for eons, Singapore has been governed by a strict education system. in the beginning when Singapore needed to industralise, she needed a large pool of skilled labour for the textile and electronics industries. The basic education system was hence implemented, to provide the foundation of skills needed by Singaporeans. This very system has since been modified several times through, attempting to keep up with the rapidly modernizing society. While this once successful system had reached its aim of helping Singapore to tide over the difficult times of the 1960s, the introduction of more and more seemingly useless and redundant policies has in fact made the lives of JC students across Singapore worse than it already is.

At first the basis for education was for the good of the society. Today with the growing economy, one needs to achieve independent learning, for the good of himself. However, the never-ending new education policies do not seem to be bringing students anywhere near that aim. First there was Social Studies. One cannot help that he is swallowing pages after pages of propaganda. If social studies was added to the curriculum to help students understand their past and hopefully at the same time, make them a little more patriotic (what with all the people emigrating and breaking scholarship bonds), then I'm rather sorry to say it has failed terribly. Social Studies did not just give us a huge headache from trying to memorise all the information, but there was also no point in having exams for it because students are basically just reproducing everything from the textbook. How are we expected to learn anything from this kind of practice?

Project Work is similarly another useless policy. Sure, it is supposed to give us a glimpse of what to be expected when we enter the workforce. However, I don't see how faking minutes and rushing through source evaluations can help with our future lives. And is it supposed to stimulate our creativity juices? Then how come i feel so restricted? EVERYTHING follows a FIXED structure. So what if we have the freedom to choose whatever topic we like. Minutes? Follow this format. Source evaluation? Use this template. Bibliography? CANNOT use landscape!! The so-called freedom we have gotten from being allowed to choose the topic we want has since been canceled out by all the silly restrictions we get. (MC exceeds MB)

But to top of it, the most useless education policy to date has got to be SPA. (sch-based practical assessment or something of that sort). What are we trying to achieve with SPA? Let me tell you have we achieved we SPA so far. For Chem, we have learnt how to (1)fake results when you know your results isnt supposed to be like this (2)memorise Skill A and reproduce for the actual practical by changing the names of the reagents because basically the question is the same (3)do well for the practicals. It's easy. Just study what you have been given in school. It's the same! Biology is worse. (1)you reproduce your answers for Skill A, but you're unlikely to finish anyway because you're expected to write about 8 pages in 1hr. (2)I don't see the point in forcing us to finish doing Skill C and D which consists of table drawing graph plotting calculations drawing conclusions in 1hr 2omins. it's unattainable. So, all in all, what have we learnt for SPA? memorise hard! then fake your results for Skill B!

Some people may argue that the system isn't really screwed up. I agree. Because there are a few total flaws with the system. Like my GP tutor once said, nobody is stupid. everybody has his own intelligence in different areas. it is the education system which defines the intelligence that it requires, labelling the rest as the stupid people of society. Why are the smart people defined as those who can speak two languages and count? WHAT if the system isnt this way, and intelligence is defined artistically? How many of us in the so-called Top Jcs in Singapore can remain where we are today? Another aspect. Sports seemed to have much more emphasis than music. With achievement in sports, there are Colour Awards. With achievement in music? The most you can get is an ABRSM cert. As a private candidate. No recognition. No nothing. This great emphasis on sports have even led to some sports people thinking they are above the rest in the school, thus forming an hierarchy system. While it is not prevalent in my school, sports personnel do have a greater advantage and superiorty over the others. And why is this so? Flaws in the education system. One glaring error. With the emphasis on CCA and now the introduction of 5-day week, how are the secondary schools in Singapore going to restructure its timetable? More importantly, how are the students going to survive, with everything being thrown at them? What's more, with now the Integrated Programs, a whole new batch of Integrated students are going to surface. In the future, would those not selected for the programs be at a disadvantage?

In conclusion, it is without doubt that the Moe has made many errors in the implementing of most of the new policies. Even Moe itself has realised it, now that Social Studies is rumoured to be abolished, along with SPA and Project Work. This indicates that the policies have failed to bring the desired outcome, and in its failure to do so, created thousands and thousands of guinea pigs suffering from the failed experiment. As Moe thinks up of some more new policies for the future generations of Singapore, I sincerely hope that the new policy is carefully and MORE thoroughly thought through, before the students all die of mental exhaustion thanks to the horrendous workload.




note: this is written all in the name of good fun. please don't be insulted.