Education

Purpose of education
- Prepare students for the working world, for employment: credible labour force
- Develop skills: social skills, critical thinking
- Impart knowledge: accumulation of knowledge
- How to be an educated person / a good citizen, unity, national identity
- Building up character, facing adversity, ethics
- Teaching right from wrong conformity?
- Understand matters in life
Types of education
- Liberal education: education including the arts, equal weight given to arts and sciences
Literature, history and appreciation of the arts
- Home schooling
- Family education (parental guidance)
- Informal and formal education (skills and academics)
- Experiential learning
- National education
- All-round education
Overemphasis on excellence eroding purpose of education?
- Pursuit of achievement: meritocracy, guided by principle of progress: development
- Credible labour force to satisfy economic needs
Knowledge: improve ability to handle learning in future
English teaches us communication skills
- Career
Secure better jobs because past excellent track records show that individual
has capability of handling what is required of him
- National identity
People strive for economic growth, creating prosperity, increasing standard of
living of people, making them happy and hence more loyal to the nation
National education
BUT increasingly competitive
Uneven distribution of income
Cannot eliminate discrimination, likely that discrimination will prevail
- Disunity
Rise of elitism: encouraging unhealthy competition
SAP, independent schools, IP
- Compromises ethical values
Too concerned with quest of excellence, may try to excel using underhanded
means
Undermines moral development, ignore ethical means
Conceal knowledge, unwilling to share knowledge with people
Thinking mind better than accumulation of knowledge?
- Develop independent learning process
- Montessori: emphasis on self-directed learning on the part of the child and
clinical observation on the part of the teacher

- More receptive to views: learn not to be so subjective or opinionated

- BUT may develop non-conformist thinking, disrupting social stability. Society may
become more opinionated due to the diversity of opinions
- Increased acumen to resolve social and moral dilemmas
More tolerant and understanding of each other empathise better with each
other understand problems or issues better
Importance of upholding social values (altruistic punishment)
- BUT too liberal: unable to uphold values
Difficult to create a staunch and orthodox thinking, no particular value to
adhere to, makes it difficult to define values
France: liberty is subjective vs. liberty is institutionalized in US
Learning in schools vs. on the Internet vs. at home
- In line with purpose of education?
Whos the teacher? Reliable source? Able to deliver all purposes of
education?
- Information: amount, accessibility, coverage in terms of depth and breadth, responsetime, reliability
Internet = information superhighway: additional 7.3 million pages per day
Sep 30 2007, 1.244 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World
Stats
- Pace of learning: linked with building up a strong foundation or understanding of a
concept
- Exclusivity: must take into account that everyone has the right to be educated
- Learning environment: conducive vs. environment with lots of distractions
- Formal vs. informal education
Special types of schools: SAP and IP
- Linked with racism or elitism
- Consider purpose of setting up these special types of schools in the first place
In line with bilingualism: to take Chinese and English as first language
Better amenities to further develop students potentials
- What debate has it spurred?
Exclusion of Malays, Indians and Eurasians: endanger social fabric of nation,
Singapore is supposed to be a multi-racial society
Creating a bigger divide between the intellects and those who do not do well
in studies
- Is it a justified cause?
SAP may not be because Malay and Tamil are official languages as well. Why
exclusively the Chinese?
Since Singapore only depends on human capital, need to maximize the
learning potential of more capable students probably inevitable to have a
divide
*Dependent on the maturity of the students. Students in elite schools
should not be arrogant or flaunt their abilities could be the cause of the
debate in the first place.
- Government can work on giving Malay and Tamil more recognition, and providing
schools with more amenities if they deem themselves deserving of the facilities

- Can look at how well these types of schools tie in with the purpose of education. Do
they fulfill the purpose of education better than mainstream schools?