the degree. Now I find out that it is worthless.” — The Straits Times
The above article was posted in Malaysian Insider on 28 Nov 09. It tells the story of complacency and neglect in policing, or at best a tidia apa attitude and hiding behind caveat emptor while innocent students fall prey to dubious degree mills. Singapore cannot afford such lax attitude as it has a reputation to maintain as an education hub. But with no ownership, with everyone looking for someone to carry the can, it is like no man's land. And this thing has been going on for too long and will only do harm to the island's aspiration as an education hub for quality education and the Singapore Brand.
But they is still hope. Wait for LKY to say something and things will get moving.
SINGAPORE, Nov 26 — Degree mills that churn out ‘graduates’ at the drop of a hat are the sort of dodgy outfits we link with shadier parts of the world, but the problem is a lot closer to home and threatens to harm Singapore’s name as an education centre.
Small as it is, the country appears six times on a list compiled by Oregon’s Office of Degree Authorisation (ODA).
The American state has strict laws regarding the use of qualifications from unaccredited institutions and those dubbed “degree mills” or “degree suppliers”.
It requires that a person’s business cards, CV and letterhead declare if his degree is from an unaccredited university.
The term — degree or diploma mill — has been used in the United States and around the world to refer to “substandard or fraudulent colleges that offer potential students degrees with little or no serious work”.
They range from those which are simple frauds — an address to which people send money in exchange for a degree — to those that require some nominal work from the student but do not require the college-level study normally required for a degree.
Oregon’s laws make its list one of the most comprehensive compiled by a state government body in the United States.
It names six institutions here as offering unaccredited qualifications: Cranston University, Templeton University, Trident University of Technology, Vancouver University Worldwide, Westmore University and Lee Community College.
Names of institutions go on the list if there are queries made by members of the public. Checks are carried out on the status of the university both in the US and with foreign governments before they are put on the list.
Checks by The Straits Times found that Westmore University’s website is hosted by a company operating out of Science Park.
Vancouver University Worldwide, which was ordered to be shut by the Canadian government two years ago, had offered its courses here for a few years.
Several insurance industry professionals have MBAs, while some even have doctorates, from the university.
A few Singaporeans were also found to have degrees from Cranston University and Templeton University. Both are listed as online universities, based in Singapore and possibly Nevada.
The Palin School of Arts and Design in Bras Basah lists Trident University of Technology degrees, but Palin officials say that currently they are not offering the degree programme in advertising and design.
ODA’s list says Trident was denied approval by the state of Wisconsin and it was never legal in New Jersey as claimed.
But what was surprising was the presence on the list of Lee Community College. The private school has a CaseTrust for Education quality mark and is popular for its diploma courses in counselling and psychology.
The Straits Times found that the school, in Maxwell Road, also offers a degree from the American University for Humanities (AUH), which a staff member said is accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education.
ODA’s website has this to say about the American university: “New name for American University of Hawaii, which was closed by court order. Operations claiming accreditation from The American Academy for Liberal Education in Lebanon do not meet Oregon legal requirements and degrees are not valid here. Degrees issued from Delaware are not valid in Oregon.”
Although the school has been offering degree courses for years, a check with the Ministry of Education (MOE) revealed that Lee Community College is not approved to offer any external degree programmes.
An MOE spokesman said the matter would be investigated.
It warned that new regulations require all private schools to seek permission from the new statutory board, the Council for Private Education (CPE) before offering external degree programmes, including online programmes.
Non-compliance may lead to deregistration of the private school and prosecution of its officials.
Lee Community College’s chief executive, Dr Frederick Toke, said the school spent over US$100,000 (RM338,000) to seek accreditation for the degree programme, which was from the American University for Humanities in Tbilisi, Georgia.
It was accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education, a recognised accrediting agency in the US for liberal arts institutions, but was rejected by the MOE.
Toke did not explain why the school continued to offer the degree despite the MOE rejection. He would only say that the school is now seeking MOE approval to run other degree programmes from the US.
Alan Contreras, the administrator for Oregon’s ODA, said Singapore never used to feature on the ODA’s list.
“The problem Singapore has is that it opened the door to private post-secondary education without establishing a serious governmental oversight process to make those providers prove that they are legitimate,” he said.
“In effect, your government has allowed its name to be used inappropriately because only government authorised colleges can issue genuine degrees.”
Contreras also warned: “Without enforcement of standards by the government, anything goes. This is why the reputation of degrees issued in Singapore is falling.”
The MOE said that under the new laws that will come into effect by the end of the year, the Council for Private Education will run checks on these claimed partnerships.
“These measures will help ensure that dubious programmes offered by degree mills will not be permitted by CPE to be offered in Singapore,” said the spokesman.
But the new laws have come too late for a 26-year-old who attended evening classes and did course work for over three years for an AUH degree from Lee Community College.
The administrative manager hopes the new laws for private schools will ensure that only valid degrees are offered here.
“I took up the degree because I was interested in a counselling career. I spent more than US$20,000 of my hard-earned money to study for the degree. Now I find out that it is worthless.” — The Straits Times
The above article was posted in Malaysian Insider on 28 Nov 09. It tells the story of complacency and neglect in policing, or at best a tidia apa attitude and hiding behind caveat emptor while innocent students fall prey to dubious degree mills. Singapore cannot afford such lax attitude as it has a reputation to maintain as an education hub. But with no ownership, with everyone looking for someone to carry the can, it is like no man's land. And this thing has been going on for too long and will only do harm to the island's aspiration as an education hub for quality education and the Singapore Brand.
But they is still hope. Wait for LKY to say something and things will get moving.
Top PSLE students
The below article is copied from the Straits Times
Nov 26, 2009 The Straits Times
Top PSLE girl from China
By Jennani Durai
THIS year's top student in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) could barely speak any English when she moved here from China in 2006 with her family.
Qiu Biqing, 13, from Qifa Primary School, achieved an aggregate score of 290, with four A*s and a Distinction in Higher Chinese.
Her father, Mr Qiu Guo Hua, 45, is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, and her mother, Madam Xie Xiaojin, 42, is a research assistant there. They both work in a physiology lab.
The top Indian pupil this year is Muhammad Saad Siddiqui from Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), and the top Malay pupil is Syafiqah Nabilah Bte Shamshera from Raffles Girls' Primary School.
Biqing said that she improved her English by reading a lot, and not being afraid to speak aloud even if she made mistakes.
She has a place in Raffles Girls' School through the Direct Schools Admission process and hopes to become a lawyer or a novelist.
Nov 26, 2009 The Straits Times
Top PSLE girl from China
By Jennani Durai
THIS year's top student in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) could barely speak any English when she moved here from China in 2006 with her family.
Qiu Biqing, 13, from Qifa Primary School, achieved an aggregate score of 290, with four A*s and a Distinction in Higher Chinese.
Her father, Mr Qiu Guo Hua, 45, is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, and her mother, Madam Xie Xiaojin, 42, is a research assistant there. They both work in a physiology lab.
The top Indian pupil this year is Muhammad Saad Siddiqui from Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), and the top Malay pupil is Syafiqah Nabilah Bte Shamshera from Raffles Girls' Primary School.
Biqing said that she improved her English by reading a lot, and not being afraid to speak aloud even if she made mistakes.
She has a place in Raffles Girls' School through the Direct Schools Admission process and hopes to become a lawyer or a novelist.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Education for the real world
Below is an interesting article on what the education scene will be in Singapore down the road. We are reinventing education in more ways than the advanced countries of the West. We are hitting new grounds and carving out a niche for ourselves in education in our own ways. We are edupreneurs.
Saturday November 21, 2009
Education for the real world
INSIGHT: DOWN SOUTH
By SEAH CHIANG NEE
Government plans call for developing school pupils in other than academic pursuits, with less emphasis on exams, to equip young people better for life. But some parents still baulk at the change.
FOR years, Singapore’s schools have been steering a bit away from their traditional teaching towards a 21st century “ideas” economy. The pursuit, however, has been sporadic rather than countrywide. But come 2016, an institutional transformation will take place in all primary schools.
The revamp, announced last week, is aimed at making pupils adept at not only Science and English, but also at thinking and communicating.
In seven years’ time – when enough buildings and teachers are in place – all Singapore primary schools (attended by thousands of foreigners) will introduce full-day sessions.
More importantly, they will do away with mid- and end-year exams in Primary One and Two, and only graduates would be allowed to teach.
The future classroom will introduce 7- and 8-year-olds to outdoor education, where music and visual arts will be given as much importance as traditional subjects.
“For kids of this age, exams will not figure at all,” one official said. They will be replaced by assessments of a student’s progress.
Thirdly, children will be encouraged to take up co-curricular activities (CCAs) from Primary 1.
On the longer hours, a senior official said: “We are not adding on academic content to make it a burden to students; we’re trying to build their life skills as well as values, … rebalancing the focus of our system.”
Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said: “We want to have caring citizens ... and students to be independent learners and confident (people).”
These changes, to be extended later to secondary schools, will in part end a system inherited from the British that emphasised exams and rote learning.
It proved successful in producing an educated, disciplined workforce that turned Singapore into a developed nation. Besides, the secondary schools are regularly ranked the world’s top three in Science and Maths.
But in a world in which nations compete with ideas and technical skills, Singapore’s education system has outlived some of its usefulness.
In my course of reporting in recent years, I have frequently heard executives of multinational corporations complain that our data-skilled workers lack initiative and require hand-holding.
This is what the new education system hopes to rectify. The result so far has been impressive.
One neighbourhood primary school has infused robotics into its science teaching, with students designing simple robots and learning about their inner workings.
Thousands of students at another school are taught not only to identify a healthy, nutritious meal, but also to cook it.
Others require their pupils to write compositions on a tablet PC, using PowerPoint for images and colour fonts.
At Hougang Primary, seven-year-olds share their classrooms with an assortment of insects, plants and skeleton frames.
The secondary schools are even more into the game, including practising entrepreneurship.
At a premium school they ran an art gallery carnival, drawing up proposals for manpower costing, concept plans and profit margins.
These experiments are not confined to the top schools. Many “unbranded” ones also excel in them.
One of them has allowed students to operate a general store that sells products and services (like photocopying) to other students. In Jurong Junior College and Fuchun Primary, students can buy shares in businesses in their schools.
Junior college students have met to tackle Singapore’s declining birth rates, while polytechnic youths created a new fragrance and began marketing it to romancing couples – and invented a health-food chocolate for sale to the public.
The strategy is to develop students who are not academically inclined but skilled in other areas like IT, music, sports or designing.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore’s economy needs all kinds of talented people.
“We now have to try and bring up people who do not necessarily do well in the universities, but who will do well in life,” he said.
On the weaknesses of the current system, one blogger said it successfully produced many A-grade students who were unable to put knowledge to good use “like starting a business.”
Not everyone believes this change can be achieved soon, at least not until the government relaxes its control on this regulated society.
Some do not think it can be – or need be – done at all. Parents who have a fixation on exams and high marks are among the biggest stumbling blocks.
A prominent blogger quoted from a speech given by Sir Ken Robinson, an expert in creative and cultural education, who said children had no need to be taught to be creative.
The reason: they already are creative, and often it is the schools that are educating them out of their creative capabilities, he said.
On the subject of feared failure, Sir Ken said: “Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. They’re not frightened of being wrong ...
“By the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies this way. We stigmatise mistakes,” he added.
The determination of Singapore’s mothers to fight for their children’s high grades has played a major role in the nation’s education.
With the new strategy, it could prove negative for their kids when they fail to re-adapt.
Saturday November 21, 2009
Education for the real world
INSIGHT: DOWN SOUTH
By SEAH CHIANG NEE
Government plans call for developing school pupils in other than academic pursuits, with less emphasis on exams, to equip young people better for life. But some parents still baulk at the change.
FOR years, Singapore’s schools have been steering a bit away from their traditional teaching towards a 21st century “ideas” economy. The pursuit, however, has been sporadic rather than countrywide. But come 2016, an institutional transformation will take place in all primary schools.
The revamp, announced last week, is aimed at making pupils adept at not only Science and English, but also at thinking and communicating.
In seven years’ time – when enough buildings and teachers are in place – all Singapore primary schools (attended by thousands of foreigners) will introduce full-day sessions.
More importantly, they will do away with mid- and end-year exams in Primary One and Two, and only graduates would be allowed to teach.
The future classroom will introduce 7- and 8-year-olds to outdoor education, where music and visual arts will be given as much importance as traditional subjects.
“For kids of this age, exams will not figure at all,” one official said. They will be replaced by assessments of a student’s progress.
Thirdly, children will be encouraged to take up co-curricular activities (CCAs) from Primary 1.
On the longer hours, a senior official said: “We are not adding on academic content to make it a burden to students; we’re trying to build their life skills as well as values, … rebalancing the focus of our system.”
Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said: “We want to have caring citizens ... and students to be independent learners and confident (people).”
These changes, to be extended later to secondary schools, will in part end a system inherited from the British that emphasised exams and rote learning.
It proved successful in producing an educated, disciplined workforce that turned Singapore into a developed nation. Besides, the secondary schools are regularly ranked the world’s top three in Science and Maths.
But in a world in which nations compete with ideas and technical skills, Singapore’s education system has outlived some of its usefulness.
In my course of reporting in recent years, I have frequently heard executives of multinational corporations complain that our data-skilled workers lack initiative and require hand-holding.
This is what the new education system hopes to rectify. The result so far has been impressive.
One neighbourhood primary school has infused robotics into its science teaching, with students designing simple robots and learning about their inner workings.
Thousands of students at another school are taught not only to identify a healthy, nutritious meal, but also to cook it.
Others require their pupils to write compositions on a tablet PC, using PowerPoint for images and colour fonts.
At Hougang Primary, seven-year-olds share their classrooms with an assortment of insects, plants and skeleton frames.
The secondary schools are even more into the game, including practising entrepreneurship.
At a premium school they ran an art gallery carnival, drawing up proposals for manpower costing, concept plans and profit margins.
These experiments are not confined to the top schools. Many “unbranded” ones also excel in them.
One of them has allowed students to operate a general store that sells products and services (like photocopying) to other students. In Jurong Junior College and Fuchun Primary, students can buy shares in businesses in their schools.
Junior college students have met to tackle Singapore’s declining birth rates, while polytechnic youths created a new fragrance and began marketing it to romancing couples – and invented a health-food chocolate for sale to the public.
The strategy is to develop students who are not academically inclined but skilled in other areas like IT, music, sports or designing.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore’s economy needs all kinds of talented people.
“We now have to try and bring up people who do not necessarily do well in the universities, but who will do well in life,” he said.
On the weaknesses of the current system, one blogger said it successfully produced many A-grade students who were unable to put knowledge to good use “like starting a business.”
Not everyone believes this change can be achieved soon, at least not until the government relaxes its control on this regulated society.
Some do not think it can be – or need be – done at all. Parents who have a fixation on exams and high marks are among the biggest stumbling blocks.
A prominent blogger quoted from a speech given by Sir Ken Robinson, an expert in creative and cultural education, who said children had no need to be taught to be creative.
The reason: they already are creative, and often it is the schools that are educating them out of their creative capabilities, he said.
On the subject of feared failure, Sir Ken said: “Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. They’re not frightened of being wrong ...
“By the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies this way. We stigmatise mistakes,” he added.
The determination of Singapore’s mothers to fight for their children’s high grades has played a major role in the nation’s education.
With the new strategy, it could prove negative for their kids when they fail to re-adapt.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Be flexible in teaching Chinese: MM Lee
Wed, Nov 18, 2009
my paper
By Kenny Chee
CHINESE LANGUAGE teachers need to embrace innovative ways of teaching young people the centuries- old language, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.
They need to interest their students, through the use of drama, information technology or other activities that youths are passionate about, he said.
They should also focus on honing their students' ability to comprehend and speak the language, rather than on writing skills, which are more difficult to master, he added.
He had this message for them: 'This is the way you are going to go. Use IT, use drama, use every possible method to capture the interest of the children. It doesn't matter what level you teach.'....
The above extract is from www.asianone.com
my paper
By Kenny Chee
CHINESE LANGUAGE teachers need to embrace innovative ways of teaching young people the centuries- old language, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.
They need to interest their students, through the use of drama, information technology or other activities that youths are passionate about, he said.
They should also focus on honing their students' ability to comprehend and speak the language, rather than on writing skills, which are more difficult to master, he added.
He had this message for them: 'This is the way you are going to go. Use IT, use drama, use every possible method to capture the interest of the children. It doesn't matter what level you teach.'....
The above extract is from www.asianone.com
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Bouquet for NorthLight School
Mrs Chang Wai Leng wrote to the Straits Times.
My son Chang Shu Ren was featured in Monday's report on NorthLight School, 'Success on their "last chance". He had always struggled academically and was going nowhere in his studies. So it was a joy to me when NorthLight was set up in 2007.
I asked the principal, Mrs Chua Yen Ching, to make an exception and admit him. I had faith that a school with a mission to give a second chance to the academically weak and equip them with the right skills and attitude to succeed in life was the best place for my child.
And our family has been richly rewarded by the growth in confidence and maturity of our son. If there is one word that best describes NorthLight, it is 'heart'. Everything is done for the good of its students and their families.
This heart thing is quite losing its existence in a materialistic city like ours. Good to hear that heart is still around.
My son Chang Shu Ren was featured in Monday's report on NorthLight School, 'Success on their "last chance". He had always struggled academically and was going nowhere in his studies. So it was a joy to me when NorthLight was set up in 2007.
I asked the principal, Mrs Chua Yen Ching, to make an exception and admit him. I had faith that a school with a mission to give a second chance to the academically weak and equip them with the right skills and attitude to succeed in life was the best place for my child.
And our family has been richly rewarded by the growth in confidence and maturity of our son. If there is one word that best describes NorthLight, it is 'heart'. Everything is done for the good of its students and their families.
This heart thing is quite losing its existence in a materialistic city like ours. Good to hear that heart is still around.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Can students assume that all is ok?
With the closing of Brookes Business School and its subsidiary school, can students attending classes in all the existing private schools feel secure that they will not get into the same problem as those from these two schools?
Case's Executive Director Seah Seng Choon has explained that CaseTrust is just about protecting the fees students paid and welfare practices. The role of ensuring academic excellence is the responsibility of Spring Singapore.
In 2004, EDB's press statement said that an accreditation council was supposed to be set up. This somehow did not materialise. Can we assume that all the private schools thus did not go through a screening process to ensure that what they claimed were genuine and that all of them are sound and proper?
A new regime will be set up under EduTrust to regulate private schools and the quality of the services they are providing. Until then, Case is stepping up to check on private schools to see that all is in order. There is a lapse of 5 years of free enterprise when everything goes. 5 years of caveat emptor while the foul smell was floating around and with several other incidents and several schools closed down.
What a pathetic state of affair that was allowed go on for so long without any body stepping in to protect the students and the image of a reliable and world class education hub that we are building.
Can students assume that everything is ok now?
Case's Executive Director Seah Seng Choon has explained that CaseTrust is just about protecting the fees students paid and welfare practices. The role of ensuring academic excellence is the responsibility of Spring Singapore.
In 2004, EDB's press statement said that an accreditation council was supposed to be set up. This somehow did not materialise. Can we assume that all the private schools thus did not go through a screening process to ensure that what they claimed were genuine and that all of them are sound and proper?
A new regime will be set up under EduTrust to regulate private schools and the quality of the services they are providing. Until then, Case is stepping up to check on private schools to see that all is in order. There is a lapse of 5 years of free enterprise when everything goes. 5 years of caveat emptor while the foul smell was floating around and with several other incidents and several schools closed down.
What a pathetic state of affair that was allowed go on for so long without any body stepping in to protect the students and the image of a reliable and world class education hub that we are building.
Can students assume that everything is ok now?
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