3 problems with Singapore's education system

[Guest Guest]

https://mothership.sg/2018/06/moe-elitism-fundamental-problems/

[Guest Tomato]

Issues with Singapore

a) Life values of emphasizing tangibles (read: money); Me syndrome, no empathy for others in life.  (Unfortunately this is  the life values of the Chinese all over the world, dominant Chinese in Singapore are actually not that different from the PRCs).

b) Egoistic and self-righteous; refusing to admit faults for face.

c) Increasingly, one will find that there is a serious lack of EQ amongst (younger) Sporeans.

[Kimochi]

6 minutes ago, Guest Tomato said:

Issues with Singapore

a) Life values of emphasizing tangibles (read: money); Me syndrome, no empathy for others in life.  (Unfortunately this is  the life values of the Chinese all over the world, dominant Chinese in Singapore are actually not that different from the PRCs).

b) Egoistic and self-righteous; refusing to admit faults for face.

c) Increasingly, one will find that there is a serious lack of EQ amongst (younger) Sporeans.

How true.  Where's the fucking like button? 

[Guest Like]

[Meneedyew]

1 hour ago, Guest Tomato said:

Issues with Singapore

a) Life values of emphasizing tangibles (read: money); Me syndrome, no empathy for others in life.  (Unfortunately this is  the life values of the Chinese all over the world, dominant Chinese in Singapore are actually not that different from the PRCs).

b) Egoistic and self-righteous; refusing to admit faults for face.

c) Increasingly, one will find that there is a serious lack of EQ amongst (younger) Sporeans.

woah 

[Steve5380]

2 hours ago, Kimochi said:

How true.  Where's the fucking like button? 

 

This is the problem with "guests".  They cannot be "liked" because they don't have an identity.

[Steve5380]

Depression in young students is not unique to Singapore.  This is also a serious problem in the US.

But this elitism over "success" seems to be endemic in the island.

Is this the consequence of ultra capitalism and lack of progressive social values?

[Guest Fucked up]

2 hours ago, Guest Tomato said:

Issues with Singapore

a) Life values of emphasizing tangibles (read: money); Me syndrome, no empathy for others in life.  (Unfortunately this is  the life values of the Chinese all over the world, dominant Chinese in Singapore are actually not that different from the PRCs).

b) Egoistic and self-righteous; refusing to admit faults for face.

c) Increasingly, one will find that there is a serious lack of EQ amongst (younger) Sporeans.

Even westerners when they assimilate into our society, set up companies here, etc, they will adopt the same attitude in order to survive by fittng in, out of fear.

 

Singapore is that fucked up.

 

Sad but true!

[Guest edu]

only 3 problems?

[fab]

Hence we need to ve 2 ministers of education?

[Guest I right you wrong]

10 hours ago, Guest Tomato said:

Issues with Singapore

a) Life values of emphasizing tangibles (read: money); Me syndrome, no empathy for others in life.  (Unfortunately this is  the life values of the Chinese all over the world, dominant Chinese in Singapore are actually not that different from the PRCs).

b) Egoistic and self-righteous; refusing to admit faults for face.

c) Increasingly, one will find that there is a serious lack of EQ amongst (younger) Sporeans.

With self-righteous religion on the rise here, it turns the matter even worse.

[Steve5380]

1 hour ago, Guest I right you wrong said:

With self-righteous religion on the rise here, it turns the matter even worse.

 

Why is religion on the rise in your island?

Isn't your education system focused in making the population more intellectual and knowledgeable of modern science?

[abang]

It has to do with trends rather than the education system.  A sort of keeping up with the Joneses (Tans in the local context).  Consider it trendy to be a member of a local evangelistic church. Gone were the days when service was somber - nowadays, it looks more like pop concerts and preachers tend to have excellent showmanship. 

 

I remembered the good old days of humble pastors who lives with minimal necessities.  Not now, they live in expensive places - Sentosa Cove.  Gone were the days when pastors were respected as a man of God.. nowadays, they go to Changi Prison for misappropriating funds.  

[Guest Guest]

2 minutes ago, abang said:

It has to do with trends rather than the education system.  A sort of keeping up with the Joneses (Tans in the local context).  Consider it trendy to be a member of a local evangelistic church. Gone were the days when service was somber - nowadays, it looks more like pop concerts and preachers tend to have excellent showmanship. 

 

I remembered the good old days of humble pastors who lives with minimal necessities.  Not now, they live in expensive places - Sentosa Cove.  Gone were the days when pastors were respected as a man of God.. nowadays, they go to Changi Prison for misappropriating funds.  

Why do you make it sound like All pastors are like KH? Why are you insinuatung pastors of my religion are in for the money?

[abang]

4 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

Why do you make it sound like All pastors are like KH? Why are you insinuatung pastors of my religion are in for the money?

Did you read my first paragraph?

 

Why not, with high-profile pastors like Kong Hee, it is no wonder many are attracted to these modern churches - I did not say ALL ...so don't jump to unnecessary conclusions... It just takes one to make or break .. you simply cannot avoid highlighting it as it remains the talk of the town even after Feb 2018 finale. 

 

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2087782/gyrating-pop-stars-embezzlement-and-faith-singapores-city-harvest

 

[Guest Guest]

21 minutes ago, abang said:

Did you read my first paragraph?

 

Why not, with high-profile pastors like Kong Hee, it is no wonder many are attracted to these modern churches - I did not say ALL ...so don't jump to unnecessary conclusions... It just takes one to make or break .. you simply cannot avoid highlighting it as it remains the talk of the town even after Feb 2018 finale. 

 

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2087782/gyrating-pop-stars-embezzlement-and-faith-singapores-city-harvest

 

You did not? 

[Guest You don't know?]

3 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

 

Why is religion on the rise in your island?

Isn't your education system focused in making the population more intellectual and knowledgeable of modern science?

MOE has history of allowing religion interference on its text. Even places for learning like the National Library was not spared.

[Steve5380]

2 hours ago, Guest Guest said:

Why do you make it sound like All pastors are like KH? Why are you insinuatung pastors of my religion are in for the money?

 

I would answer this if I knew what your religion is.

[Steve5380]

11 minutes ago, Guest You don't know? said:

MOE has history of allowing religion interference on its text. Even places for learning like the National Library was not spared.

 

Hmmm...  MOE getting involved with religion...   sedition laws.... 377A..... chewing gum against law... Traces of a totalitarian state?

Trump and Kim Jong Un may have chosen Singapore for a reason?

 

Yippy!!  My 3000th post!  I have been pestering the forum trying to reach this round number.  Now I'll give my fingers a rest.

[Guest Annie Thio]

13 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

 

Hmmm...  MOE getting involved with religion...   sedition laws.... 377A..... chewing gum against law... Traces of a totalitarian state?

Trump and Kim Jong Un may have chosen Singapore for a reason?

 

Yippy!!  My 3000th post!  I have been pestering the forum trying to reach this round number.  Now I'll give my fingers a rest.

Your fingers must have shortened by a few mm from all that typing.

 

God did not make fingers for typing on keyboards.... they were created for loosening up of sex partners’ assholes.

[Steve5380]

3 hours ago, Guest Annie Thio said:

God did not make fingers for typing on keyboards.... they were created for loosening up of sex partners’ assholes.

 

And he made your mouth to lick the fingers clean thereafter.

[auscent]

Its an arm race. As society becomes competitive so is eductn system. I often think sg is reflection of how utopian society can be.

[Guest Yip]

21 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

Yippy!!  My 3000th post!  I have been pestering the forum......

You finally admit being a pest here.

[Steve5380]

10 hours ago, Guest Yip said:

You finally admit being a pest here.

 

We are all members of the Human pest that has infected planet earth and is depleting its environment.

But while some humans are harmful bacteria, I belong to the probiotic of healthy organisms.

Here at BW I help digest threads and posts, some like yours that need their corrosivity to be neutralized.

[Steve5380]

12 hours ago, auscent said:

Its an arm race. As society becomes competitive so is eductn system. I often think sg is reflection of how utopian society can be.

 

Correct.  Isn't Thio Li-Ann a product of Singapore's education system?

After cultivating her snobbishness in the elementary education, she went to elite colleges to polish her credentials,

and instead of gaining knowledge she degenerated into a total ignorant of human values.

[auscent]

To be fair Spore pre u can be accepted into many countries. U cant blame its quality.

[Guest Tomato]

9 hours ago, auscent said:

To be fair Spore pre u can be accepted into many countries. U cant blame its quality.

\

Education system should not only be limited to academic/knowledge achievements.  (The quality of such, at least for PS and SS, are not bad).

It is the social education, parental/home education, value system of this country that will shape a person especially during the formative years.  These, I am afraid, are not working terribly well in this country.

The test: Get a  top scoring student and interview him/her on national TV.  You will get the typical mass-produced canned gondoo-ness through his/her views, ease of presentation, character.  The entire package is usually unimpressive. 

[Steve5380]

10 hours ago, auscent said:

To be fair Spore pre u can be accepted into many countries. U cant blame its quality.

 

Like Guest Tomato hinted,  this depends very much on what you understand under "quality".

[auscent]

Spore system needs to work to produce workers better equipped to handle new world. Thats next step, having built fundamentals.

[Guest Smart Ass Nation]

19 hours ago, Guest Tomato said:

\

Education system should not only be limited to academic/knowledge achievements.  (The quality of such, at least for PS and SS, are not bad).

It is the social education, parental/home education, value system of this country that will shape a person especially during the formative years.  These, I am afraid, are not working terribly well in this country.

The test: Get a  top scoring student and interview him/her on national TV.  You will get the typical mass-produced canned gondoo-ness through his/her views, ease of presentation, character.  The entire package is usually unimpressive. 

Yes,  we were aware how people were trained to read scripts written for them.  Look at the chief of the chiefs in uniform or any heads of the stat boards when being asked about their thoughts on a particular matters concerning their area of work, and than they began to read from the scripts (eyes glued to the camera screen with words rolling up) prepared for them by main stream media crews.  They don't have the mind for giving out answer on theri won, the govt feared they said the wrong thing or these elites couldn't present themselves without any proper support.  It pained to see our education system has produced robots instead of human.

[Guest Waste of oxygen]

Compared to the taiwanese goverment officials, singapore ones rely too much on regurgitating canned and such stale motherhood statements, failure to reflect any originality of thought or idea, worse is the inability to flex and project one’s thoughts, ideas, “voice” and perspectives, save for paraphrasing and plagiarisg speeches of more powerful world leaders. Everything that came out from their mouths is tragically PC, painfully safe, repeatedly and tirelessly regurgitated from old, traditional and conservative ideas and values, overly obvious common-sensical drivels and sometimes without any common sense even! 

 

A complete and utter waste of anyone’s time to listen to them spew garbage.

[Guest Walking douch bags]

You sill be surprised government officials’ speeches are written by gay people working as their PR consultants.

 

Gay people sometimes can be brain dead too, when they become too desperate to fit in and be safe in their work enviroments.

[auscent]

6 hours ago, Guest Waste of oxygen said:

Everything that came out from their mouths is tragically PC, painfully safe, repeatedly and tirelessly regurgitated ...

Then we should learn to take their info critically. 

More importantly in our daily work we dont follow this culture.

[Guest Modern Witchcraft]

3 hours ago, auscent said:

Then we should learn to take their info critically. 

More importantly in our daily work we dont follow this culture.

Actually listening to them has caused a dumbing down effect on the masses. It deep freezes brain cells and send them on vacations. Like watching channel 8 dramas, even giving a teenie weenie hoot about what they say will “hypnotically” pull you in to turn you into another one of them zombies.

 

Only sufficiently educated strong minds are immune to and therefore can resist their hypnotic snake oil.

 

Witchcrafts had evolved into these ministers’ raison d'être. I wouldn’t be surprised. The original medieval witches will have a lot to learn and absorb from these ministers.

 

Their tour de force is the entire nation of 70% sheeps. 

 

Grassroots leaders and RCs are their pièce de résistance.

 

It will take a divine intervention to cure this nation of such maladaptive malady madness.

[Guest Modern Witchcraft]

3 hours ago, auscent said:

Then we should learn to take their info critically. 

More importantly in our daily work we dont follow this culture.

Actually more than anyone could imagine, especially those working in government linked institutions had taken in that culture to be their daily protocol and guilding light, no holds barred surrendering all their brain cells.

[Guest Cocoon]

1 hour ago, Guest Modern Witchcraft said:

Actually listening to them has caused a dumbing down effect on the masses. It deep freezes brain cells and send them on vacations. Like watching channel 8 dramas, even giving a teenie weenie hoot about what they say will “hypnotically” pull you in to turn you into another one of them zombies.

 

Media corp churned out tonnes of drama queens and kings every year thru their so called "star awards".  The news readers are drama too, they blinked, nodded, faked expression and pursed their lips as and when they were told by the producers behind the news reporting scene to create "effect" on the listeners sitting in front of the TV.  Same for the minitoots,  too much hand gestures, faking of tonnes and frowning over repetitive rhetorics and motherthoods to stir emotions and wash the mind which often works with them taking turns to pat each others back until falsehood beacame a gospel. 

[Guest Observant siaa]

6 hours ago, Guest Cocoon said:

Media corp churned out tonnes of drama queens and kings every year thru their so called "star awards".  The news readers are drama too, they blinked, nodded, faked expression and pursed their lips as and when they were told by the producers behind the news reporting scene to create "effect" on the listeners sitting in front of the TV.  Same for the minitoots,  too much hand gestures, faking of tonnes and frowning over repetitive rhetorics and motherthoods to stir emotions and wash the mind which often works with them taking turns to pat each others back until falsehood beacame a gospel. 

What you write is funny but rather true. Upon reflection, it really is a totalitarian state in almost all practises, only just short of blatant, compulsory public worshipping of the leader - but we could be getting there with more PRC imports!

 

 

[Guest Politically Wrong Kween]

Kim is having a truce (potential denuclearisation) with america, najib is down. Who is next? Giggles giggles

[Guest Its not right butts ok]

THAT kimchi FAT boy had landed in changi!

 

We are one step towards embracing totalitarianism. HURRAY! LOL

[JayRoss55]

While Singapore consistently ranks among the top in global education, this success masks three deeply rooted structural problems: oversized classes that strain teachers, a high-stakes exam culture that fuels anxiety, and persistent inequality masked by "meritocracy."

 

📏 1. Oversized Classes and Teacher Burnout

 

Singapore's class sizes are significantly larger than in other developed nations, which directly impacts the quality of attention students receive.

 

· Large Class Sizes: Primary schools average 34 pupils per class, and secondary schools 33, compared to the OECD average of about 21–23 .

 

· Teacher Strain: Local teachers work 47 hours a week (6 more than OECD peers), but spend less time teaching due to administrative loads, leading to high stress and burnout .

 

· The "Effective Size" Issue: While MOE caps lower primary at 30 students, some upper primary levels still see classes approach 40 students .

 

🎯 2. The "Arms Race" and Exam-Centric Stress

 

Despite decades of policy reforms, the culture of "kiasu-ism" (fear of losing out) keeps the education system a high-stakes competition.

 

· High-Stakes Sorting: The PSLE at age 12 is seen as a life-defining moment, forcing parents to start preparing their children years in advance .

 

· The "Insurance" Mindset: Parents treat名校 (elite schools) as insurance for their child's future. Even with grade-based changes, demand outstrips supply, and competition has simply shifted to areas like volunteering or DSA (Direct School Admission) prep .

 

· Mental Health Toll: The pressure is immense. Singapore students report higher levels of anxiety about failing exams compared to global peers, and many suffer from chronic stress and sleep deprivation .

 

⚖️ 3. Structural Inequality and "Shadow Education"

 

Ironically, a system designed to be meritocratic often ends up reinforcing social class divides.

 

· The "Parent Volunteer" Barrier: Access to top primary schools often requires parents to volunteer 40 hours or be alumni (Phase 2A). This favors families with time, social networks, or alumni connections, leading to socio-economic clustering in elite schools .

 

· The $1.4 Billion Tuition Industry**: Singapore spends **$1.4 billion annually on private tuition. Wealthier families buy advantages via expensive prep, while lower-income families fall behind despite the "meritocratic" ideal .

 

· Inefficient Redistribution: While there are pathways for "late bloomers" (like ITE), the rigorous early sorting often reinforces, rather than reduces, existing social advantages .

 

---

 

These challenges are well-known, and MOE is actively reviewing frameworks like the PSLE and P1 registration.