Before I start, let me first put a link to the letter in point. The letter is written by a parent of 2 kids of differing abilities and about the Singapore Education in general.

She has pointed out many important issues within the education system that requires change. Mostly along the idea of KPIs, obsession of results, and has inspired me to write one myself. Issues that the education system in Singapore has to improve on.

I have no guts to address this to the Education Minister, I'm neither a parent, nor a student anymore really. Simply someone with his own thoughts. Also, I do generally love the education system in Singapore, for one good reason. It works. But of course, there are still some things about it that remains anal to me.

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Cooperation with other Ministries
The first issue that I usually have with the education ministry is that despite being a ministry that requires many interactions with many other ministries on many different issues. There seems to be quite little of these. Allow me to elaborate.

I was once talking to a group of friends over the recent issues of random knifing by teens at Bukit Panjang, and the conversation moved to the issue of teen delinquents. Listening intently to things like how the police deal with these delinquents and what happens to them after, I was surprised when the police scholar lamented the issue that if there was more cooperation from MOE, it would definitely be much easier to prevent and deal with such cases. He cites many ways that MOE can help with the work of the police, from enhanced prevention within schools by beefing up morals, to counselor support in Boys home or even better, a shared database on At-Risk youths to monitor, and details of these youths so as the officers know how to approach the issue.

That led me to wonder if we even work together strongly with MCYS. I mean, technically, they both are concerned very much with the youth right? But on research on the internet, all I come up with are a certain 'Learn-to-swim' program, Hand Foot and Mouth Disease(HFMD), and only recently Central Youth Guidance office's Youth Information System.

That is disappointing. How could MCYS and MOE only work to such degree? Whatever happen to so many issues of the youth that could be worked on together by the two ministries? Things like the building of moral fiber, the elimination of apathy, or even simple CIP programs? Are those only the work of one ministry, or even worse, none at all?

We have to remember that the MOE is a ministry that is bound to be working with other ministries. We affect everything. Our children will grow into youths, enter the army or police, go into manpower, they will take over the countries' economy, fall sick, get married and buy HDB flats and (sometimes) violate the law. It is essential that we are able to effectively work with other ministries in our work. That is something that seems to be lacking in the MOE in general.

Attracting Foreign Scholars
My second pet peeve is regarding the issue of attracting foreign scholars. Let me first state the fact that I have no problem with going to other countries and attracting talented youths to study in Singapore, with hopes that they would grow up, decide to stay and contribute to the talent pool of the country. It is a fantastic idea, getting more talent into the country, and also allowing students in our country know how they perform opposite the best talent around the region.

What that I do have an issue with, is the selection process of these students. It is shrouded with so much mystery that nobody really knows what really goes on behind the scenes. Sure, there's probably results to look at and interview to be taken. My question is, who's doing the interview? Are they experienced? Are they looking for someone simply talented, or dedicated? Is there a quota or a ceiling for these scholars?

In BPGHS, there is already give or take, 20-30 students that come down on an ASEAN scholarship. On research on the Internet, it seems that there are about 66,000 foreign students in Singapore. For a conservative estimate, say 10% are scholars, so 6,600. For every one of these students, a significant amount of taxpayer's money is being spent, and I believe that the selection for such people should be open and strict. Especially when the scholarship is without bond like the ASEAN/HK/India Scholarships, where the students would have no repercussions even if they leave the course halfway, it makes it even more essential that the selection process is as strict as even the PSC Scholarship selection process, if not, even more.

Of course, I do recognise that there should be different things to be looking out for, like likelihood to stay in Singapore etc. But we should not be simply randomly pick talented people simply because of their education results and try to bring them in. It is completely stupid to allow for people to get into the country, take a place in our world-class education with our money, and simply bugger off after the exams are over. I believe that given the many news that we have received of these scholarship holders simply breaking their bonds, or making a mockery of themselves with blog posts of bad taste, leaves much to be desired in this sector. Sure, they might just be bad eggs, but its the ministry's job to at least explain themselves whenever this happens, and take the necessary actions to ensure that the student in question is disciplined and that the issue will not repeat in the future.

In addition to the process of the selection of such scholars, I also bring focus to the work that is done regarding the welfare of these scholars in Singapore. First allow me to remind you that places are open to not just Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges, Polytechnics and Universities. They are even open to Primary Schools. I kid you not. These kids that come, keep in mind that they have decided to accept scholarships at the age of 7 to 16 for Junior Colleges. Even before these children have drank their first pint of beer, they have been given a glorified opportunity to study overseas. This begs the question. Do they know what they're going to be in for?

Even as I reach my second year of University in London after taking up my scholarship, I myself can say that despite thinking hard and deep about the decision to accept the scholarship back in my time, I did not completely expect whatever that has happened over this period of time.

Are we really expecting kids to be making informed decisions over the prospect of being in a new country of one year?

We then come to the point of the integration of foreign scholars into the group of students in Singapore. I know that there are plenty of work put into this. My question is, is it working?

I think that the ministry is simply solving one part of the problem. You see, when you try to integrate people into a society, it might be important to work the foreigners, but you have to, more importantly, convince the existing students to accept them. I believe that that is what that is severely lacking in most integration policies. If you look at any bad comments or bad news about these foreign scholars, my question is, where are the words coming from? 9 out of 10, I am willing to bet they are coming from Singaporeans, not from the scholars themselves.

I believe that we should be coming to the point of self reflection. Is the issue really with the people unable to integrate? Or is it that we as a society have not been coaxed enough into accepting foreigners amongst our midst as we work together in Singapore? Surely we as Singaporeans come from a melting pot that includes the Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians, but when even the Singaporean Chinese cannot stand the Chinese Chinese, and the Singapore Indians complain about the Indian Indians, do you think they can ever integrate into this society? I really do think that it is time that we start pointing the finger towards ourselves, and realize that integration is not merely an issue of them adapting, but also of us accepting.

Changing of Mindsets
My final problem with the ministry is a big one. And I think is an important one that ought to be quickly resolved by the ministry, or it might face much problems with its current direction of change. That is to change the mindset of its stakeholders, mainly students and parents.

Recently, the MOE has been rolling out policies after policies that emphasize the development of an all rounded student rather than a mugging machine. The world today no longer simply looks for top students. It is now more concerned about their ability to work in today's modern setting. Sterling results no longer outshines acceptable results and boundless charisma. Being a student that was caught in-between such a transition, it was definitely not easy to adapt to the changing tides, but it would had been foolish not to.

However, some students in today's system has not caught on to this yet. They and their parents still value grades much more than the moral and emotional development of their children. We have students being sent to tuition classes through the June holidays. And also, there are students that get about 3-5 of their subjects tuitioned, whether they need it or not. As someone who has only had 5 lessons of Chinese tuition his entire life. I believe that tuition is bullocks. If you work hard enough, all you need is the textbook, and your teacher. Then again, I stopped having tuition because I cried so hard about having to do a Chinese Composition that my mom pulled the plug, so perhaps I'm just not the kind for tuition, but that's another story.

Of course, like Mrs Lim, there has been a growing amount of informed parents and students that recognise that results are no longer that important. However, given the large scale changes that the ministry is coming up with, from LaSalle College of the Arts, and SOTA, my question is. Will it this slow change in mindset in the general population hurt the development of these improvements to the education system? I quite suspect it would. With parents being unwilling to send their children to such schools, a stigma might soon be attached to those that do. If the situation does come to that, it would be quite a problem in our hands. We have to ensure that the mindset of the population changes with the expectations of the society soon enough. And more interaction with parents and children are required for this.

And to top it all of, the final and perhaps greatest hurdle that the ministry have to cross with these new changes. Is a simple question. How much is enough?

We have come to the point that sterling results is no longer that important, but it is obvious that there still is a minimum quota that students must at least achieve for them to be successful in our education environment. Say for applications into a scholarship, or university course. The question now is, how much exactly is enough to get them to the step where everything else matters?

As we pull out the point that results are everything, we have technically drawn a grey patch into the criterion of selection based on such merits. What the education ministry now owes the students and parents, is a guide to this grey area on what exactly is expected of one that applies to things with it. We need to be assuring to parents that this grey patch is not really that grey, otherwise, being Singaporeans, parents would still force their children towards nothing but sterling results, because in the end, we cannot reject the fact that the results are still the 'gatekeepers' to scholarships, Juniors Colleges and University Courses. All the work to build well-rounded students will come to a naught.

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And with these issues, I end the core matters I believe the education ministry should look at, and at least think about what can be done within these issues. I know I haven't really given much suggestions of solutions, but to be perfectly honest, I cannot come up with anything not already obvious such as telling the students/parents about it etc.

Would be happy if people can come up with comments and suggestions. Do you think these are the important problems that the ministry should tackle today? What innovative solutions do you have for these problems?