Our education system

I've been reading the comments in Today which talked about the childhood of kids in S'pore. I can't agree more with the comments that have been published but I doubt this issue of too much load on teachers and students will ever be solved. That's why the 'Tuition Industry' is forever booming.

We have parents who complained that pre-schools are not giving their kids enough homework, we also have a group of parents who send their kids to various tuition and enrichment classes...not that their kids are unable to keep up, but just to ensure that their grades don't slip (I've also heard that some tutors accept only students with good grades).

On the other hand, teachers have to rush to try to finish the syllabus (which I wonder whether the person who sets the syllabus has ever taught before). Those who can't catch up, off they go to the extra lessons. Well, come to think of it, which teacher has not taken the Civics and Moral Education lessons to try to finish teaching the core subjects? It seems always like a fire-fighting process for both the teachers and students...perhaps including the parents as well since I've heard many of them telling me that they aren't able to coach their children who are at primary level as the subjects are deemed too 'deep' for them to cope, and some of them are graduates in fact.

I recall that during the last June school holidays, I actually have to make appointments with my cousins in order to ask them out as they are too busy with school projects, holiday homework and ECAs. Geeze, I thought being busy is an adult thing. I was glad that at least I have a decent childhood playing 'masak masak' with my neighbours, go kite 'cutting' with my uncle, play board games with my aunts and other interesting stuff. As I grow older, I realised that Time is really a luxury...even the rich ones may not have enough of it.

Things are slowly changing thou. We read more of the success stories of local entreprenuers who may not have excelled in schools or who do not hold a degree. I'm not saying that study is no good, in fact as a graduate myself, I feel that it does offer more choices and makes the door opening easier to a certain extent. Ironically, it also impedes our willingness to take risks as we'd rather stay put in a job, get a stable income and slowly work our way up.


Education should be more than mere gaining of academic knowledge. How many of you would remember exactly what the teacher had taught you in your academic subjects? What I remember is the journey I've been through - the friends I've made, the teachers' comments which have made a difference in my life, integrity, responsibility, committment, courage, handling conflicts between classmates...these are the lessons I've learnt and brought with me even after I left school.

We are so rushed into learning, doing, juggling, meeting deadlines in our lives that somehow, certain issues or problems that we face along the way were ignored or went unnoticed as we couldn't find time to deal with them. As a result, they just accumulate. But I guess we have to face the snowballed issues someday, somehow.

It's good to be aware of what you feel or think and take time to slow down and reflect. Yup, it's hard to beat the system but we could somehow adjust our mindset if we put our mind to it. I'm learning too :) Hope our kids will have a true childhood to enjoy and remember.

Oh one last observation. I've noticed that some parents REALLY dote on their kids. Nothing wrong with that but I thought the best gifts that a parent can give to his/her child would be values, self-discipline and Love..yes unconditional but not indulging love. Oh yes, I believe in occasional spanking when the need arises ;)