Sin’s champalan Education System a flop

Now am I getting some attention? Our highly regarded education system, churning out robot like straight A students like a factory cannot be champalan, cannot be a flop. How can it be? Just hear me out why our education system is a big failure.

The flaws in our system are mirroring the flaws in our social economic system. Somehow the acts and intentions were there but the plot was lost. We wanted the best from our students. In the process we developed a highly stressful system that many students and parents are unable to cope with the pressure. Along the way some pressure were released to make the system less harsh. Then the wise parents and educators started to think about a holistic education system, the best in all fields to churn out the best all round products that money can buy.

What we ended up with are half baked students in everything. Academically good but not good enough to be trusted for top jobs. Good in sports but not good enough to win medals. Good in the arts but not good enough to be in fame. We forgot that not everyone is a diamond to start with. Some are rubies, jade, agate, moonstone or simply pebbles. No matter how they are polished, the agate, moonstone or pebbles will still be pebbles, maybe with a little better polished.

And the holistic approach is good in concept but bad in the results. Our students will turn out knowing a bit of everything, a wholesome education, a wholesome individual, but unable to compete with the best in their respective fields of academic excellence, arts and sports.

The less affluent countries simply do what they think is good for a child to excel in a specific field, be it academic, arts or in sports. Full effort, time and resources, were devoted to a narrow and clear goal, to be the best in the chosen field. There is no pretension to be everything. No such nonsense as wanting to be the best in all fields in one average child. Even an exceptionally gifted child will have problems becoming an Einstein, a Mozart, a Husain Bolt and a Bill Gates put into one. It is just impossible. No one has been so gifted in the history of civilization. But that is what our parents and educators are trying to do. I will take back my words if they really believe in a holistic education, an all rounder but average in everything and are happy with it.

The stress part is that with such high expectations, our students are really going through three educational systems in one go. There is the formal school system, the informal tuition system, and the parent imposed and paid classes in arts and sports. Are the children being stressed, or being cooked?

And the truth is in the pudding. See our education products in the real world. In the industries and professions they are not good enough compared to the FTs who did not go through a holistic and highly stressed system. In sports and the arts, there is nothing worth mentioning.

So, isn’t our champalan, bao ka liao education system a big flop, producing students that know a bit of this and that but excelling in nothing? We are trying to do so many things and expecting excellence without knowing the limitations of time and resources and the limits of an individual child. Many are just pebbles and will be pebbles. We need to face this hard truth and cater to the abilities of different children according to what they are naturally gifted to do best. Holistic education is good but has its price to pay. There are merits in specialized education and general education and not every child must be cast by the same mould.