desired aims of education of singapore are rather obvious. feed the economy with skilled labourers, or if i am allowed to put it a little more crudely, coolies.

has singapore missed the point? largely, i'd guess. we have become too result-oriented. we are focusing on the numbers, the statistics. there is an inherent notion in schools that success is equal to academic success. we are trying to shift towards less tests and exams and more focus on class participation and project work, but it does not help ameliorate the situation - we are still grade-oriented. students are abetted and obliged to score, and to think that education brings status.

status. arbitrary as it may sound, but unfortunately, with education brings about some sort of a status. why do people sweep the streets? they have no education. how do people get into the government? they are educated, whatever the means may be. is education really about this potential status that one will get? does a better education separate oneself from the bourgeois?

looks like, we have forgotten how to enjoy learning. A youth who had begun to read geometry with Euclid, when he had learnt the first proposition, inquired, "What do I get by learning these things?" So Euclid called a slave and said "Give him three pence, since he must make a gain out of what he learns." question: do we enjoy what we learn? or are we juz put in somewhere, forced to learn something? are we appreciating what we are learning, or what we have learnt? i guess so.

s'pore has forgotten to get students to love what they are learning. we are required and obliged to learn both the arithmetic and the aesthetic, but we may not like any of them. den what is the point of learning? to get oneself a job. alright, fine, to get a job. but i feel that we have not had enough emphasis on the importance of enjoying education. and how does this arise? results-driven system. by my observation, whether skewed or not, it seems that one would tend to enjoy a subject he would score a high mark in, than one that he wants to read but can't get past the scoring system easily enough.

i muz say, i'm lucky. i generally enjoy what i am reading now, not because of the result, but i do find some flair in me in the subjects i am reading.

and it seems like the supposed elites in the system, may not even be an elite. tell me, how many hc students bought their way in? HAHA. it's a great joke. that aside, we can't do much, i dun tink a school will want to expel a student due to poor results. but such vested interests, they really take away the opportunity to groom a real talent than some sort of a white horse. isn't it?

in the same circuitous and slipshod manner, i shall try to describe the "leadership" that is being taught in schools here. how about, giving power to someone who has great academic ability, so that he can win a president scholarship? heh. or sometimes, giving authority to someone due to popularity? maybe yer noe. it's hard to groom a person with true leadership qualities, in fact, if i'm to be unfair, i'd say leadership qualities are congenital. what our education system is doing is somewhat right, to provide opportunities to test whether one has leadership. BUT we forget that, there's some "consequences": a person in a leadership position is presumed to have leadership qualities. and the leadership position adds on to one's resume. and makes the person seem as if he has leadership qualities. when in fact, he may have none of it. that's a potential danger.

i have spent no effort in trying to buttress the above rambling by organising them properly. in any case, now i juz hav to get around the education system. utilitarian as it may sound, but our education system is really great for an intellectual discussion and analysis, and i guess it brings great pleasure for me to talk about its pros and cons.

i just hope, our future generations will not need to learn a diversity of abstruse concepts which they will not be interested in, or will not be applicable to them in their lives. instead, i hope their education allows them to live their lives happily.