Thursday 23 May 2013

How Singapore education system can meet society's demands

By Jane Yang


The recent speech by the Minister of Education Mr Heng Swee Keat goes deeper versus the usual arguments about the positives and negatives of present education system. One particular key term that he stressed in his address is "fundamental". We have to go back to the requisites of education.

An education system does the most beneficial when it really fulfills its fundamental duties. Just about every society has popular expectations as well as ideals shared by just about all members with the community. To make certain the continuity of these fundamental spirits, schooling of your new generation becomes an imperative tool. Consequently we are able to much better assess the Singapore education system in light of the basics as being a much more useful strategy of investigation.

First, the society places a premium on equity. In addition to man inherent sense of equity, Singaporeans recognize the essential functionality of justness in running a racially-diverse community or optimizing the utilization of capable people in a compact population.

Consequently, it suffices to say the idea of justness has become nailed into the head of Singaporeans. This kind of an idea is also reflected in Singapore's education system. Despite the calling for abolishing examinations, especially the PSLE, such a probability continues to be far off. Even minister of education does not endorse the move, as witnessed in his description of how some countries that used to eliminate exams are going back to exam-based solutions.

Exams, as stress filled as they are, set unbiased standard of consideration. A grade of 90 is better when compared with a result of eighty nine. Even though it can be arguable how much distinction does that one mark really can make, the score-based appraisal primarily based on standardised exams has proved for being alot more trusted and fair as compared with every other alternative: the interview-based assessment, the talent-based assessment where by fuzy evaluation is employed.

The score prescribed to some dancing performance by a student candidate is basically arbitrary, and deviates throughout various assessors, who might by themself be influenced by their very own concept of excellence, their experiences and in some cases their mood on the day of assessment.

Hence, exam results carry substantially more weight of authority that appeals to folks's feeling of fairness. Consequently, perhaps it will not be a good idea to argue for abolishing exams when this kind of a proposal impedes one of the fundamental values people today hold dear to.

Next, the skill sets and values educated in classes reflect the public need to have this kind of abilities among learners. The faculties tend to be usually attentive to social needs because of the competition in drawing in excellent students.

The students with the appropriate set of characteristics the society wants are much more probable to succeed once they graduate. Graduating an impressive batch of university students enhances the popularity of educational institutions that will entice students with much better branding.

Consequently, the college will aim to equip college students with the socially desirable competencies and values.

The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), with its one of a kind IB syllabus that concentrates on breath along with independent analysis, is drawing finest secondary school applicants. The Singapore Management University, due to its one of a kind seminar teaching approach as well as intensive presentation training, helps make its grads highly marketable. A number of critics feel concerned about the value training and skill impartation which can be compromised by a strong emphasis on exams.

Nonetheless because of competition amongst educational institutions for diversity and branding, the prospects of education and learning scene may not be as bleak as some might predict. Colleges understand that simply by producing excellent scorers won't make their graduated pupils go very far, and that will be reflected in testimonials such as the graduate employment survey that parents as well as would-be students pay attention to each year.

Hence what the government ought to do may not be passing value training from a top-down strategy, but rather motivate the diversity as well as competition amongst academic institutions while bettering a series of graduate surveys and study to boost the info flow, which ultimately encourages schools to respond to what society actually needs.




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