education in transformation

we are seeing rapid changes in the way we educate our children. in fact the change process had started at least a decade or two ago. the progressive changes accumulated over the years and the recent bout of changes have resulted in a transformation of the whole education system and process. we have changed the quality of the teachers. we have changed the infrastructure/equipment of the schools. and we have changed the teaching content as well. our kindergarten children are learning things the children of the past were learning in primary schools. our primary schools are teaching things that we used to teach secondary schools. and secondary school students are now being taught things that polytechnics students are learning. and jc students are doing things that university students are doing. and in certain schools, when L1R5 would be more than sufficient, students were made to take not 8 subjects, but 10, and some 12 or 13 subjects. and we ask ourselves why are our students so stressed out. are we killing our children without knowing it? but one fundamental mindset has not been changed. we still stick to the belief that at 16, students must sit for o level and 18, for a level. with the amount of information and knowledge being taught, why can't we shave off one or two years off the education system for the very bright students instead. why do 10 or 12 subjects for o level and remain at o level when they could do higher level subjects with the extra time and effort? the extras that the students put in should be translated into something more tangible. the bright students should do their primary/secondary education in 10 instead of twelve years and proceed to university at 16. this could compensate the time loss for ns. we are spending too long, too many years, educating our children. those who can take a shorter route should be allowed to.

when prs are locals or de facto citizens

with prs being regarded or treated like singaporeans, and even treasured more, would the govt consider allowing singaporeans to opt to become prs? as the difference in the two categories is mainly an issue of how much obligations and liabilities one has towards the country, there will be singaporeans who would readily opt to become prs than citizens. why be a citizen when all the privileges are given to the prs and still be burdened and be subjected to all the laws and restrictions of a citizen? sigh....

55% of new jobs went to singaporeans! really?

this is the headline that screams out of the today paper. then below it, a sub headline states 'more than 55% of th 110,800 jobs last year went to citizens and prs, says minister.' so, how many actually went to singaporeans? how many of the 55% went to singaporeans? are prs singaporeans? can singaporeans be angry about being treated less favourably than prs? can singaporeans feel that they are second class citizens in their home land? when prs, without the responsibilities and obligations are regarded in every way, like a citizen?

soft launch of redbeanforum

hi everyone, you are all welcome to register at my new setup 'redbeanforum' at www.redbeanforum.com or using the link provided at my link column. this blog is a bit difficult to negotiate and to view threads. i hope you will find the forum easier to use. it is using the same programme as the ypap forum, so you will all be very familiar with it. i have transferred about 70 percent of the posts from here over and you will initially see all the postings as if posted by redbean. your user names are all in bold inside the threads. once you start to post in the forum it will quickly replace the redbean username in the forum index. also, you are now free to initiate your own topics. for the time being i have only three forums, singapore current affairs, world affairs and a stock forum. for the latter i will give my input in terms of trading methodologies, rumours and analyst recommendations. i will also provide links to broking house websites. please feel free to go there. this blog will continue as it is though on a lower key. see you there guys and gals.

boon wan the tireless worker

boon wan is amazing not so much in his being a tireless worker. but more in his relentless pursuit to improve the medical services and reducing cost. as a minister, he sets the goals, demanding the civil servants to find the solutions. and that is what a politician should be. tell the administrators what you want that is good for the people. not the other way round. many politicians ended up as administrators and behave like one. some ended up like a businessman running a business and only think about profits. they either allow the business or the administrators to set the goals for them. and they then went about defending the business and the administrators. that is a big failure as a politician, a political leader who is there to serve the people who voted for him. the other point about boon wan is his sincerity and setting himself as an example. he demands or calls for the private hospitals to be transparent in their billings. but before doing that, he makes sure that the hospitals under his charge are transparent first. he will look ridiculous if he demands for transparency of private hospitals but keeping his own public hospitals opague. kudos to boon wan. hey i am praising a minister.