End of an era?
Streaming of kids at 10 into fast or slow classes according to exams will have to go. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Aug 19, 2002

SINGAPORE is loosening up on its education system – one of the most rigid in the world – in what is perhaps one of the least covered aspects of the fast-changing state.

A combination of factors is contributing to the quiet evolution. The first is an urgent realisation by the government that the old way no longer serves Singapore’s interests.

Several years ago, it put in place a new strategy to produce a new breed of creative Singaporeans capable of competing in a global economy.

“It will help teenagers to think and plan for themselves,” said a senior teacher.

Policies can do only so much. Equally important is the steady input of fresh graduates, educated abroad and locally, who are imbibed by modern ideas and teaching techniques.

Many are between mid-20s and early-40s who are recruited as principals, teachers, counsellors and development officers and are given an incredible amount of freedom, by Singapore standards.

These are the front-line troopers when it comes to spearheading reforms. Some of the older ones take the line of: “Just do as I say.”

While some advanced cities (including Hong Kong) still dither about whether or not to use English and how much Maths and Science to teach, Singapore schools are leaping ahead to break new ground.

In a year or so, every two students will share one computer.

In recent years, schools have been embracing with gusto scientific research, innovative projects to create, design and manufacture things, and now life sciences.

In a lab surrounded by test tubes, students at Dunman Secondary were recently shown over television to be cultivating plants that throw out a bright glow.

It would take a couple of years, said the science teacher, an obvious returnee from abroad. “If it works, it will one day help light up Orchard Road without fluorescence.

The students have also succeeded in liquid “flashing” lights for mass party use that glow 10 times brighter than what is now sold in the market.

Less than two years ago, gene-mapping machines were installed in three junior colleges and a secondary school.

The world’s biggest supplier of life-sciences instruments, Applied Biosystems, had contributed them, together with instructors to train teachers. These machines are needed to map the draft of the human genome.

Another group at River Valley High produced a newspaper compiled by the top 25 students on the most creative, interesting ways to teach science, showing a flare for science and publishing ideas.

One had a Harry Potter experiment on how to create lightning. A second showed a PowerPuff Girl giving instructions on how to make a bubble bomb.

Some 20,000 copies were given free to foster a love of science among primary school pupils.

Secondary school students are today routinely producing specialised websites, VCD documentaries (like Vietnam War) and experimenting with interactive games to new lab-produced foodstuff.

Most of the 374 schools are getting their students to do some form of online studying or programme drafting.

Primary schools are undergoing similar changes at the lower level.

Visitors to West Grove Primary on Mondays (declared a “No Homework” Day) are likely to see the kids playing with racing cars. It is for a purpose.

They have become a teaching tool, a fun way of learning. “We’re using them to illustrate or calculate speed in mathematics or learn about machinery in science,” a teacher explained.

At St Nicholas Primary, prefects are chosen through elections among fellow students, which means they learn how to campaign. “When we’re adults, we have to vote in a government so this prepares us,” said a 12-year-old.

At Bedok South Primary, children are taught ergonomics or design principles that optimise comfort levels, starting with tables and chairs, arranging lighting and reducing glare.

These activities are aimed at producing a new high-tech and creative workforce rather than a hard-working, obedient one. Nations today compete on ideas, so innovation is in and rote learning declines.

Singapore’s three universities have been bending towards the innovative American system, with its open exams, biased towards research and project work.

More drastic changes lay ahead. A body that is reviewing the education system is likely to reduce the emphasis on exams and increase the options for students to choose their courses.

In fact, it may suggest killing education’s sacred cow – streaming of 10-year-olds at Primary 4. According to their grades, the pupils are slotted into fast or slow lanes.

The government’s objective for streaming is to allow children to develop according to their individual abilities and ensuring more students finish at least 10 years of education.

Critics, however, say that this method deals “slower” pupils a lasting social stigma and subjects them to a huge amount of parental pressure.

Instead of streaming, some educators believe that a better system is to let pupils at this age opt for subjects they are good at to suit – and bring out – their abilities.

For example, a child who is strong in Maths but weak in English could study Maths at a more advanced level and do English at a lower level.

Different children would therefore take a longer or shorter time to complete their education and will sit for exams when they are ready.

Education within the next five years, it is envisaged, will be “a buffet feast of learning,” as one reporter described it. One can choose to go to an arts school, a sports school or a science school.

He can choose a through-train scheme, taking him right from Primary One to the second year of junior college. Or attend a school that offers the Swiss-based International Baccalareate programme instead of A-levels.

At university, choices will include specialised research by 2010, when one in four students will be undergraduates.

In 2004, the first sports school will start with 250 students. The Educa-tion Ministry is also planning to launch other independent schools in the arts, mathematics or the sciences.

“We like to create more diversity for students so that they can pursue some of their own interests,” said Minister Teo Chee Hean.

“For those students who want to pursue a career in sports or the arts, we think we should provide them with the opportunities.”

This article first appeared in The Sunday Star on Aug 18, 2002