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Education in Singapore (Points (SkillsFuture (Objectives (Help make well…
Education in Singapore
Points
SkillsFuture
Objectives
Help make well-informed choices in education, training and careers
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integrated, high quality education system and training that responds to constantly evolving industry needs
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Provide adult training opportunities for workers to learn new skills & / improve on their current skills
also works with schools to prepare students to face an ever-changing knowledge and skills-based economy
STEM
Why STEM?
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Upgrade the economy, become a modern , forward looking and technologically-advanced society- PM Lee (2015 at the opening ceramony of SUTD)
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Criticism
Not enough focus on application of STEM (70% of teachers according to survey commissioned by Amgen Asia and Global Stem Alliance)
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Controversy
High stress, high stakes system
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Impacts
OECD: Singaporean students (76%) have anxiety levels significantly higher than the OECD average (55%)
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2016: an 11-year-old boy jumped to his death as he was fearful of showing his results to his parents (first time failing a subject)
Measures
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Outdoor education
All secondary school students have to take part in at least 3 intra school recreational sports competitions
Additional hour of PE lesson (10%-20% of curriculum time will be set aside for outdoor education in primary and secondary schools)
Benefits
Help students to learn more about the environment, learn values such as resilience and become independent
Thrown outside of their comfort zones i.e. during camps such as Outward Bound where students undergo adventure camps
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revision of school syllabuses to focus more on application of skills across subjects instead of pure regurgitation
No creative thinking
Some argue that the gruelling nature of our education does not allow creativity due to the constant drilling
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constant repetition of doing math for eg and enforcing certain types of thinking that can be regurgitated in examinations
not much of avenues to allow students to freely explore potential ways to solve qns w/o repercussions i.e. failed grade
Ex MOE Policy officer Yann Wong: creative thinking is not encouraged if teachers are still bent on having the correct answer only
one of Wong's ex-colleagues encouraged her students to write pro-PAP answers for a social studies exam so that their school wouldn't get "blacklisted"
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"meritocracy"
Many argue that meritocracy, a system initially intended to award those who work hard and succeed, is in fact extremely flawed
DSA
mostly the rich and wealthy are able to afford to send their children for extra classes (i.e. ballet) to allow them to learn skills that they can use to enter schools via DSA
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initially intended as a non-academic admission procedure to admit students based on their talents instead of academics
Tuition
most top tuition centres known to churn out distinction after distinction are extremely expensive (super tutors often take home thousands of dollars)
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those who are not able to afford are often stuck with cheaper tuition run by volunteer organisations (especially in the case of poor students)
such classes while have good intentions are run by volunteers who sometimes are not as up to date and as skilled with the subject and its syllabus as compared to their teaching counterparts in the top centres
top centres often have tutors who used to teach at high performing schools (i.e. Dave Sim of the Physics Cafe, a tuition chain, used to teach at RIJC)
ST 2015: households earning more than $4,400 a month spent more than double the amount invested in private tutors by those earning below $2,200.
Change in mindset
those who succeed believe that its because they work hard and may look down on those who failed not because they didn't work hard but due to structural factors such as socio-economic status
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Good points
topped countries in various global tests such as the Trends in International Maths and Science Study and Pisa
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