Complaint Letter to Education Minister

After our tea at the end of the Education forum held on 21st February 2009,  I approached the Education Minister with a complaint letter which I had prepared 2 days before.

He read the letter, smiled at me and handed it to his bodyguard. Not a word was said.

I thought, "That's it. A stone dropping into an ocean. "

I had not harboured much hope as I have been through this so many times for the past decade. During this decade, I have seen the appointments of 3 different Education Ministers. They were Rear-Adm Teo Chee Hean, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Dr Ng Eng Hen.

I'm already satisfied that my complaint letter has been read by the Education Minister himself. All my previous complaint letters were ambushed by his staff.

At least Dr Ng has feedback on what is actually happening at the ground level. He is aware what type of mischief some of his staff are capable of despite having clear guidelines in the IM.


On 12th February 2010, a source informed me that one of the 4 items in my complaint letter to Education Minister Ng Eng Hen has been dealt with. I believe the other 3 will get their just desserts.  

Education Forum : Educating the Next Generation

Education Forum : Educating the Next Generation

I attended this closed door forum held on 21st February 2009. Minister Ng Eng Hen was in a good mood. There were lots of questions and he answered each and every one of them. After the forum, he stayed for tea and chatted with the participants.

I hear the personal views of the Education Minister himself. I was given insights of certain policies. I have a better understanding of our education system. The Education Minister gets feedback from the ground.

Singapore has no natural resources. How we educate our young today will be the future of Singapore. Brain power is the only asset of that. Do we have the brains?

Everyone wants a good education. Any government in the world is willing to spend on education. Every new political candidate wants to do something for education but never quite gets to doing it.

Despite what the government is willing to spend, sometimes it does not match what they wanted to achieve. Singapore spends about 3.5% GDP on education. S$8.9 billion was spent on Education. What have we achieved?

Some countries spend 5-6% of GDP. But spending more doesn’t mean it’s a better education system.

The Singapore education system is well regarded internationally. Those who studied our education system have complimented it. It is quite good compared to many countries. Our students who have gone overseas are doing very well. The Singapore system is rigorous and it prepares the students well so that they perform better when they go into the new system.

Our education system meets the needs of a competitive economy but there are social consequences. Certain core values are sacrificed, there is a lesser sense of home and Singaporean-ness.

Minister Ng Eng Hen on Streaming :

Streaming must lead to better outcomes and be matched with adequate resources to help stretch each child to his maximum. It must not erode self-confidence or the belief that they cannot go further. We must reduce stigmas and labels.

This is why MOE has refined this policy to subject-based banding, as an example in Primary school. We also created many opportunities for late bloomers to move across to more advanced levels.

Life teaches us that there are many variables beyond academic ability which determines who succeeds. Our education system should not say or teach otherwise.

Looks good on paper but this is not carried out by some educators in our schools. They want to look good in their assessment reports. They want promotions and better pay. Self-confidence is the last thing they want to give the students.

At the heart of the success of a good education system, there must be passionate, competent and caring teachers. Singapore invests heavily in teacher training. Teachers are given opportunities to upgrade themselves over time. MOE provides loans and grants to support them.

But have MOE attracted the type of teachers they require?

I still see incompetent and uncaring educators in our schools. MOE is still keeping them. Why? Because there are not enough candidates?

Teachers cannot take over the parenting role but it has to be partnership. If there is resources, it’s better to put them on teachers than parents. It might not be easy to educate parents but it's more effective to educate teachers.

We also need competent school leaders to develop each student under their care.
If MOE reduces testing, our standards will drop. Testing will not only show standards of students but which teachers or schools are not doing well. Perhaps we can reduce the dependence of testing which MOE is trying to test for Pr 1 and 2.

 

Beyond grades : values

For a small country, it is important for us to maintain our survival and continued prosperity, both as a nation and individually. Our education system needs to impart values and not just grades to students.

Children don’t learn from what you say, they learn from what they see.

We have a more questioning younger population. Our education system needs to evolve in response to the changing needs of our nation as well as the external environment.

How do we nurture each child to believe in himself and be self-sufficient, to care for his fellow men, and to be able to contribute to the larger society around him?