This is an edited excerpt of a speech by Education Minister
Heng Swee Keat in Parliament yesterday.
IN 1965, education meant du shu or "study book".
Our pioneers had a sense of where they wanted to be in the future, where they
were, and worked hard to bridge that gap. The big gap then was basic literacy
and numeracy skills - so "study book" made sense as they learnt the
three "Rs" - or reading, writing, arithmetic.
Many became literate and numerate. We then built on this
education system. At critical points, we made important choices to adapt and
change. Educators, parents, students responded with spirit, and each wave
allowed us to make further progress with purpose. But there were also
inadvertent negatives. In our mind, "study book" became increasingly
about exams, grades and qualifications.
A strength - in focusing on academic grades - can be
overdone and become a weakness, as we leave little time to develop other
attributes that are necessary for success and fulfilment.
Students tell me of the stress they faced because of the
high expectations placed on them. The chase for better grades fuelled a tuition
industry. It created a vertical stacking of qualifications, as well as the
tiering of schools in the minds of parents based mainly on academic results - a
hierarchy of grades.
We are not unique in this. The same "study book"
culture that enabled the three East Asian dragons - South Korea, Hong Kong,
Taiwan - to make great strides is also generating the same, if not even
greater, pressure in their societies.
Like our pioneers before us, we have to ask anew: Where do
we want to be in the future, where are we today, and how do we make the leap?
The future will be more uncertain, volatile as the global
economy and political order change in unpredictable ways. An ageing population
will create challenges that we cannot totally foresee. A younger generation
that is digitally connected can either be more united or more divided.
The nature of jobs will also change. Many existing jobs will
disappear. Smart machines and lower- cost workers elsewhere will take these
jobs. We have to change jobs, maybe several times over our lifetime. But jobs
that need uniquely human qualities cannot be displaced by machines, and will
become more valuable.
Traits like creativity, inventiveness, adaptability,
socio-emotional skills, and cultural and global awareness will give
Singaporeans an edge. Some of us will create jobs for others as entrepreneurs.
And if our economy grows well, more jobs will be created. All these present new
and multiple pathways for success.
At a crossroads
WE ARE at a crossroads. We have two options.
We could continue with the "study book" path, with
a narrow focus on grades and exams, and descend into a spiralling paper chase
and expanding tuition industry, as many of you have warned. Employers choose
not to invest in employees, relying wholly on academic qualifications to
determine who gets the job. Educators drill and test, and see their duty as
helping students obtain the best exam grades possible. Parents obsess over
grades and spend ever-increasing amounts of resources to give their child an
edge over other children. And students chase the next point, and spend most of
their time going for more tuition and enrichment in very narrow areas.
Stress levels in society climb, and the system churns out
students who excel in exams, but are ill-equipped to take on jobs of the
future, nor find fulfilment in what they do. And unemployment or
under-employment becomes pervasive.
Or we can have another outcome.
We can act with boldness and resolve to embark on a major
transformation. We will need collective will and action by employers, teachers,
parents and students and society at large.
Where employers look beyond academic qualifications in
hiring and promoting the best person for the job, where bosses support
employees in skills upgrading, where educators focus on holistic education,
building a strong foundation of values and the capacity to learn, where our
institutions of higher learning play a leading role strengthening the nexus
between learning and work, learning and life, where parents recognise every
child's unique strengths, and do their part to build their children's
character, where students flourish through a range of academic and
co-curricular activities, take different pathways to success and grow up to be
well-rounded.
The economy stays resilient and flexible, with high levels
of employment, and many opportunities. High skills, high productivity, high
wages. And our society and our people continue to be caring, harmonious,
gracious, cohesive. And we do not see education as a race among our children.
Charting this new territory will require us to once again be
pioneers.
We developed new ways of learning in our schools, made every
school a good school, expanded applied pathways in tertiary education and, in
this Budget, outlined a series of SkillsFuture initiatives that built on
Aspire's (Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review) recommendations. All
these changes have laid the groundwork for a transformation that creates a
better future for Singapore, anchored in deep skills and strong values. But
this future will belong to us only if we, as a people, shift our mindsets about
education.
This is not about "study book" or du shu.
It is about learning in every domain, any time, anywhere for
a purposeful, fulfilling life. In other words, we need to live the pioneering
spirit, beyond learning for grades, to learning for mastery, beyond learning in
school, to learning throughout life, beyond learning for work, to learning for
life.
Learning for mastery
THE first major shift is to go beyond learning for grades,
to learning for mastery.
When I was in the Police Academy 30 years ago, more than 30
years ago actually, one of my pioneer instructors was Mr John Chang. He did not
have high academic qualifications, but he was, in my mind, one of the best
instructors - he knew the law, he knew how to deal with tense situations, he
knew how to teach.
He explained to me that after handling each case, he would
reflect on how he could have done better. He would imagine in his mind
scenarios - how should he have reacted if the criminals that he was dealing
with had been more violent, if they were armed with a firearm, or if the
victims were less cooperative, and so on and so forth.
He studied on his own, he attended classes, he asked his
peers, he asked his seniors. Everybody he could get, he would ask. John was one
of the few police officers who started as a constable, got many promotions and
went all the way and retired as an assistant superintendent of police. Quite a
feat in those days.
I learnt a lot from John as a very young officer about what
it means to be an effective learner, and how one achieves mastery.
He was self-directed: No one told him how to learn, but he
did so on his own. He was reflective: He thought through his own experiences
and learnt from both mistakes and successes. He learnt in bite-sized modules,
picking up what he needed, when he needed. He kept an open mind and learnt from
everyone, everywhere, at any time. He was disciplined: Learning was not left to
chance, but built into his everyday routine. And he was passionate: He cared
deeply about what he does.
We should aim to be a nation where Singaporeans develop
mastery in every field, Singaporeans who are resourceful, inventive and break
new ground. This will take a collective effort across our schools, institutes
of higher learning (IHLs) and industry.
Learning with interest and joy: An important aspect of
learning for mastery is to match our students' strengths and interests to
opportunities in our schools and IHLs, in careers and enterprises. A recent
innovation in our schools is the Applied Learning Programmes or ALPs, in fact
in almost all our secondary schools, and this is part of our Every School A
Good School movement.
In fun and creative ways, our students apply various domains
of knowledge to solve complex, real- life problems in their field of interest.
Hillgrove Secondary has an ALP on flight and aerospace. Students learn
fundamental aerospace theories, and apply maths, science, design and technology
by building and flying their own model planes. Students go on to take advanced
elective modules in aerospace, where they fly in flight simulators and learn
how planes defy gravity.
Rayner Lee really enjoyed learning at Hillgrove and in fact
he's now doing aerospace technology at Nanyang Polytechnic and he says: "I
chose Hillgrove because of the Youth Flying Club CCA. I wanted to be a pilot.
My parents and school teachers encouraged me to take up the Private Pilot
Licence (PPL). Now that I have my licence, I hope to join the RSAF (Republic of
Singapore Air Force) as a pilot." Well, I hope Rayner flies high.
Mastery in whichever field: Different ALPs open up different
possibilities for students to put knowledge into action and bring learning to
life. Learning becomes relevant and engaging for every student, in every
school.
We are not channelling students to specialise early. In
fact, deep skills acquired in one field can be transferred to another.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic uses the technical know-how in building
unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs to build unmanned underwater vehicles or UUVs
to clean ship hulls - so transferring the skills from air to sea.
A team in ITE working with the Singapore Zoo applied medical
technology to design an incubator, and succeeded in increasing the hatching
rate of reptile eggs from 25 per cent to 75 per cent.
With more choices, we need good education and career
guidance or ECG. There are many domains and fields that students could explore
and develop deep skills in - whether it's in design, business, arts, music or
sports. By exposing students to possibilities, we empower them to make better
choices and choose suitable pathways. ECG curriculum in schools, ITE and
polytechnics will be enhanced and, by 2017, we'll have a professional core of
ECG counsellors and an online ECG portal that shows many exciting opportunities
- enriched by our SkillsFuture initiatives.
Learning throughout life
THE second major shift that we need to make together deeper
is to go beyond learning in school, to learning throughout life.
Fifty years ago, Seletar was better known for the smell of
pig farms. And 50 years on, I visited Seletar to witness the delivery of our
first Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 jet engine - made-in-Singapore for a Singaporean
company, Scoot. A world of difference.
Ravinder is a team leader with 24 years of aerospace
experience. You would have thought that he knows everything, but he told me:
"To me, every day is a learning process." And this gentleman was
serious when he said that.
It turned out that his son was also interested in aerospace
engineering. So Ravinder decided that he, too, should return to school to pick
up new skills and more skills, so that he can mentor his son, and pass on his
skills to the next generation. He enrolled in Temasek Polytechnic's Diploma in
Aerospace Engineering and is now six months into his course. Now, all that,
while working hard at Rolls-Royce mentoring his young colleagues, like Cheria
and Siti.
Now, Cheria is technically Ravinder's "schoolmate"
in TP, as she is also pursuing a Diploma in Aerospace Engineering. But she is
one-third his age - about. As an intern, she is learning at the workplace, even
as Ravinder is learning at TP.
Siti, an ITE student in aerospace technology, was also part
of the team. While working at a bookshop at Changi Airport, she saw the
aeroplanes taking off and it piqued her interest. She started to wonder how do
planes fly. So, today, she is a Rolls-Royce ITE scholar, thrilled to be
building an impressive and complex engine with some 30,000 parts and learning
all that as an intern. So you see it's not just about learning technical
skills.
Ravinder, Cheria and Siti are at different stages of life
but all actively learning to be better, to succeed both at work, and in life.
Self-directed learning
AS WE resolve to learn for mastery and learn throughout
life, we need to rethink a few issues about learning and the significance of
the changes.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development) did a recent survey of adult skills. Workers in Japan ranked
highly in their skills, but ranked badly in terms of how well these skills are
utilised on the job. At the opposite end, workers in the US ranked poorly in
skills, but ranked among the top in using skills on the job - so whatever
skills they have, they use to the fullest.
Besides the multiple pathways in our institutions of higher
learning, you can now create your own learning pathways - build a portfolio of
skills, just in time, tailored to your own needs, at your own pace. You can
stack modules towards a qualification, or just choose relevant modules. It
empowers each of us to take charge, direct our own learning, and build our own
unique skills map.
This self-directed, independent learning must start young.
Our teachers must not spoon-feed our students and give them model answers.
In life, there are no model answers. I once had a parent who
wrote to me to argue for an extra mark for her child's term test in school.
Rather than seek an extra mark in tests, let us nurture our children to make
their mark in society.
We have to encourage our children to be independent,
self-directed learners, skilful at figuring out their own way.
Professor Tan Tai Yong made an important point that we must
not over-protect our children, so that they can develop adaptive resilience and
learn to deal with uncertainties in life. But if we intervene when a child did
not get the extra mark, how does he or she develop that resilience?
So let us start early in our schools and make our children
self-directed, independent learners. Let us all take a collective pause and see
whether the way that we are bringing up our children in school, at home, is
helping them to develop that independence, that self-directed learning, that
resourcefulness and initiative, or whether we are spoon-feeding them, that they
are going to lose that; that when the crutch is taken away, they cannot go out
and create and invent and build new things.
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.comPublished on Mar 07, 2015
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