Let's talk about Education
I always believe that Media plays a critical role in educating the community. As such, it is very important for the Media to play the role well. A media that is concerned only with making money is not a good media. A media that continuously feeding the society with what they desires (crime, sex, sensational stories) is a very irresponsible media.
I am glad, that there are still some good TV programs in Singapore, in which they gave good and educational values and allows public to think, even to question government policies. One of such program is what I saw tonight: Shoot - You Hua Jiu Shua, meaning, if you have something to say, just shoot.
The topic of discussion tonight is about education and how to measure its success. There are two very talkative MCs, 3 well-known speakers and a selected panel from public to represent student, parents and teacher.
What is the final goal of education?
1. To educate the student to become a good person.
2. To educate the student to become a useful person.
3. To gain good grades so that they can become good and useful.
A good person can be translated into a person who is morally good, but not necessary smart. A student with a good grade does not mean that he will be good, and may not mean that he will be useful either. In reality, a student who has good marks in the school days does not guarantee that he will be a successful person in the future.
So, what is the most important? It is funny to watch the panels who have their own views and arguing their stand points.
One parent, argued that school marks is the most important thing. If his children failed to get perfect, he will try to find out, whether it is because the child is lazy, or stupid, or careless, or teacher never teach, and make sure that the child will get perfect mark next time. He used the school mark as the sole measurement for the child's success.
One of the MC, says that the most important thing is to let her daughter be happy. Whether she gain good marks or not, as long as she is happy, that is ok. But if she performed really badly, she will tell the daughter to keep quiet.
The primary 4 student was exceptionally good. He said that each person is gifted differently in terms of intelligence. You should know your limit, and if you tried your best, and reached your limit, even if it is not 100 mark, then you should be contented. To overstretch yourself beyond your limit will only make you be unhappy.
The student further said that intelligence is not everything. You need to be morally good. If you are intelligent but morally bad, you end up become an intelligent criminal, which is not good at all for the entire society.
One other parent agreed that each person is gifted differently. You cannot force the kid to study if they cannot. Rather, you can try to understand how the children can best learn a subject flexibly, eg. from discovery channel, go shopping, etc to teach about science and math.
Another parent chose to educate her children at home, by herself, because she saw the flaw in Singapore's education system. She prefers to teach at home, while educating the children on the subjects, she can continue to teach them moral issue of what is right or wrong, those that is perhaps missing from a performance oriented school system.
The teacher commented that, the most important thing is the learning process, and not the subject itself. school mark is not everything. However, that does not change the fact, that the students performance is used as a guide to measure the teacher's performance, the overall students performances in school is used as a guide to measure the school's performance. The Ministry of Education used the performance to grade every school.
The issue arises, that if only school result is important, what is being done to teach about moral to the student? what prevent the student from cheating to gain good marks? how the teacher teach the student in order to cultivate a habit of learning, instead of gaining high marks?
The situation in Singapore, indeed, is not much different from Indonesia. MOE grade and reward school with good results. Students with top results are rewarded and in the news, newspaper. School in turn fight to perform well, forces the teacher to in turn forces the students. The difference is only, in Indonesia, Medan, the headmasters themselves cheated, not the students.
If I were to have a child in singapore, should I educate them here? or maybe I should ask my wife to educate my children at home? I do not know.
I am glad, that there are still some good TV programs in Singapore, in which they gave good and educational values and allows public to think, even to question government policies. One of such program is what I saw tonight: Shoot - You Hua Jiu Shua, meaning, if you have something to say, just shoot.
The topic of discussion tonight is about education and how to measure its success. There are two very talkative MCs, 3 well-known speakers and a selected panel from public to represent student, parents and teacher.
What is the final goal of education?
1. To educate the student to become a good person.
2. To educate the student to become a useful person.
3. To gain good grades so that they can become good and useful.
A good person can be translated into a person who is morally good, but not necessary smart. A student with a good grade does not mean that he will be good, and may not mean that he will be useful either. In reality, a student who has good marks in the school days does not guarantee that he will be a successful person in the future.
So, what is the most important? It is funny to watch the panels who have their own views and arguing their stand points.
One parent, argued that school marks is the most important thing. If his children failed to get perfect, he will try to find out, whether it is because the child is lazy, or stupid, or careless, or teacher never teach, and make sure that the child will get perfect mark next time. He used the school mark as the sole measurement for the child's success.
One of the MC, says that the most important thing is to let her daughter be happy. Whether she gain good marks or not, as long as she is happy, that is ok. But if she performed really badly, she will tell the daughter to keep quiet.
The primary 4 student was exceptionally good. He said that each person is gifted differently in terms of intelligence. You should know your limit, and if you tried your best, and reached your limit, even if it is not 100 mark, then you should be contented. To overstretch yourself beyond your limit will only make you be unhappy.
The student further said that intelligence is not everything. You need to be morally good. If you are intelligent but morally bad, you end up become an intelligent criminal, which is not good at all for the entire society.
One other parent agreed that each person is gifted differently. You cannot force the kid to study if they cannot. Rather, you can try to understand how the children can best learn a subject flexibly, eg. from discovery channel, go shopping, etc to teach about science and math.
Another parent chose to educate her children at home, by herself, because she saw the flaw in Singapore's education system. She prefers to teach at home, while educating the children on the subjects, she can continue to teach them moral issue of what is right or wrong, those that is perhaps missing from a performance oriented school system.
The teacher commented that, the most important thing is the learning process, and not the subject itself. school mark is not everything. However, that does not change the fact, that the students performance is used as a guide to measure the teacher's performance, the overall students performances in school is used as a guide to measure the school's performance. The Ministry of Education used the performance to grade every school.
The issue arises, that if only school result is important, what is being done to teach about moral to the student? what prevent the student from cheating to gain good marks? how the teacher teach the student in order to cultivate a habit of learning, instead of gaining high marks?
The situation in Singapore, indeed, is not much different from Indonesia. MOE grade and reward school with good results. Students with top results are rewarded and in the news, newspaper. School in turn fight to perform well, forces the teacher to in turn forces the students. The difference is only, in Indonesia, Medan, the headmasters themselves cheated, not the students.
If I were to have a child in singapore, should I educate them here? or maybe I should ask my wife to educate my children at home? I do not know.
Labels: Shoot
posted by Suhandy Yao Wei Xuan @ 1:06 am
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