Educational system needs major overhaul

I read with interest the report “Heng: Bold changes needed in education” (March 7) and the letter “Fixing tuition mindset a Herculean task” (March 11).

First, the Education Minister spoke about the need for Singaporeans to go beyond learning for grades and instead “learn for mastery”.

Although his points address the current headwinds, the question is whether we can translate words into action.

Then the letter writer compared the task of changing parental mindset towards tuition to “Hercules cleaning the Augean stables”.

But what in our society has created this tuition mindset? Surely this is not self-induced psychosis on the part of parents?

Let us reflect on the source of this mindset. My son, 10, an average student in an average school, asked me recently: “Dad, why does my school have a science lab, but I’ve never had a chance to use it?”

I asked him how his teachers taught science and he replied: “Worksheets.”

I asked him how he would like science to be taught and he replied: “Even I know science happens outside the classroom, not only inside, so how can we be only learning science without leaving our classroom?”

This highlights that a major overhaul is overdue — enough with the small, tepid changes. Let us stop talking about what we know we should have done yesterday and set ourselves to rectify this.

Reducing the tuition issue to the mindset of parents is simplistic and ignores the wider issues interconnected with the inherent shortcomings of our educational system.

The overarching goal, in primary schools, should be to plant the seeds of curiosity and passion for learning.

Instead, we extinguish that passion by creating an academic pressure cooker that culminates in a single examination.

It is improbable that my 10-year-old will enjoy this change in his primary school years, but I hope change comes before it is too late.