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Education ‘needs rethink to focus on individual’

SINGAPORE — Speaking in his first public speech as Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills), Mr Ong Ye Kung today (Oct 14) called for a rethink of the meaning of post-secondary schooling and a shift of the educational system to focus more on the individual, rather than the collective.

Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung speaking at the TVET Conference 2015. Photo: ITE

Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung speaking at the TVET Conference 2015. Photo: ITE

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SINGAPORE — Speaking in his first public speech as Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills), Mr Ong Ye Kung today (Oct 14) called for a rethink of the meaning of post-secondary schooling and a shift of the educational system to focus more on the individual, rather than the collective.

Underlining the tension between allowing individuals to make their own choices based on passion and using education to serve a country’s needs, Mr Ong made the case for the country to move away from the old system it started off with. The higher education landscape has to evolve in line with changing aspirations and more complex goals — and this does not detract from education’s imperative purpose of serving the larger national interests, said Mr Ong.

“The rethinking of the meaning of higher education must include the fact that the collective good is attained, or in fact, can only be attained — by the ability of individuals to pursue their own talents and passion,” he said.

“Every Singaporean counts, and he or she can only count if the system allows maximum play of what he or she can do and is best at doing. In this evolution, Singapore as a whole can become stronger, better, and more sure of our place in the world.”

Mr Ong was giving the opening address at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)-Singapore Conference on Higher Education Futures, barely weeks after he assumed public office. The conference is being held at the Resorts World Convention Centre and attended by academics as well as university administrators.

At a community event earlier this month, Mr Ong had told reporters that the Ministry of Education (MOE) will work towards making the educational system more diverse, by taking into account “not just top-down national needs but also bottom-up aspirations”.

Elaborating on this today, he said that he opted against instinct to “play it safe, make some observations, congratulate ourselves for all the great work we’ve done” in his maiden speech. Instead, he wanted to speak more frankly about the tensions in higher education, the global anxieties across societies and the policy dilemmas for the Government.

He noted that Singapore’s educational system began on the basis of meeting economic needs. Apart from training Singaporeans well to attract investors, “we were all for our stomachs, good economy; we wanted a job and a roof over our heads”, he said.

But the situation has changed, he pointed out.

“Kids want to grow into vocations, professions and careers that can allow them to protect the ones they love, to walk through fire to save others, to cure the sick, to build cars, to fly to the moon, to understand Mother Nature ... the higher education system must help people uncover and pursue their passions, and chase their respective rainbows.”

However, he cautioned that by choosing this path, the Government will encounter requests and expectations that it cannot meet, such as a passionate young person unable to get into a programme of his choice. Even so, policymakers are committed to opening up different educational pathways to fulfil aspirations, he said.

“We are growing the number of university places for our people not by adding more of the same, but in the form of new programmes and new institutions,” he added.

This “multi-dimensional, qualitative change” will be achieved through the SkillsFuture movement, which was launched last year to provide Singaporeans with the opportunities to “develop to their fullest potential throughout their life, regardless of their starting points”, Mr Ong said.

With technological advances set to replace manual and cognitive tasks, he cited an OECD report stating that demand for high-level skills will increase while the demand for low-level skills will be constant.

In comparison, the demand will fall for medium-level skills. “To prepare people well for this reality, education institutions must be well-plugged into the needs of industries and the real and unpredictable world,” said Mr Ong.

Society also has to play its part in the transformation. “What is beyond Government’s and universities’ control — and rightly so — is how society regards and recognises a skilled worker, a craftsman and a master. This will have to be part of the continuing evolution as a society,” he said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Stefan Kapferer reiterated that in some societies, people go through a university education for years but end up unemployed.

“If career paths are more uncertain than ever before because we have changing demands by employers (and) due to technological changes, it is very clear we have to organise education in universities in a different way to tackle these challenges,” he said.

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