IMPORTANT: We presented the answer in this manner so you can see more clearly what the

authors arguments are, and how to respond to them. When you write your AQ response,
please paraphrase the authors key ideas, and do not quote them in headings as we have done
here.
[We live in an era where access to information is easy due to technological tools
available.]
Singaporeans are one of the most technology savvy populations in the world, and according to
the World Economic Forums 2012 Global IT Report, Singapore is the second most networked
ready nation in the world. The linking of Singaporean homes to the national fibre-optic network
known as Open-Net and the rolling out of 4G services will ensure that Singapore continues to
be a highly wired nation. A high percentage of children in primary schools own mobile
telephones and even tablet computers, and Government provides subsidies to lower income
groups to make computer ownership more affordable. Even senior citizens are provided
subsidised computer training. The National Library has recently launched a scheme to lend
electronic devices to library users who cannot afford their own.
[We lack critical thinking skills that are vital to address problems of information overload
to pick out useful information and discard irrelevant and/or inaccurate information.]
All these initiatives help connect Singaporeans to data, and the Internet has given Singaporeans
access to a huge amount of information, but far less is being done to help Singaporeans
navigate and make sense of the information they access. Some would feel that Singaporeans
are not able to handle the data generated. A tragic road accident caused by Chinese national
Ma Chi turned into an anti-foreigner backlash, when the issue ought to have been about
speeding and reckless driving. Likewise, the speed at which rumour is taken as news is another
sign that perhaps Singaporeans need to be more discriminating and critical. Recently, an online
rumour about the health of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew spread unabatedly until media
featured his presence at the National Day Parade in August this year. While it would be
inaccurate to say that all Singaporeans lack critical thinking skills, some of these occurrences do
suggest that more must be done to help Singaporeans be more discerning.
[We are bombarded by expert opinion by all kinds of people, not all of whom are qualified
to tell us what to think or do.]
It does not help that on the various media platforms, one can find numerous gurus dispensing
their advice and views on a wide variety of subjects. Doctors have warned about the dangers of
self-diagnosis through the Internet, and Singaporeans are just as guilty of this as their
counterparts in the developed world. Google a medical condition and we are immediately led to
numerous sites with differing views, some of which dispense rather dubious advice on healing.
Perhaps the inability of Singaporeans to assess for credibility is one reason why product
endorsements feature prominently in local advertisements. New Moon is a brand that sells
Chicken of Essence, and each year, it uses the top students from the Primary School Leaving
Examinations to endorse its products.
Myriad Singapore advertisements also feature
celebrities, like Andy Lau who loves his OSIM massage chair to Pornsak who swears by his
Mama Lemon dishwashing liquid. That they feature so prominently in our advertisements
suggests the effectiveness of a marketing strategy which taps Singaporeans obsession with
celebrities, which leads us to sometimes cloud our buying decisions.

[There are people who are out to manipulate us or cheat us by giving us dubious
information and we easily fall prey to them.]
Worse, we are still getting a fair amount of news about people being conned online by mobile
phone lottery or Nigerian email scams. Likewise, the Advertising Standards Authority of
Singapore (ASAS) has also received quite a number of complaints from consumers about how
they were misled by claims in property, beauty and motorcar advertisements.
Kelvin Ong, who ran a private school called AristoCare claimed that he could help children
qualify for the Gifted Education Programme, has duped scores of parents with his bogus
qualifications in spite of his exorbitant fees of $250 per lesson and $600 for exam papers which
he claimed were taken from the selection examination for the Gifted Programme. Until the
Ministry of Education exposed him, no one questioned his teaching methods or the quality of his
lesson materials.
Dr Martin Huang, one of Singapores most famous plastic surgeons, was fined $5000 and
censured by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) for serious misconduct. He injected several
patients with sheep foetal cells in 2006 and 2007 despite the fact that this treatment was not
medically proven.
However, sometimes Singaporeans fall victim due to no fault of ours. Precisely because
Singapore is a knowledge-based economy with thousands of international firms and SMEs
operating within her shores, it becomes increasingly difficult to sift the wheat from the chaff.
Many private schools in Singapore have run into problems with the Council for Private
Education (CPE), set up to deal with errant private schools and have been forced to close, due
to the lack of independent academic and examination boards or financial instability. Some of
them, like ALG, were dishonest with their students, when it failed to inform them that its
partnership with the university conferring the degrees ended, while others have been revealed
to be degree mills.
In a knowledge-based economy, people tend to try and impress others with their credentials.
This can lead to faked credentials like Kelvin Ong and the existence of shady private schools in
Singapore. It can also lead qualified doctors like Dr Martin Huang to abuse the trust that others
have placed in him.
[Teaching of critical thinking is not made compulsory in formal education as schools pay
too much attention to job skills.]
Therefore, it is crucial for Singaporeans to be more critical, and the Ministry of Education is
aware of the need to instill critical thinking into the school curriculum through subjects like
Project Work. In spite of this, criticism still exists that Singaporean schools tend to focus on
teaching to the test with inadequate emphasis on critical thinking or holistic education, with the
emphasis being on grades rather than on student learning. One example would be the trend of
secondary schools offering Combined Humanities rather than Pure Humanities because of the
perception that it is harder to score distinctions for Pure Humanities subjects. This is also seen
in the trend of top schools shying away from offering Literature because they feel it is too
subjective and cannot be taught in a way that other subjects like History and Geography can.
From PSLE all the way to the Science-based Practical (SPA) at A Level, the focus on critical

thinking has sometimes been undermined by teachers who teach to the test, and where drilling,
practising and scoring is carried out at the expense of learning.
However, to be fair to MOE, there has been a growing emphasis on real learning and critical
thinking, with the various educational initiatives like Thinking School, Learning Nation, Teach
Less Learn More and the A level syllabus revisions which have been refined into the current
H1, H2, H3 system, and further refinements are already in the pipeline with the recent reviews
of primary and secondary education, along with the upcoming junior college education review.
[The task of teaching critical thinking can and must be carried out at the community level
(bottom-up, not top-down approach) by citizens themselves using technology and every
platform available.]
The argument for a bottom-up approach to critical thinking is ideal but not always realistic. Web
behaviour often descends into mob rule, as these voices drown out those of the rational minority
and where sites pander to the lowest common denominator. STOMP was an online news
platform set up by the Straits Times newspaper for citizen journalism, but the site has become a
platform for mudslinging, ridiculous allegations and pictures taken out of context. Hardwarezone
forums, one of Singapores most popular forums, is another example where forummers often
engage in lowbrow conversation, pass around unverified rumours and take pot-shots at
authority figures and people in the public eye. The same can be seen on socio-political sites like
Temasek Times, where the comments section is often filled with vitriolic outbursts against the
government or individuals.
However, there are some bloggers or sites that do contain good content and promote critical
thinking. The Online Citizen is a fairly credible socio-political blog with links to the opposition
Workers Party. Transient Workers Count Too, an NGO, maintains an online site and attempts
to raise awareness as well as fight for the rights of migrant workers in Singapore. AWARE,
Maruah, ACRES and PAWS are also examples of grassroots movements that aim to get citizens
thinking about various issues, though admittedly many of these NGOs have their own agendas
for promoting critical thinking about certain issues.
Top-down approaches such as the Singapore governments call for an Internet Code of Conduct
(COC) may actually be counterproductive or result in censorship as the government may
impose laws or guidelines that hamper critical thinking or forbid citizens from discussing what it
deems to be controversial issues.

[Conclusion]
Singapore has seen a massive investment in technology hardware and infrastructure, but there
is also a need to ensure that the software of Singaporeans, especially in terms of critical
thinking, is also constantly upgraded to meet the demands and needs of our digital times. I
think it is challenging, however, to expect an online grassroots movement to take responsibility
for this. Singapores schools are a much better place to teach critical thinking, and I certainly
think that once we have a critical mass of critical thinkers, then cyberspace and new media

interactions will be transformed. Perhaps a grassroots movement would be able to supplement

schools then in leading a second wave of change.