Singapore's
Changing schools
Stepping up gear to produce a thinking workforce. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Sept 26, 2005

Something is taking place in Singapore's schools, known for their ability to produce very good math and science teenagers.

That's the good part because these are strong fundamentals for a future workforce.

But the system, with too much emphasis on exams and rote learning, has also outlived some of its usefulness in a new economy in which nations compete on ideas.

That requires more than just disciplined, hard-working students.

Multi-national corporations have complained that this breed of scholars, while excelling in data knowledge, lacks personal initiative and needs hand holding.

Eight years ago, the government launched a whole new strategy to inculcate thinking minds and entrepreneurial skills.

The push, the government believes, will help it overcome competition from the likes of China and India by increasing the diverse quality and inventiveness of its future workforce.

The result so far has been impressive.

At Hougang Primary, for example, seven-year-olds share their classrooms with an assortment of insects, plants and skeleton frames. In all 11 classes are objects highlighting skills that include IT, science, music or languages.

"The children can touch and play with them. They will have fun and maybe make a mess of things, but hopefully discover new things," said the principal Goh Ek Piang.

From last year, Coral Primary children, working in teams, were given part of a long corridor to jointly plan and paint the wall as an ongoing art project.

"The pupils take ownership of that corridor and feel responsible for that area," principal Teo Bee Eng told reporters.

Junior college students have met at the Sisters Island getaway to work out ideas to tackle Singapore's declining birth rates.

Polytechnic youths created a new fragrance and began marketing it to romancing couples. Others emerged with a health-quality chocolate that will soon go on sale.

Apart from mainstream schools, Singapore has specific ones that cater to specific needs, for gifted children, for language skills, especially the mother tongue.

There is also a sports school, and an Arts school, which teaches music, theatre, dance and the visual arts.

The courses are becoming more innovative. A nine-year-old student, for example, is CEO of her school library cafe, getting a real, first-hand lesson on running a business.

Forty students in her Edgefield Primary 3 class operate it. They have elected a 15-member board, which in turn chose Dominique Sng as boss. She has four managers in charge of finance, inventory, operations and marketing.

At the peak, the queues are 20 to 30 long. "The girls get impatient," she said. "They don't listen to me to quiet down."

Doing business is fast becoming a way of life in many primary and secondary schools like the following:

* Hwa Chong Junior College and Chinese High School: They teach a five-year course on entrepreneurship.

* Tao Nan School: Students run a month-long charity carnival, drawing up proposals for manpower costing, concept plans and profit margins.

* Orchid Park Secondary: Students operate an art gallery, a bubble teashop and gaming events.

* Kranji Secondary: Teenagers run a general store that sells uniforms and provides photocopying services.

* Jurong Junior College and Fuchun Primary: Students can buy shares in businesses in their schools.

Northland Primary won the most innovated solar car award; Naval Base Primary gained recognition for its cluster video editing training.

Some schools excelled in chess, choir, rhythmic gymnastics or calligraphy.

With few exceptions, most of the schools mentioned here are average, suburban - not branded - institutions.

This indicates that practical learning and diversified projects have become a countrywide phenomenon.

Geylang Methodist Secondary School was among the earliest implementers of the Thinking Programme, which began in 1996.

Here, 14-year-old students practice their deductive skills on the chemical process of osmosis.

A special Thinking Programme workbook asks them to consider what happens to a red blood cell soaked in three different solutions.

The book takes them through the deductive process, thus exercising young minds in the art of reaching conclusions.

Today, a whole new vocabulary is making its way around Singapore schools like "thinking schools", "learning nation", and "less teaching, more learning". Curriculum will be cut by 20%, and some national exams are disappearing.

The elites are more ambitious, going for national or international awards in science, math or gadget inventions.

On Thursday the Education Ministry moved further, announcing measures that will allow secondary school students more choices and removing more exams.

Next year, a dozen schools will begin new O-level subjects, such as economics, drama and computer studies, and later media studies.

Of all the measures to restructure Singapore, education has probably achieved the most for good reasons. Without many natural resources, Singapore relies mostly on its people.

During the worst of Asia's economic recessions when most governments had cut their education budgets, Singapore stepped up spending in this field.

So did its citizens. Parents would send their unemployed graduate children back to university to pursue a master's degree. Tiny tots in more homes attend play-school or pre-kindergarten from as young as three.

In a strongly criticised move, some private tutors are starting to teach the alphabet and simple arithmetic to four- or five year-olds to give children a head start.

Will all this succeed in producing a thinking 21st century workforce? It's a good start but critics point to a fundamental obstacle - Singapore's highly regulated environment.

(This article was published in The Sunday Star on Sept 25, 2005)