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EduNation- Can Singapore Afford to Avoid Competition
Over the last 18 months, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has introduced a series of new measures that have caught the public's attention.
From scrapping the secondary school banding, to removing the Sustained Achievement Awards (SAA), to revamping the award structure of the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Arts Presentation (previously SYF Central Judging), to abolishing the practice of the announcing of top scorers and top schools in all national examinations (PSLE, O Levels, A Levels), the stream of education-related reforms has triggered off a wide-ranging and occasionally heated response.
I see even more of such policies on the horizon — the review of the PSLE being one. Just last year a female student wrote to The Straits Times to say that she had broken down during this examination, such was its difficulty. The extreme levels of stress she experienced led her to ask the government to lower the standard of the papers for future cohorts. With things like this happening, I can understand the pressure that the MOE is under.
Many Singaporeans are elated by the new reforms. They see them as marking a paradigm shift that has come about as a result of taking a good, hard look at the value of education. In this issue, author Mdm Lim Hai Yen describes how schools have adapted so well to the reforms that some principals are actually hoping not to produce scholars.
But at the same time, there are Members of Parliament who feel that the MOE has gone too far in trying to solve the problems caused by previous education policies. Some parents, too, have expressed their opinion that "competition is necessary for improvement and that the lack of it can only lead to complacency." In my view, these parents have spoken up for a significant proportion of the population who are similarly worried.
Indeed, can Singaporeans afford to be content with their performance and not compete keenly? Does Singapore have the luxury to ignore the value of competitiveness?
If a Mainland Chinese fails to compete against the global or national talent base in Shanghai, he has the option of moving to Suzhou. If he still cannot survive in Suzhou, he can move further to Lanzhou. With 9.6 million square kilometres of land and abundant resources, there is bound to be somewhere that he can settle down and prosper. Yet, despite this, China's vast population of 1.3 billion has little choice but to compete fiercely and relentlessly. How much more so then, the inhabitants of a tiny island like Singapore? In this era of globalisation when people from all over the world can be vying for a single job opportunity, where can a Singaporean go if he or she does not have the grit to compete internationally?
20 years ago, someone asked the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, "Must our port and our airport really be ranked as the best in the world? Wouldn't it be better if we were under less pressure, even if it meant coming in second?" He answered, "In that case, why don't we just settle for third? That would leave us with even more room to rest easy."
The general public today may well not understand why Mr Lee Kuan Yew was resolved to turn the country's two million citizens into the cream of the crop, by international standards. But when Singapore was forced to declare its independence there was no alternative, given its complete lack of natural resources.
If our port and airport are not number one, and if we, as a people, are content to be second best, the world will no longer take any notice of us. How then, will we continue to prosper on our small island? Indeed, the fact that there is no "deadline" or "expiry date" to the required sense of urgency is an ever-present source of concern for the leaders of Singapore.
After the 2011 General Elections, Mr Lee Kuan Yew stressed to the public that "Singaporeans must learn how to accept competition from foreigners." He said, "So you've got to accept the discomfort which comes about when local citizens fear that they are competing unequally for jobs. It cannot be helped. But without foreigners, the jobs will not be there to begin with. So we'll continue to welcome talent."
The former Principal of Raffles Girls' School, Mrs Carmee Lim, is all for her students playing ball games. She said, "In every competition, there will be a winner and a loser. I want our already exemplary students to learn from a young age to accept failure graciously and well."
This is indeed educational wisdom.
We live in a cruel world. Even outstanding students like those from Raffles Girls' School will have to compete globally when they look for jobs after graduation. It is therefore inevitable that some of them will be outdone by the competition, and they will have to learn to accept defeat. The proper way to guide them is not to discourage them from competing, but instead to make them compete even more. It is only by doing this that they will be able to handle competition with graciousness and equanimity.
I fully agree that the younger generation of Singaporeans are "spending the bulk of their growing years contending with examination results and school ranking, growing up amidst this ado." But who can deny that our education system suddenly became more successful in the 1980s largely as a result of streaming? Who can deny that the transition of a number of Singapore's anonymous neighbourhood secondary schools into autonomous, elite institutions comes from the idea of ranking?
It has been tough for Singapore to survive. Our present success proves that the decision to implement many of the policies in the past was correct. And as we move forward, we will always need to make sure that we consider things very carefully before we change any elements of our country's foundations. But the principle of using different mechanisms to encourage continual improvement, hard work, success and survival for this small island cannot be forsaken, as these are qualities that remain imperative to becoming the best we can be.
The President of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, has travelled the world. He and his wife, Dr Evelyn Lee, have been almost everywhere. Two years ago, he went to Bhutan, and found himself staying with a horse trader. At an altitude of 4,000 metres he was astonished to discover that this man had a solar-powered capacitor which was being used as a mobile charger. Sceptically, he turned on his own mobile. To his surprise he not only found that he had received a text from his Deputy President but he also managed to have a ten-minute conversation with him over the line. Professor Tan was further amazed to discover that the young lad who had led him up the mountain was also the owner of an IT start-up company.
In the second issue of EduNation, we concentrate on how Singapore's universities are reacting in the face of global impacts. We interviewed Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Chairman of the IAAP, and invited him to tell us about the future of Singapore's fast-growing higher learning environment. We also asked the Presidents of the six local universities to share with readers the uniqueness of their institutions as well as their future plans. Their insight and innovatory spirit have opened up a new realm of possibilities and given rise to renewed faith in Singapore's future.
At the National Day Rally 2012, Singapore's Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, revealed plans to establish the country's fifth and sixth universities. To show our support for the two youngest institutions, we have featured them first. Professor Tan, President of the 108-year-old NUS has shown understanding for this arrangement - for which we are extremely grateful.
After interviewing Mr Tharman, we realised that Professor Tan had also touched on similar points to Mr Tharman's in his State of the University Address (SoUA) 2012. We have therefore included extracts from the SoUA to show the synergy between the developments in Singapore's universities and the government's goals.
The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), SIM University (UniSIM) and the Southern University College in Malaysia are all enthusiastically driving the development of tertiary education in Singapore and Malaysia. At the symposium, The Extension of University Education in Singapore and Malaysia - Where is it Heading? jointly organised by WS Education and the Federation of Chinese Alumni Associations last October, we heard an exchange of views between key members of these three institutions. We have therefore included an article on the Southern University College to serve as a reference.
Through our interviews with Mr Soon Min Yam, Director of NTU's Alumni Affairs Office and members of the Parent Support Group of St. Nicholas Girls' School, Parents@StNick's, we learned that the success of our home-grown institutions is also fuelled by external forces such as alumni and parent support groups. Their efforts show that it is only when the various strengths of a community are combined, that a good school becomes a great one.
As for the second issue's contributions, we have Dr James Li who compares primary level Maths syllabi and textbooks between Singapore and Shanghai, Ms Phua Huijia who writes on the topic of knowing oneself and Mdm Lim Hai Yen who compares the experience and significance of the PSLE across three generations.
After reading Why Singapore Can in our first issue, our Russian correspondent, Ms Lu Li Shan felt she had to disagree. We have included her submission in the Reader's View section. EduNation is a platform for understanding Singapore's education system, and we firmly believe that exchanges of information, discussions and even fierce debates are necessary means by which we can encourage each other and ultimately make the improvements we all strive for.
EduNation held its launch on 18 January this year. The Guests-of-Honour were Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President of SIT; Professor Cheong Hee Kiat, President of UniSIM; Mrs Deborah Tan, Principal of Singapore Sports School; and Mrs Carmee Lim, former Principal of Raffles Girls' School. They offered words of encouragement which we will be keeping in mind. We have included an article with the details in this issue.
As the very first bilingual magazine on education in the region, EduNation is in need of your support. If you have any feedback or comments, please feel free to email us at contactus@edunationsg.com.
Translated by: Selina Tan, Lee Xiao Wen
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