open letter from a student


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how come she lives in Boston, Massachusetts?
 

tbh. i have faced a few of the abv mentioned problems. i believe most of us did some point in time in our education.

thought has been put into writing that article... and at least it wasnt some random whining, but rather valid questions.
 

Somehow or rather, I agreed with that, we are taught to let up our seat to elderly to prevent other people from thinking negative about you rather than doing thing from the heart and we followed blindly, although Im not studying anymore, i do hope that the education system can improvised and let the kids think rather then making them doing what everyone is doing, this might be the sole reason why people are saying singaporean have no talent, it is hidden and not shown ..
 

well... some points...

study for exams or study to adapt?

is the current system really useful, or the number of subject combinations important? would it be better to perhaps refine the system so that we do the stuff we excel and have an advantage, rather than trying to force a square to be a circle...?

just some stuff to ponder about
 

Somehow or rather, I agreed with that, we are taught to let up our seat to elderly to prevent other people from thinking negative about you rather than doing thing from the heart and we followed blindly, although Im not studying anymore, i do hope that the education system can improvised and let the kids think rather then making them doing what everyone is doing, this might be the sole reason why people are saying singaporean have no talent, it is hidden and not shown ..

wait what? i don't see people my age (15) or those in their 20s giving up seats to others.. fat help CME does.

you want to know why... because i realized that it's supposed to be in you to do good and be unselfish. singaporeans are selfish buggers.
 

wait what? i don't see people my age (15) or those in their 20s giving up seats to others.. fat help CME does.

you want to know why... because i realized that it's supposed to be in you to do good and be unselfish. singaporeans are selfish buggers.

last time i offered a seat to a lady... she told me she not pregnant...
 

jokes aside...

i do practice giving up seats whenever i can.

why?

i know the pain of standing up for long period of time... when i had back injury, and can relate to those who needs the seats more...

ironically, i injured back... cause i'm young... i never had seats.
 

1. I believe we are all at a consensus that education in Singapore does not seem as good as the ones we know overseas; that the products of the education system are mostly regurgitation machines or people with rigid minds and inability to think.

2. We also agree that the education system could have been so much better and conducive for everyone to strive in the areas they should.

3. We have to agree that Singapore is a very vulnerable country, in terms of economy, social cohesion etc. In this context, economy, or rather labour force.

4. Let's be more realistic. We are comparing Singapore's education system to that of America's or UK's, which are countries with different histories, cultures, demographics, etc.
5. Is it a fair comparison? No.

6. Is it a naive thinking? Partly yes.

7. It's quite evident that NUS is a direct reflection of which areas the government is emphasizing on. Of course, the courses such as Medicine, Law etc still requires the best grades, but it's evident that there's been much more emphasis on humanities such as FASS. We needed more doctors, more lawyers, more engineers and we still do need, this time with an inclusion of people who study the economy, the market in singapore, since the economy is arguably one of the most important component of a country.

8. My point is that, the current education system is directly aimed at providing enough labour, skilled and unskilled labour, for the growing economy.

9. It's definitely not wise to just let so many sportsmen to play sports and zero person who is skilled in predicting the economy. The education system defines the person from young, and it could change what the person wants to do, can do and will do. It's not about letting you do what you want and happily ever after.

10. If that girl was so good at predicting how the education system could turn out to be, she wouldn't have written it on the internet. Yes, she did mention plenty of valid points, from a student's perspective, and not from a government's perspective, which has many things to care about, and not only maintaining a facebook and spend one hour and forty-five minutes to write a letter to a minister, to attract attention on facebook and act like a heroine amongst her peers.

11. I have not identified myself. I am also a student, not old enough to take a bachelor degree, but not that young and immature to think that everything is wrong and everything has failed. I, was once like the author of that article, claiming how this education system just would not work, because of this specific pre-requisite of this prestigious degree in Singapore (which is absent in other countries such as UK, US, AUS), that totally crashed my dream of entering that faculty. But I managed to get one point, which was that if this is the kind of challenge we are facing, shouldn't we, as human beings who are responsible for ourself, make use of the education system to develop our thinking and not just impatiently write some letters and expect someone to spoon-feed us on how to become a sensible person or complaining that CME lessons fail when people don't even make the effort to think on their own.

12. I don't even think that this girl is actually mature enough to think of the larger picture, and hence, such a self-centered letter, sugar-coated with the intention of trying to help the future generations and preventing the education system from collapsing. She wouldn't have wasted her time in trying to attract attention if she was that great a visionary. There are some things that cannot be changed (and yes, I know I will be flamed by liberals that will promote the power of faith and trying).

13. Hence, she totally wasted that valuable 105 minutes of her life, or she might have received some nationwide attention, which she seems to be desperate for.

14. That wasn't a good conclusion. Undoubtedly, this education system has its own flaws but ultimately, we the ones defining what we learn and we do not need an education system to actually develop a brain that could think or be morally right.

15. I haven't really read her letter because all those points would be the same as the people in the past who argued against the system so if I mentioned something that's not relevant to the topic, ignore it if you could.
 

How is an open letter if I have to log into Facebook just to view it? :think:

Would appreciate it if anybody can give a summary in one sentence.
 

to tehzeh...

after reading ur long post...

i help u summarise...

in short, our education system...
I believe we are all at a consensus that education in Singapore does not seem as good as the ones we know overseas; that the products of the education system are mostly regurgitation machines or people with rigid minds and inability to think.

and
14. That wasn't a good conclusion. Undoubtedly, this education system has its own flaws but ultimately, we the ones defining what we learn and we do not need an education system to actually develop a brain that could think or be morally right.

the inbetween basically... just u saying girl is immature and is not an economist and therefore not good enough to view big picture... for she seems to not understand what sg needs. correct me if i'm mistaken



4: we dun compare to US... US probably has one of the worst education system... save a few private institutions with sufficient funding...


education has to keep in track with globalisation. u mentioned sg is an open economy, we need to push jobs towards certain sectors, such as engineering...

yet you must also take into account... china and india are, and will be producing more engineers, or even more graduates, at a lower, probably cheaper cost. competing with them... with an education structured still at a level of memorizing and application is dangerous, for i suspect in the near future we might lose that advantage.

a shift towards research, service sector, tourism sector can be seen... a greater development towards RnD...

i'm not an economist... perhaps edutilos might be better with such analysis... but i oddly suspect the current direction taken by MOE is just barely keeping up with global trends.

(just look at how hard they pushed bi-cultural studies, namely english and chinese within the past 5 years. they roughly change their direction every 5 years)

education system has to improve to keep up with the times... and it will keep changing. is it changing fast enough at the moment? tat is the question.


and did the girl waste 105 mins of her life? i dun think so. she has highlighted a few valid points, and for her age, it is commendable.

if we were to take matters into our own hands, and say education... is pointless and we shld discover ourselves... whats the point of having education system in the first place..?

research requires some level of creativity too. albert einstein didnt come up with his theory of relativity memorising his engineering equations... he came up with this idea while day dreaming in his patent office.... a change in the system might not be so bad... and considering the backpedalling the government has done in view of globalisation (RWS, MBS), i wont be surprised the girl's views might be taken into account.
 

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Girl write letter, mother open, father hack and post on her FB, end of story ..
 

How is an open letter if I have to log into Facebook just to view it? :think:

Would appreciate it if anybody can give a summary in one sentence.

sg education system has flaws and needs to be improved, namely in promoting creativity, moral education and a shift from memorising standard answers towards adaptability.

(at least thats what i read it as)
 

to tehzeh...
after reading ur long post...
i help u summarise...
in short, our education system...
and
the inbetween basically... just u saying girl is immature and is not an economist and therefore not good enough to view big picture... for she seems to not understand what sg needs. correct me if i'm mistaken
4: we dun compare to US... US probably has one of the worst education system... save a few private institutions with sufficient funding...
education has to keep in track with globalisation. u mentioned sg is an open economy, we need to push jobs towards certain sectors, such as engineering...
yet you must also take into account... china and india are, and will be producing more engineers, or even more graduates, at a lower, probably cheaper cost. competing with them... with an education structured still at a level of memorizing and application is dangerous, for i suspect in the near future we might lose that advantage.
a shift towards research, service sector, tourism sector can be seen... a greater development towards RnD...
i'm not an economist... perhaps edutilos might be better with such analysis... but i oddly suspect the current direction taken by MOE is just barely keeping up with global trends.
(just look at how hard they pushed bi-cultural studies, namely english and chinese within the past 5 years. they roughly change their direction every 5 years)
education system has to improve to keep up with the times... and it will keep changing. is it changing fast enough at the moment? tat is the question.
and did the girl waste 105 mins of her life? i dun think so. she has highlighted a few valid points, and for her age, it is commendable.
if we were to take matters into our own hands, and say education... is pointless and we shld discover ourselves... whats the point of having education system in the first place..?
research requires some level of creativity too. albert einstein didnt come up with his theory of relativity memorising his engineering equations... he came up with this idea while day dreaming in his patent office.... a change in the system might not be so bad... and considering the backpedalling the government has done in view of globalisation (RWS, MBS), i wont be surprised the girl's views might be taken into account.

Is it changing fast enough?

How fast can it even change? How long do you have to wait to see the effects? How long do you have to wait to see the effects of say the Integrated Programme? How long do you have to wait to see the effects of the new education policies? How about bureaucracy? How about implementation? How about decision making? How about budget? How about other issues? How about social issues that could be associated with the implementation of new policies?

There are simply too many issues to consider when changing policies and the duration is a factor too.

I would say 10-20 years would be sufficient to collect a sample of students to compare the effects 10 years before and after.

We cannot and will not be able to develop our thinking without the aid of an education system. It provides the basis for which we build our values on. We should not rely on the education system to the extent that it has to be perfect so that we are able to develop morals and values and not just memorize content and textbooks. Advocates of the change in education system are no different from people who rely on textbooks and teachers for answers (a.k.a rigidity) because it clearly reflects how dependent they are on the education system, and have not grown out of it.

Yeah I agree that Albert Einstein didn't derive his creativity from memorization of equations but I don't think he got it solely from the education system at that point in time.

Unless changing of education policies could vastly boost the domestic consumption, from the increased number of tourists and investments.
 

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