Term 3 Week 3 (Blogging Assignment) Read the following letter: http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/07/12/an-open-letter-to-the-education-minister-fr

Singapore is developing very quickly and nowadays, almost everybody has received education. However, there are still some flaws in the education system in Singapore.

I think that what Janelle Lee said is quite true. Singapore’s education is very examination-based. In order to score well, a student simply has to memorize all the information that the teacher asks them to and they will certainly do well. I feel that this is not the right way. This will actually cause many problems. For example, many people will think this way” As long as I get an A1, nothing else matters to me.” Also, memorizing facts will only give us very little help when we go to work. What we need is the application to real life, not just test papers.

Education should be something like really teaching us something and not cause at the end of the day, forget what we have memorized and graduate with little knowledge in our brains. Our examination marks should actually be given according to how well we understanding a topic and not how well we have memorized the information because memorizing facts does not actually mean that we really understand what the facts are and why they are so. In my opinion, I feel that schools should actually focus more allowing its students to be more curious and not only teach what is in the syllabus but move one step forward to explain it fully.

Schools should also focus more on developing a students’ character. People these days are getting more selfish and only care about themselves. Most of them are only concerned about things that benefit them and if a friend needs their help, they will not help. This is important as as the child grows up, he will not be able to “survive” if he has this type of attitude because if he himself needs help in future, no one will want to help me too. What good is getting A1s if a person does not know his moral values?

I feel that it is impossible to have an ideal education. In the first place, how do we define ideal? Is an ideal education a one that helps us and by simply memorizing facts, we can get A1s or is it one that can help us to fully understand facts so that we can learn more. According to Janelle Lee, an ideal education is where students actually not just memorize facts from their textbooks, but also take a step further to understand them. It is one where students learn out of their love for learning and also curiosity. However, as we hear many people say nowadays, their goal is to study hard, get into a good university, get a good job, and earn a lot of money. Hence, many people will still prefer the old way of education, where people can easily get As if they take the time to memorize chunks of information and facts and just simply write down what they have memorized during the tests.