I refer to ‘Mindset change needed for holistic learning to succeed’ (Jan 25).

Given that children have only that many waking hours a day for meals, school and play, are the demands on them too much for them to bear, leading to exhaustion and sleep deprivation?

I would say yes.

A typical school day starts early. It is still dark when children wake up to get ready to take the school bus, and many catch a shut-eye on their trip to school. They have with them their school bags, water bottles and artwork for class. Against their relatively small frames, these loads can be heavy.

Once in school, classroom learning is interspersed with outdoor physical education lessons. On certain days of the week, students stay back for their Co-curricular Activities. It is not uncommon for them to leave the school premises only in the late afternoon.

Assuming that a student wakes up at 6am, it would easily be a good 10 hours of demand on him or her physically and mentally. Many begin their “second regimen” of enrichment classes and tuition after that.

The question is: Can one do his or her best work when one is tired?

What about the heavy learning materials they have to manage? Textbook writers “under-write” and those who set examination papers “over-set”. Between them, they create this behemoth supplementary industry called tuition. Students have to be forewarned and conditioned to the variety of questions that may be asked in exams. Many are hot-housed to give standardised answers to these questions by rote.

Why are we subjecting our young to these punishing routines? Without a doubt, it is the focus on results that galvanise those in the education sector to go into overdrive. And the pressure on students continues to grow.

Indeed, this calls for a mindset change. The new economy demands innovative and thinking workers who are adaptable to changes. Dishing out knowledge the old way to exhausted students does not fit the new reality.