Meridian Junior College
JC 1 General Paper
2012 Term 1
Youth and Education
Title
Page
Youth and Education Key Concepts
1
Youth and Education Statistics and Figures
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Article: The young Singaporean adult
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Article: Education system must be tweaked to develop diverse range of talents
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Article: Finland’s schools flourish in freedom and flexibility
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Article: Left Behind (Youth Unemployment)
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Article: Obama asks graduates to close the education gap
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Sample Essays from past Zenith issues
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Essay questions & comprehensions
16
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YOUTH AND EDUCATION KEY CONCEPTS
Youth
Definition of youth by UNESCO
The United Nations define youth as persons between the ages of 15 and 24. UNESCO understands that young people are a
heterogeneous group in constant evolution and that the experience of ‘being young’ varies enormously across regions and within countries.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/social-transformations/youth/
The National Youth Council (NYC)
The NYC, a division of the People's Association, was set up by the Singapore Government as the national co-ordinating body for youth
affairs in Singapore. The NYC:
(a) Advocates active youth citizenry - engagement, leadership and voice for issues - through programming, resources, funding and
recognition.
(b) Connects the youth sector for increased youth outreach, through creating opportunities and access, both local and overseas.
(c) Enables the development of youth and the youth sector, through training and capacity building.
Definition of youth in Singapore
The National Youth Council's (NYC) working definition of youth encompasses those between the ages of 15 and 35 years old in Singapore.
Why did NYC raise the age limit of youth from 30 to 35 years old?
Youth Development is an on-going process in which young people are engaged and invested. In view of Singapore's ageing population,
the National Youth Council raised our working definition of youth in Singapore from 30 to 35 years old so as to continue engaging our
young working adults, who can be active and positive contributors to our society and be part of the youth developmental process.
http://www.nyc.pa.gov.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=48
Qn: Why is there a need for organisations like the NYC to manage the youth affairs? Why is it important to engage the young?
Essay: Can we put Singapore’s future in the hands of our youth? (MJCJC1MYE10Q8)
Education
Formal versus informal education
Formal education is classroom-based, provided by trained teachers. Informal education happens outside the classroom, in after-school
programs, community-based organizations, museums, libraries, or at home.
http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/started/what/formal.html
Objectives of education in Singapore
 A confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is adaptable and resilient, knows himself, is discerning in
judgment, thinks independently and critically, and communicates effectively.
 A self-directed learner who takes responsibility for his own learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of
learning.
 An active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks, is innovative and strives
for excellence.
 A concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong civic consciousness, is informed, and takes an active role in
bettering the lives of others around him.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/desired-outcomes/
Qn: What role does schools and education play in developing the young? Why is education a matter of concern for the state?
Education for All Goals by UNESCO
Education for All (EFA) is an international initiative launched in 1990 to bring the benefits of education to “every citizen in every society.” In
order to realize this aim, a broad coalition of national governments, civil society groups, and development agencies such as UNESCO and
the World Bank committed to achieving six specific education goals, as listed below. This Education for All Goals (EFA) is also aligned to
one of the 8 Millennium Development Goals.



Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged children
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and
life-skills programmes
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
Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and
continuing education for all adults.
 Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015,
with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
 Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning
outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/efa-goals/
Literacy Rates
There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless otherwise specified, all rates are based on the most common definition
- the ability to read and write at a specified age. In Singapore, literacy is defined as someone of age 15 and over who can read and write.
Qn: What role can the government and international organisations play in promoting education? How successful has these
efforts been in promoting education to all?
YOUTH AND EDUCATION STATICTICS AND FIGURES
Education levels among residents in Singapore, aged 25-39 years,
comparison between years 2000 and 2010.
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/charts/lit-edu.html#litA
Key statistics on employment outcome of graduates from institutions of higher education, 2008-2010
http://www.mom.gov.sg/statistics-publications/national-labour-market-information/publications/Pages/wages-2010-table.aspx#key
Qn: With higher education level and income, is life necessarily better for the young in Singapore today?
Is this the same situation for the young in other parts of the world?
Essay: Was life for young people in Singapore better in the past than it is today (GCE A 2003, Q9)
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List of countries by literacy rate, as included in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report 2011. (a sampling)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate#endnote_j4
Essay: To what extent can education improve the lives of people? (PJCJC2MYE10Q3]
Statistics on Youth Volunteerism and Activism
Statistics on Youth Delinquency
http://app1.mcys.gov.sg/Portals/0/Files/SPRD/Social%20Stats%202011.pdf
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Qn: Why should the government be concerned of the state of education in the country? What is the role of
education in developing an individual?
Essay: “The only aim of education is to enable one to find a job.” Is this true? (MJCJC1PE10Q10)
As the cost of higher education skyrockets, a new Pew study finds that students and families are questioning its value, TIME, 19
May 2011
Qn: How important is higher education?
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THE YOUNG SINGAPOREAN ADULT…
Young Singaporeans lack drive, some CEOs told Education Minister Heng Swee Keat. While the definition of 'drive' is debatable, attitudes
have definitely changed, say employers, The Straits Times, 2 Feb 2012, by Ng Kai Ling & Stacey Chia
Even before he graduated from university, Mr Lawrence Kim was already running a million-dollar business.The Singaporean had taken
over his father's marine inspection and service company in 2005 when he was just 23, and turned it into a million-dollar venture in just a
few years. 'My father had been doing a good job with it, but he didn't really want to grow it,' said Mr Kim, now 30 and the managing director
of Ebenezer NDT Services. 'I saw the potential in it and I couldn't let my father's efforts go to waste.'
But it would appear that young Singaporeans like him might be in short supply. On Tuesday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat
expressed concern about feedback he got from chief executives, who felt that young Singaporeans lack the drive and the confidence to
venture out of the comfort zone to succeed. Several employers and human resource consultants interviewed yesterday said this is true to
some extent. They said that compared to the older generation of Singaporeans, young adults would rather stick to something that they are
familiar with and can handle than take up new challenges. They also lack the tenacity to weather tough times - such as when they are
unhappy at work - and will quickly look for greener pastures. They offered some reasons for this shift in attitudes.
Too comfortable
Young adults do not have the responsibilities that their parents, who lived through Singapore's early years, had. They lead relatively
comfortable lives and most do not have to struggle to put food on the table or help support their families. The statistics bear this out:
Median household income has risen from $438 in 1972 to $2,303 in 1990, $2,638 in 2000, and $5,000 in 2010. Mr Paul Heng, managing
director of human resource consultancy NeXT Career Consulting, noted that for many young graduates, finding and keeping a job after
leaving school may not be an immediate concern.'Compared to young people like those from India or China who are here to work, young
Singaporeans are less hungry,' he said. Singaporean parents, he pointed out, also tend to support their children emotionally and financially
even after they have graduated. Such a culture puts young Singaporeans at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in the West,
where the norm is for them to leave the nest, some as young as 18, said Mr Kurt Wee, vice-president of the Association of Small and
Medium Enterprises. Americans, for example, learn to make decisions for themselves and take charge of their lives at a younger age, he
said. He, too, felt that young Singaporeans may not see the need to exert themselves because they are well-provided for by their parents.
'They do not feel the push to be creative and find opportunities for themselves.'
Risk averse
MR KOH Yew Hiap, managing director of cleaning solutions company UIC, said that because life here is comfortable, many are reluctant
to take up career-advancing opportunities in developing countries like Vietnam and China. 'They worry about the standard of living in those
countries. They are also hesitant about having to live in a different environment and culture,' he said. Mr Josh Goh, an assistant director at
human resource consultancy The GMP Group, said Singaporeans in general also prefer to lie low and not speak their minds. 'They tend to
speak up on things like benefits such as leave and medical coverage, but seldom on how the company can do the work better,' he said.
Singaporeans also want everything to go as planned, said Mr Goh, and they would rather not take on something new and risk making a
mistake. 'Perhaps it has got to do with our education system,' he said. 'Some people may see making mistakes as part of a learning
experience, but Singaporeans do not like to fail.' Political science lecturer John Donaldson from the Singapore Management University
(SMU), who has been in Singapore for the last six years, echoed this. He has found Singaporean students to be driven in that they want to
better themselves, but are risk averse. Some from the business school have said they were interested in doing social science majors, but
decided against it because they feared this would limit their job prospects. Ebenezer NDT Services' Mr Kim said he had set up a fund to
help students in his alma mater - SMU and the Singapore Polytechnic - who want to start businesses, but was disappointed that not many
took up his offer. 'Many young Singaporeans want instant results, but a successful business takes a long time to build,' he said. 'I spoke to
some undergraduates recently and many are contented in their high-paying jobs.'
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Education system too focused on good grades
Ms Stefanie Yuen Thio, joint managing director at TSMP Law Corporation, said it would be unfair to say that all young people lack drive.
Her firm has 'many young lawyers whose energy, initiative and passion put us - even in our younger days - to shame'. That said, she felt
the education system places an undue emphasis on academic achievement. 'This forces students to focus on exam scores at the expense
of a wider education... When confronted with the challenges of the business world, they are often ill-equipped to respond.' She added: 'I
have found that it is the law graduates who are intelligent but are not so academic who generally make better practitioners. They are
hungrier and are used to thinking outside the box to get the results they want.' Mr Koh agreed and said that drive for good academic
results does not always translate to the drive to excel in a career. 'In the workplace, there are other factors like having experience and
being at the right place at the right time,' he said.
Looking for instant rewards
YOUNG Singaporeans are often too impatient to reap their rewards, said Mr Wee. He and Mr Goh noted that younger people often expect
to see instant rewards from the work that they have done. 'They may have done well in their jobs for one or two years, but they may not
necessarily have enough experience to be promoted and be in decision-making positions,' said Mr Wee. Mr Goh added: 'There is this
mindset where they just quit when they are unhappy. Once they feel unappreciated, they leave for greener pastures.' Some, however,
caution against branding the young as lacking in drive and ambition. National University of Singapore sociologist Paulin Tay Straughan
said choosing the easier route does not mean that young Singaporeans lack drive. 'Is it necessarily bad that the youth choose what is tried
and tested?' she said. 'From a rational perspective, most would pick something that is comfortable, but it does not mean that they will not
do their best.'
WHAT CEOs TOLD THE EDUCATION MINISTER
EMPLOYERS here think young Singaporeans need more drive and the confidence to venture out of their comfort zones. Education
Minister Heng Swee Keat got this feedback at a meeting he had with a group of chief executive officers earlier this week. He used this as a
wake-up call for about 300 university students at a forum at the Singapore Management University on Tuesday.
Mr Heng said that, to his surprise, a number of chief executives told him that they were not seeing enough drive among young
Singaporeans. Another trait missing in students here was their willingness to leave their comfort zones and try something new, the minister
also said. He recounted the experiences of a chief executive who described the differing responses from a Singaporean worker and a
European one, when both were promoted. In Europe, when the chief executive told workers that he wanted to try them out in a new role
that came with different responsibilities, the staff members asked how the company would help them to succeed and what sort of training
they would need. But when the chief executive approached Singaporeans, he was shocked by the response: 'What if I fail? Will I still have
a job? Is there a support system and do I get retrenchment benefits?'
The young, the minister said, also needed to be hungrier. When he was managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he
gave a speech in a university in China and was overwhelmed by the intelligent questions from the students. One of them had even been
following all his speeches through the global financial crisis.
Mr Heng said that, aside from drive, hunger and the confidence to try new things, young Singaporeans would also need two other
qualities: the ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world characterised by technological changes and instability in the global economy, as
well as the ability to collaborate across cultures.
Essay:
How ready are the young in your country for the real world? (SRJCJC2PE07Q10)
Can we put Singapore’s future in the hands of our youth? (MJCJC1MYE10Q8)
EDUCATION SYSTEM MUST BE TWEAKED TO DEVELOP DIVERSE RANGE OF TALENTS
The Straits Times, 21 April 2010
By Sandra Davie
Senior Writer
SINGAPORE'S widely revered education system has come a long way – but it has an even longer way to go. And the first to admit it is
Education Minister Ng Eng Hen. Giving a refreshingly candid assessment of the system here in a two-hour interview last week, he
acknowledges that it is too "efficiency-driven" and "cookie cutter", and that this is a legacy of how it has evolved. In 1960, the pass rate of
Singapore's very first cohort to sit for the inaugural Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) was 45 per cent. "We had to ask whether
we could, in double-quick time, get the educational standards up to support the economy so that we could make a living.That was the
imperative that focused all minds, and therefore a lot of things were centralised: curriculum, national standards, exams, teacher training,
English language." The resultant one-size-fits-all system worked to raise education standards quickly. Today, PSLE pass rates are near
100 per cent.
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But Dr Ng doubts if such a "survival-driven" approach can continue to work for long into the future. Since he took over the portfolio two
years ago, he has been working on identifying gaps in the current system and seeing how they can be closed to better serve
Singaporeans. The system right now, he says, does not optimally develop the diverse range of talents here. "People are different and they
have different strengths. Your system should seek to optimise and play up all their strengths, as well as not make it a break point for any
one particular weakness." The system, he feels, is not "contextualised" to today's youth, their aspirations and learning styles. "When adults
talk about what education system they want, we refer to our own school days, but sometimes this discounts the nature of today's youth –
how they learn, their environment and what their future will be."
At the macro level, the education regime first needs to be contextualised to today's society. "We should be bold because our world is
changing... The texture of our society has changed, the shape of industry has changed, the global financial crisis has rewritten a lot of
rules and we have to position for a future that's a decade or two away." Take the parents of pupils entering Primary 1 today. As children of
the 80s, they grew up in a "prospering" Singapore, travelled widely and have different aspirations for their children. "Their children will have
many more opportunities to plug into the world. Many of them of course will grow up here, but throughout their working life, they may be
working in different places and we need to prepare them for that future."
To shape these children for the new workplace – here or overseas – Singapore cannot just count on literacy and numeracy alone.
"Students from China, India and Vietnam will be just as literate and numerate, if not more, so Singapore has to value add so that its
workers will continue to have that edge," he says. Increasingly, the new edge will come from critical thinking, good communication skills
(both writing and verbal), leadership, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. As such, he says the importance of building "soft skills" or
"21st century competencies" in every child, a topic he dwelt on at length in his parliamentary speech last month, cannot be overemphasised. "I think no one would disagree that soft skills are required in the workplace, all of us know it. And here I'm signalling to say
yes, it's important, we should pay attention to it." Schools will soon put greater emphasis on physical education, art and music so that
students develop a range of "social and emotional competencies", as well as acquire "global awareness and cross-cultural skills, civic
literacy, critical thinking, information and communication skills". He says: "We have reached high standards in the other areas, such as
maths and science. So we have the capacity to strengthen the system by developing other aspects in our students.
"Also, our population is less homogenous than it was 40 years ago. And a reiteration of these fundamental skills and values, the shared
experiences, is an important one." Against this backdrop, he says that Singapore's language policy also needs an update. That is why the
Education Ministry is now reviewing its mother tongue language policy – in particular, the 25 per cent weighting given to mother tongue
languages at the PSLE level. The key question here, he says, is whether we keep the old norms and assumptions and ignore global trends
and the new language environment. His conclusion: "I say we will need to update it and we have to take these factors into consideration."
But some pet peeves, such as regular tests and assessment, won't change. Amid all the changes, he stresses that the baby shouldn't get
thrown out with the bath water. "As we change, and we certainly must change, we don't want to unwittingly or inadvertently remove the
pegs that make our system strong," he says. These pegs include the importance placed on "learning and hard work", literacy, numeracy
and science. There is merit to a system which gives a realistic assessment of a student's potential and doesn't attempt to "perch everyone
on a narrow academic peak in university". Instead, it allows youngsters to reach for peaks by taking different routes, such as those offered
by the Institute of Technical Education and the polytechnics. Some countries, he notes, experimented with moving away from tests in the
belief that children should study in an "unfettered environment" but eventually went back to it.
Summing up, he says the Singapore education system is robust and mature enough to take into account the different aspirations of
different groups. "It is when we have more confidence that we can actually re-arrange the boxes without taking away the moorings. If it's
possible to have a system that accommodates more, why shouldn't we do it? Especially if it doesn't hurt us and as long as we keep the
fundamentals. I think we won't go far wrong if we create space and a system that maps itself to the different talents of our population. "If I
can create space for a child with high linguistic ability, if I can create space for a child who can be a wonderful dancer... and I can support
a child who's slower, but can build in 21st century competencies to make him a productive citizen, then I think then we will all be richer for
it."
On mother tongue, uni places for poly grads and more…
Q How would you respond to worries that mother tongue languages, including Chinese, could be taught as foreign languages in
the future?
The question must be, as an educator, how effective am I? It's like asking, will I be worried if one day maths is taught a particular way, say
using the model method? So, the right question to ask is how effective is the method? China's Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, a language
proficiency examination, uses different levels. At level two, you should be able to understand simple language and at level four, you should
be able to read newspapers. That's very sensible. The system is geared towards non-native speakers, but suppose we find that it is more
effective. Are we then going to say, well, no, that's not the way to teach. My point is we shouldn't be conscribed by labels. The more
important point is: Is it effective? In the same way, we could argue about how we teach English. Previously we thought that we could get
away from grammar and syntax, but found that that was really wrong. So we had to come back (to grammar and syntax). Maybe we
should quote Deng Xiaoping: It doesn't matter whether the cat is white or black, as long as it catches rats. We should be happy that it can
deliver.
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Q How would you address concerns that the Ministry of Education (MOE) is setting the bar too low for mother tongue
languages?
All of us understand why mathematics and science is needed. English will be required in the workplace. Chinese, for some, will certainly
be an asset because China is rising. But, if you were to ask whether someone with no language ability – but who excels in mathematics
and science – can progress, the answer must be "yes". So we must support those who have good language abilities to go as far as they
can in their mother tongue language. But, to meet the diverse talents of our population, we may want to see whether we can have a
system that also meets the needs of those who have no language ability but have strengths in other areas. I'm not sure whether the eitheror construct has been just or relevant for tomorrow – whether that's the best model for our children.
Q Even with the additional university places that will be offered through the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), only 20 per cent of polytechnic graduates will win a place at the local
universities, while 70 per cent of junior college students will get a shot at university education locally. Why the gap, and do you
see this gap closing as the calibre of polytechnic graduates improves?
Our planning norm has always been to set the standards and then see if you can meet them. Because Singapore is small, to keep it up
there, we need to set appropriate standards for university admission. So, if students meet these standards, they get in. Obviously,
sometimes this translates into percentages. It is not our aspiration to send 70 per cent of our population to university, because countries
that have done that have found, at the tail end, that employers know which universities are not up to mark. We have expanded university
places with SIT and SUTD. And, as I have said, as long as standards are kept, I'm prepared to review the number of places in SIT, which
we can expand. If polytechnic students perform better, more of them should qualify for university – and why not? Just as our ITE (Institute
of Technical Education) students are doing better and going to poly. Previously, one in six ITE students went to poly. Now it's one in five,
and the way they are performing, it will soon be one in four. So, if they're doing better, we will admit them.
Q What do you think of Dr Tony Tan's suggestion to the National University of Singapore that it offers a liberal arts programme,
which requires students to study varied fields from the humanities and the hard sciences before they go on to specialise?
It's a timely idea but not for everyone. We must recognise that industry, parents and students still subscribe to the value of professional
degrees. If a child were to tell his father that he wants to go and do a liberal arts degree, he'll scratch his head and say: "Well, what is this?
What do you work as when you finish with it?" And then industry will ask: "What are you trained in?" It adds diversity to the system, just like
SIT and SUTD, which fill different gaps. There's a group of people who want to have the broad liberal arts educational experience. But
some other students may say, look, don't waste my time, I want to be a lawyer or a doctor or accountant. I'm going to spend six years
studying deeply so that I can be a very good accountant or very good lawyer, and then, after that, I can think in broad terms.
Q Recently, the Government announced that those entering SUTD will have to pay higher fees. The other three universities then
announced fee hikes. Will the Government continue to subsidise tuition fees generously?
We will still have huge subsidies for university education – 75 per cent for general courses. This works out to $80,000 to $100,000 for
students taking up general degrees. The second policy that stays is that no student who is deserving of university education will be denied
it because he cannot afford it.As our universities move up the ranking, they're hiring top-notch faculty staff who cost more. With SUTD,
which has the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of its partners, you have a different model, which adds diversity to the
system. But it will have more lecturers per student and state-of-the- art facilities, so obviously the cost goes up. Students who enter a top
university will benefit from the education, have more successful careers and and better starting pay. Hence, they are the prime
beneficiaries and should pay higher fees.
FINLAND’S SCHOOLS FLOURISH IN FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY
State prescribes the curriculum but leaves teachers alone to decide how to teach the subject
Jeevan Vasagar in Helsinki guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010
At Meri-Rastila primary school in a suburb of Helsinki, pupils shake the snow off their boots in the corridors, then peel them off and pad
into class in socks. After a 45-minute lesson, they're out in the playground again. The Finnish school day is short and interspersed with
bursts of running around, shrieking and sledging outdoors. Children start when they're older, the year they turn seven and there is no
pressure on them to do anything academic before then.
The Finnish education system contrasts sharply with England. Every Finnish child gets a free school meal, and a free education, which
extends to university level.
There are no league tables, and no school inspections. There is only one set of national exams, when children are about to leave school,
aged 18. The government conducts national assessments, sampling the population to keep track of school performance. But these results
are not made public. Meri-Rastila's principal, Ritva Tyyska, said: "I think it's quite good that they don't rank the schools because we have
good teachers, we have a curriculum and we have to obey it. In every school we teach about the same things. The methods can be a little
bit different, [but you] get the same education. "We have these tests, in the fifth or sixth forms, that are the same tests at each and every
school. We get the results and we see where we stand. But that is not common knowledge. And if it's not good we have to check what are
we doing wrong, what we have to improve."
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In Finland, the state decides what should be taught, but not how. If they like, teachers can take their children outside for "wood
mathematics" – where they go into the nearest patch of forest and learn to add and subtract by counting twigs or stones in the open air. A
typical lesson compresses several disciplines into one; in one class, children who don't speak Finnish as their first language are taught to
identify and name the parts of a mouse ("ears", "whiskers", "tail") and then mark on a chalk outline of the country where the animal lives.
It's a literacy lesson, but biology and geography as well.
Meri-Rastila is unusual because of its high proportion of immigrant children. There are 190 pupils in the school and nearly half have foreign
backgrounds. They speak 33 languages alongside Finnish – including Somali, Russian, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and Chinese.
Rami Salminen begins his class on the Roman empire by hauling out a boy for tossing a book at a classmate. It's the last hour of the
school day and he decides to give a very traditional lesson, focusing on the textbook and having them write down key passages rather
than inviting a debate. This class is a relatively big one, with 26 children. But as a rule classes in Finnish schools tend to be small and
teachers usually keep the same classes as they move through a primary school, getting to know the children well. Salminen said: "That's
the best way, you know the pupils and you know their special needs, and you get to know their parents as well. Many parents can't do their
job properly and they [the children] need an adult understanding, listening to them, trying to help and encourage them."
Finland's success is due, in part, to the high status of teaching. Reforms in the 1980s transferred teacher training to universities and
required every teacher to have a master's degree.
In the corridors at the upper school, teenagers are gathered around computer screens picking the classes they'll go to for the next few
weeks. The school's airy modern building and casually dressed students give it the atmosphere of a new university. Pupils design their
own timetables, so teachers get classes made up of new faces every term. But this flexibility is combined with a rigid approach to the
curriculum; students can decide when they will learn and teachers are free to interpret the subject as they see fit. But, the school has a
long list of compulsory subjects and the government prescribes exactlywhat children ought to know in each field.
The most striking difference between the Finnish system and British is the fact that Finland has no private schools. There are a handful of
privately run religious schools and Steiner schools, but places at these are state-funded, too. Timo Lankinen, director general of the
Finnish national board of education, said: "Somehow we have had that kind of social agreement that basic education in Finland should be
provided for all, and take all levels into account, and somehow parties in Finland have accepted it. If it [remains] so, there isn't any need for
private schools."
Instead, there is diversity within the state system, with high schools allowed to select pupils on the basis of academic merit after 16. There
are two separate streams for post-16 education; academic schools and vocational ones, although both can lead to higher education.
Makelanrinne is one of 13 schools in the country that specialises in sport, picking its students on the basis of their sporting record as well
as academic test scores. While the school is state-run and accessible to all, its ambition is to foster a sporting elite. In the Olympic-size
pool it shares with the local community, divers shear into the water as their coach points out a 19-year-old in a black swimsuit. "She's the
best female diver in Finland at the moment," the coach said. "Her goal is London [2012]".
Finland v England
Private schools
The vast majority of children attend comprehensive schools in Finland. The country has a handful of faith-based and alternative schools,
which are legally private but funded by the state. They cannot charge fees but may set their own catchment areas. In England, 7.2% of
children attend private schools, which are free to select pupils and charge fees. A private education costs parents an average of £10,100 a
year.
Exams
Finland has only one set of national exams, the matriculation exam when pupils are about to leave upper school, aged 18. But children are
tested regularly on what they have learned. In England, children have national tests in English, maths and science at the end of year 6,
aged 11. They sit another set of national exams when they take GCSEs at 16 and then have A-levels at 18.
Free school meals
Every Finnish child is entitled to a free school meal, in both primary and upper schools. Finland began providing free school meals 60
years ago, both to encourage children to attend school and help them learn.
In England free school meals are currently available only for children from families receiving unemployment benefit. The coalition scrapped
Labour plans to extend free school meals to families below the poverty line, which is calculated as £19,500 a year for a couple with two
children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/finland-schools-curriculum-teaching?intcmp=239
Essay:
How ready are the young in your country for the real world? (SRJCJC2PE07Q10)
Does the education in your country prepare you for global competition? (CJCPE06Q1)
Do schools teach enough to meet the needs of today’s economy? (MIJC1MYE10Q12)
9
LEFT BEHIND
The harm today’s youth unemployment is doing will be felt for decades, both by those affected and by society at large, The Economist,
Sep 10th 2011
MARIA GIL ULLDEMOLINS is a smart, confident young woman. She has one degree from Britain and is about to conclude another in her
native Spain. And she feels that she has no future.
Ms Ulldemolins belongs to a generation of young Spaniards who feel that the implicit contract they accepted with their country—work hard,
and you can have a better life than your parents—has been broken. Before the financial crisis Spanish unemployment, a perennial
problem, was pushed down by credit-fuelled growth and a prolonged construction boom: in 2007 it was just 8%. Today it is 21.2%, and
among the young a staggering 46.2%. “I trained for a world that doesn’t exist,” says Ms Ulldemolins.
Spain’s figures are particularly horrendous. But youth unemployment is rising perniciously across much of the developed world. It can
seem like something of a side show; the young often have parents to fall back on; they can stay in education longer; they are not on the
scrapheap for life. They have no families to support nor dire need of the medical insurance older workers may lose when they lose their
jobs. But there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that youth unemployment does lasting damage.
In the past five years youth unemployment has risen in most countries in the OECD, a rich-country club (see chart 1). One in five under25s in the European Union labour force is unemployed, with the figures particularly dire in the south. In America just over 18% of under25s are jobless; young blacks, who make up 15% of the cohort, suffer a rate of 31%, rising to 44% among those without a high-school
diploma (the figure for whites is 24%). Other countries, such as Switzerland, the Netherlands and Mexico, have youth unemployment rates
below 10%: but they are rising.
The costs mount up
In tough times young people are often the first to lose out. They are relatively
inexperienced and low-skilled, and in many countries they are easier to fire than
their elders. This all goes to make them obvious targets for employers seeking
savings, though their low pay can redress things a little. In much of the OECD
youth-unemployment rates are about twice those for the population as a whole.
Britain, Italy, Norway and New Zealand all exceed ratios of three to one; in
Sweden the unemployment rate among 15- to 24-year-olds is 4.1 times higher
than that of workers aged between 25 and 54.
Not only is the number of underemployed 15- to 24-year-olds in the OECD
higher than at any time since the organisation began collecting data in 1976. The
number of young people in the rich world who have given up looking for work is
at a record high too. Poor growth, widespread austerity programmes and the
winding up of job-creating stimulus measures threaten further unemployment
overall. The young jobless often get a particular bounce in recoveries: first out,
they are often also first back in. But the lack of a sharp upturn means such
partial recompense has not been forthcoming this time round. In America the
jobs recovery since 2007 has been nearly twice as slow as in the recession of
the early 1980s, the next-worst in recent decades—and from a worse startingpoint. In some countries a rigging of the labour market in favour of incumbents
and against the young makes what new jobs there are inaccessible.
Youth unemployment has direct costs in much the same way all unemployment
does: increased benefit payments; lost income-tax revenues; wasted capacity.
In Britain a report by the London School of Economics (LSE), the Royal Bank
of Scotland and the Prince’s Trust puts the cost of the country’s 744,000
unemployed youngsters at £155m ($247m) a week in benefits and lost
productivity.
Some indirect costs of unemployment, though, seem to be amplified when the
jobless are young. One is emigration: ambitious young people facing bleak
prospects at home would be discouraged and often seek opportunities
elsewhere more readily than older people with dependent families. In Portugal,
where the youth unemployment rate stands at 27%, some 40% of 18- to 30year-olds say they would consider emigrating for employment reasons. In
some countries, such as Italy, a constant brain-drain is one more depressing
symptom of a stagnant economy. In Ireland, where discouragement among
young workers has shot up since 2005 (see chart 2), migration doubled over
the same period, with most of the departed between 20 and 35. This return of a
problem the “Celtic tiger” once thought it had left behind is treated as a national
tragedy.
10
It’s personal
Another cost is crime. Attempts to blame England’s recent riots on youth unemployment were overhasty. But to say there is no link to
crime more generally looks unduly optimistic. Young men are already more likely to break the law than most; having more free time, more
motive and less to lose hardly discourages them. Some researchers claim to have identified a causal link between increased youth
unemployment and increases in crime, specifically property crime (robbery, burglary, car theft and damage) and drug offences. No such
link is seen for overall unemployment. If the crime leads to prison, future employment prospects fall off a cliff.
And then there are the effects on individuals. Young people are hit particularly hard by the economic and emotional effects of
unemployment, says Jonathan Wadsworth, a labour economist at the LSE. The best predictor of future unemployment, research shows, is
previous unemployment. In Britain a young person who spends just three months out of work before the age of 23 will on average spend
an additional 1.3 months in unemployment between the ages of 28 and 33 compared with someone without the spell of youth joblessness.
A second stint of joblessness makes things worse.
Research from the United States and Britain has found that youth unemployment leaves a “wage scar” that can persist into middle age.
The longer the period of unemployment, the bigger the effect. Take two men with the same education, literacy and numeracy scores,
places of residence, parents’ education and IQ. If one of them spends a year unemployed before the age of 23, ten years later he can
expect to earn 23% less than the other. For women the gap is 16%. The penalty persists, though it shrinks; at 42 it is 12% for women and
15% for men. So far, the current crisis has not led to these long-term periods of youth unemployment rising very much; almost 80% of
young people in the OECD who become unemployed are back in work within a year. But that could well change.
The scarring effects are not necessarily restricted to the people who are actually unemployed. An American study shows that young
people graduating from college and entering the labour market during the deep recessions of the early 1980s suffered long-term wage
scarring. Graduates in unlucky cohorts suffer a wage decline of 6-7% for each percentage-point increase in the overall unemployment rate.
The effect diminishes over time, but is still statistically significant 15 years later.
After a period of unemployment, the temptation to take any work at all can be strong. Wage scarring is one of the reasons to think this has
lasting effects, and policies designed to minimise youth unemployment may sometimes exacerbate them. Spain, which has developed a
scheme for rolling over temporary contracts to provide at least some chances of employment to the young, should pay heed to the
experience of Japan in the early 2000s. Young people unemployed for a long time were channelled into “non-regular” jobs where pay was
low and opportunities for training and career progression few. Employers seeking new recruits for quality jobs generally preferred fresh
graduates (of school or university) over the unemployed or underemployed, leaving a cohort of people with declining long-term job and
wage prospects: “youth left behind”, in the words of a recent OECD report. Japan’s “lost decade” workers make up a disproportionate
share of depression and stress cases reported by employers.
Unemployment of all sorts is linked with a level of unhappiness that cannot simply be explained by low income. It is also linked to lower life
expectancy, higher chances of a heart attack in later life, and suicide. A study of Pennsylvania workers who lost jobs in the 1970s and
1980s found that the effect of unemployment on life expectancy is greater for young workers than for old. Workers who joined the
American labour force during the Great Depression suffered from a persistent lack of confidence and ambition for decades.
There are other social effects, too, such as “full-nest syndrome”. In 2008, 46% of 18- to 34-year-olds in the European Union lived with at
least one parent; in most countries the stay-at-homes were more likely to be unemployed than those who had moved out. The effect is
particularly notable in the countries of southern Europe, where unemployment is high and declining fertility means small families: a recent
study by CGIL, an Italian trade-union federation, found that more than 7m Italians aged between 18 and 35 were still living with their
parents. Since 2001 one in four British men in their 20s, and one in six women, have “boomeranged” home for a period. This sort of
change will, for good or ill, ripple on down the generations which may, if young people live longer and longer at home, become more
spread out.
In lieu of jobs
In some countries, particularly in southern Europe, the main focus for governments should be on opening up labour markets that lock out
younger workers (see article). In countries with more flexible labour markets, the emphasis tends to be on “skilling up” young people. This
is not a panacea.
Universities can be a source of skills and a place to sit out the doldrums, so students are entering and staying on at university more and
more. American graduate schools have received at least 20% more applications since 2008. But as they build up debts, not all these
students will be improving their job prospects. Having a university degree still increases the chances of employment, but joblessness
among college graduates in America is the highest it has been since 1970.
There are dangers in vocational training, too. The Wolf report, a review of vocational education in Britain published this year, pointed out
that the wrong kind of training can actually damage employment prospects. It found that almost a third of 16- to 19-year-olds in Britain are
enrolled in low-level vocational courses that have little or no labour-market value. Research indicates that taking a year or two to complete
schemes of this sort reduces lifetime earnings unless the schemes are combined with employer-based apprenticeships.
In Germany, seen by many as a model in this regard, a quarter of employers provide formal apprenticeship schemes and nearly two-thirds
of schoolchildren undertake apprenticeships. Students in vocational schools spend around three days a week as part-time salaried
apprentices of companies for two to four years. The cost is shared by the company and the government, and it is common for
11
apprenticeships to turn into jobs at the end of the training. The youth-unemployment rate in Germany, at 9.5%, is one of the lowest in the
EU. Apprentice-style approaches practised in the Netherlands and Austria have had similar results.
Germany’s export-driven economy, with its army of specialised manufacturers, may be particularly suited to the apprenticeship model. It is
not obvious how easily it could be imported into more service-oriented economies. America, for example, lacks the institutions—strong
unions, compliant management and a hands-on government—that have made the German model so successful. Such programmes would
also have to overcome cultural obstacles. Bill Clinton’s school-to-work initiative, a nod to the apprenticeship system, was derided as
second-rate education. Even in the skilled trades where apprenticeships have caught on, the model has suffered because of the collapse
of the construction industry. Britain, though, seems willing to give it a whirl. Last year 257,000 positions were created.
Yet this may be of little use to the hardest-to-reach under-25s, who often come from backgrounds where worklessness is the norm and the
lack of adult role models creates aspiration gaps at an early age. “Targeted programmes with one-on-one attention are what these young
people need,” believes Paul Brown, a director of the Prince’s Trust. “Policies aimed at all young people will only make the neediest fall
through the cracks.”
OBAMA ASKS GRADUATES TO CLOSE THE EDUCATION GAP
By JACKIE CALMES, New York Times, 9 May 2010.
HAMPTON, Va. — For the first time as president, Barack Obama on Sunday delivered a commencement address to a historically black
college, Hampton University, telling graduates that they have “a separate responsibility” to become mentors to other young AfricanAmericans to help close a persistent gap in educational achievement.
Mr. Obama, clad in a “Hampton blue” robe, said the 1,072 graduates were better poised to enter an economy still recovering
from recession and facing global competition than Americans without a college degree, who have an unemployment rate twice as high as
those with one. “I don’t have to tell you that too many folks back home aren’t as well prepared,” he said. “By any number of different
yardsticks, African-Americans are being outperformed by their white classmates, as are Hispanic-Americans. Students in well-off areas are
outperforming students in poorer rural or urban communities, no matter what skin color. Globally, it’s not even close.”
Mr. Obama said all Americans have a responsibility “to change this, to offer every single child in this country an education that will make
them competitive in our knowledge economy.” But, he told the graduates, “all of you have a separate responsibility — to be role models for
your brothers and sisters, to be mentors in your communities and, when the time comes, to pass that sense of an education’s value down
to your children.”
Recalling Hampton University’s start as a trade and agricultural school for freed slaves after the Civil War in a state that had outlawed
education for blacks, Mr. Obama said the founders of the school and others like it “knew, of course, that inequality would persist long into
the future. But they also recognized the larger truth, a distinctly American truth,” he said. “They recognized, class of 2010, that the right
education might allow those barriers to be overcome, might allow our God-given potential to be fulfilled.”
Mr. Obama, a product of two Ivy League universities, Columbia and Harvard, was enthusiastically received by an audience that packed the
field and bleachers of the school’s stadium on a sunny, breezy morning. He spoke a day after his wife, Michelle, an alumna of Princeton,
addressed graduates at another historically black college, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. William R. Harvey, Hampton’s president
for 32 years, noted Mr. Obama’s historic achievement as the first African-American president. He gave him a seedling from the university’s
Emancipation Oak, under which former slaves who had sought refuge at a Union fortress were educated by a free black woman in
violation of Virginia law in 1861, seven years before Hampton was founded. To applause, Dr. Harvey said Mr. Obama promised that the
seedling would be planted at the White House.
In his remarks, Mr. Obama reiterated a theme of his graduation address the previous weekend at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
— that an often-argumentative and politically polarizing media culture posed a threat to democracy without well-educated citizens with
open minds. “Information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than a
means of emancipation,” Mr. Obama said. “So all of this is not only putting pressure on you, it is putting new pressure on our country and
on our democracy.”
Qn: Why should the government be concerned of the state of education in the country? What is the value of education to the
individual and to the state?
Essay: “The only aim of education is to enable one to find a job.” Is this true? (MJCJC1PE10Q10)
12
SAMPLE ESSAYS FROM PREVIOUS ZENITH ISSUES
‘‘Education is the best way to tackle crime.” Comment.
Crime is defined as the breaking of judicial laws – laws that are set to protect and shield citizens, laws to aid citizens, laws to provide for
the citizens. Breaking of judicial laws occurs every minute, every hour, every day and everywhere. No country or state is safe from crime.
In this age of technological advancements, paradigm shifts in society and advances in science, there remains one sole defining quality of
man – his tendency to err. Petty crimes like shoplifting, common crimes like rape and theft, counterfeit crimes that run up bills of billions of
dollars, cold blooded murders…the list of crimes we encounter is endless. With globalisation and technological advances, our crime rates
seem to soar and the crimes committed seem to be more complex and more difficult to solve. What then must be done to keep our world
safe? Should we put in place tougher judicial laws? Is capital punishment even effective at all? And the age old question – is education the
best way out of crime? Although admittedly education is not always the perfect answer to our problems, I feel that it is still the most viable
solution to crime, as it addresses the root causes to most of the crimes we encounter every day.
Before we start looking for a solution to the problem, one inevitably must look toward the causes of crime. Why do people turn towards
criminal activity? I propose three key sources of crime: poverty, the breakdown of the nuclear family structure and the ethical beliefs of an
individual. In the case of poverty, crime becomes the most accessible and fastest option. Imagine being homeless, with no form of
monetary possession or any work experience, much less an education, how easy it would then be, to arm yourself and rob someone.
Within a few minutes of struggle, you have a chance of emerging from the crime a few dollars (or even more) richer. There is no real
labour involved; all that you require is brute force and the boldness to do so. Poverty fuels the need to commit crime. It is an easy excuse,
after all the innate human need for survival must certainly prevail over everything else. As for the breakdown of nuclear family structure, it
leaves a child lacking a stable, conducive environment at home. If you have parents who are divorced, according to the Economist
magazine’s detailed study, you are twice more likely to be sexually abused and exposed to abusive crimes. Without much needed parental
guidance, children are left open and vulnerable to bad influences and thus attenuate their moral integrity, tempting them to commit crime
whether for attention or the thrill. The breakdown of the nuclear family structure is a phenomenon that dominates the twenty first century
and is a key source of crime. Lastly the final proposed cause of crime – the moral and ethical beliefs of an individual. This determines your
reaction and stand on crime. Why do you oppose crime? What beliefs or principles hold you to your stand? All major religions preach
peace and love, but if you are an atheist or agnostic in beliefs, what then stops you from perpetrating crime? An individual’s personal moral
beliefs come into play where crime is concerned, it can affect the decision to commit crime, the extent of crime and the degree of criminal
activity. How then does education satisfy all of this?
Firstly education is a deterrent to poverty. Education equips you with the skills, both technical and psychological. Education empowers you
with knowledge and expertise. Education will enable an individual to stay relevant to a fast altering world, allows us to be equipped with the
knowledge and skills that are demanded from the various occupations in different industries. When we are educated, we are able to
procure jobs that put to use the knowledge that we possess thanks to education. Even if we find ourselves jobless due to a competitive
and saturated job market, we can still make use of our education to set up an enterprise, creating a new niche for ourselves amidst a
monotonous commercial world. People often claim education is not key to monetary benefits or success, citing examples like Bill Gates,
Microsoft’s CEO, who deferred an education at Harvard to start Microsoft. He is as the recent Forbes study concluded, the richest man to
date; yet he is not even a college degree holder. However he did graduate from high school and is educated as well, thus it is inconclusive
to say education will not deter poverty and thus crime. To support my claim, a study undertaken by the Economist showed that a college
degree holder on average will earn US$800,000 more over a lifetime than a non-degree holder. Education definitely will enable us to break
free from the shackles of poverty and far away from the temptations of poverty related crimes like theft, drug peddling and others.
Secondly education provides a buffer, reducing the chances of breakdown of nuclear family structure. Studies show that the breakdown in
nuclear family structure is often attributed to disparity in education and lack of communication. Education enables us to grow as thinkers
and develop social skills along with analytical and observational skills. In education, we learn to devise solutions to problems; we learn to
work in a team, we learn to communicate, we learn to think through our issues as opposed to verbally or physically fighting out our
problems. In a marriage we can subscribe to this set of skills we have learnt to better communicate and rationalise our actions. With
education, a couple can better work out solutions to their problems as opposed to taking the easy road of divorce after nasty fights. A
survey done by USA Today found that amongst college degree holders, divorce was at a paltry 16.8% compared to 38-48% for nondegree holders. Statistics for children born out of wedlock are at a low 4% for college degree holders as compared to an astonishing 68%
for non-degree holders. This shows us the effect of education on the preservation of family structure; which means children from these
families are more likely to be better guided from straying to a path of crimes.
Lastly, education acts as a moral and ethical guide for a non-religious individual. Education teaches us to differentiate the good from the
bad, the right from the wrong. We are taught to differentiate what is correct from what is not allowed. At the tender ages of four at
kindergartens, teachers drive home the message of the evil of crimes via stories like the Little Red Riding Hood. Education helps an
individual to recognize and rationalize the evil of crime. Education also heightens your awareness on consequences of engaging in crimes.
Beyond secular education, for the religious individual, religious education is also useful in inculcating good moral values like integrity,
compassion and responsibility towards society. With religious beliefs like avoiding bad karma and avoiding retributions of hell in the
afterlife, one would surely be restrained from committing crimes that would hurt others, and eventually oneself.
However critics may argue that the governing body of any nation or organization is the key to tackling the problem of crime. After all, the
laws set by nations’ governing bodies will act as a deterrent to crime, and the only course of action must still come from the governing
body. And who better to prevent and deter crime than law enforcers that are provided by our governments? However I beg to differ. One
cannot entirely delegate the responsibility of fighting crime onto the shoulders of a governing body. That being said, our governing bodies
13
themselves must be subject to our scrutiny and prove to be clean and honest before the responsibility of crime prevention can be
entrusted to them. What is a governing body if its citizens do not listen to it? Take the state of Kerala in India for an example. It has not had
a stable government in 40 years, and yet its crime rate is relatively low with low mortality rates despite the lack of a stable government; no
political party has run two consecutive terms in 40 years. What is the reason for its favorable crime rate? A high literacy rate of 91%. The
governing body is nothing without co-operative educated citizens to adhere to its laws.
Critics may also argue that it is the laws that will tackle crime: the severity of our penalties, the policies involved in order to deter crime. All
these laws will protect our citizens from crime and stem criminal activity. Once again I beg to differ. The severity of laws or laws itself serve
to punish the criminal offender for his crimes and by which hope to act as a deterrent for other crimes. This appears to be a simple
rationale that is based on the assumption that the punishment will invoke a fear of the law in citizens’ hearts, that he or she will not so
much as be tempted to do crime. Yet how reliable is this form of deterrence? In Canada, it was seen that crime rates plummeted after the
removal of capital punishment, which has long been revered as the strongest deterrent to crime. Tell me then, do laws really address the
problem? Or are they there to give the impression of a safety net? Without education this safety net will not last for very long.
In conclusion, education is the key to resolving the problem of crime. Granted that it cannot fully stem crime, as evidenced by the fact that
there is also increasing incidence of educated professionals joining the ranks of individuals charged for committing crimes. It is
nevertheless the most viable and feasible method to tackle crime as it addresses the key sources of crime.
Yong Shi Yun 08S304
Review
Although this essay adopts a less conventional structure, it is a pleasure to read. This essay displayed clear evidence of planning with a
very methodical approach to the question. Convincingly supported with clear and well selected evidence, there was detailed treatment of
the topic. The essay is written fluently, however less rhetorical questions should have been used. Clearer links to crime would be good too.
Do you agree that there is no joy in growing up today? Consider this view with specific reference to Singapore.
Most people would agree that children in Singapore today are very much more fortunate than children in the past. The modernisation and
growth of Singapore’s globalised economy has enabled the children of today to bask in material satisfaction, comfort, wellness and
protection. A common argument is that increasing stress levels and competitiveness of today’s society takes away their childhood and the
joy in growing up. However to say that there is no joy in growing up in Singapore today would be a myopic and limited stance given the
relatively fortunate circumstances children experience in modern day Singapore. Thus, I do not agree that there is no joy in growing up in
Singapore today.
Children growing up in Singapore today are truly blessed compared to their counterparts in many parts of the world as they have proper
sanitation and enjoy good physical health. Singapore has established itself as a medical hub in the region. There has been immense
transfer of advanced medical technology from the West involving various research projects and experiments to discover cures and
immunizations for many deadly diseases such as cancer and bird flu. Children today are vaccinated against many of these diseases which
have previously endangered and taken the lives of many children in impoverished states. Being in the pink of health is one of the key
elements to enjoying the process of growing up and experiencing joy, as being unwell would limit the range of activities that children can
partake in.
Children growing up in Singapore have many rich diverse experiences and have much choice and variety in all that they do. Technology
gives them many benefits and comforts that children in poorer states do not get to enjoy. They have numerous choices when it comes to
recreational and entertainment activities. Their quality of life is so much better given that they have diverse choices in everything. Even
television programmes are varied, with lots of animation and audio visual treats. There are also many computer and online games that
would not fail to keep children occupied and entertained all day long. Most children and even adults find joy in these activities as they
could keep themselves entertained, in the comfort of an air-conditioned room, with fast food and snacks waiting for them to munch on.
Thus it is evident that children growing up in Singapore enjoy a good standard of living and have so much more joy compared to many
underprivileged children the world over who do not even have basic facilities and amenities.
It would not be an overgeneralization to assert that children in Singapore are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Many families have
only one or two children and parents tend to make up for their lack of quality time with their children by lavishing gifts and material comforts
upon them. Children grow up owning state-of-the-art gadgets, toys, branded apparel and it is a common sight to see them flanked by
domestic helpers tending to their every beck and call. With such indulgences and pampered upbringing, it is evident that children here
have it good.
Moreover, children growing up in Singapore need not fear for their safety or their life. Given the general stability of the country, children
today live in a harmonious society without the fear of being ostracized due to racial differences. Living in a harmonious society is a joy
because being the target of discrimination can easily develop into an emotional setback which would affect the quality of adolescence.
Many children the world over live in an environment of constant strife and clashes which can take away the joy in growing up, such as
those living in war-torn countries like in Angola or Sierra Leone. Here, a peaceful life with stability and prosperity ensures that there is
always joy in growing up.
14
However, some may take a different stand to this. They may argue that Singaporean children are facing so much stress to excel in their
academic results that there is little joy in growing up. They have packed schedules of tuition, school and enrichment classes, to the extent
that they have little time left to enjoy activities they should have been given a chance to participate in. Even their holidays are packed with
courses to pick up new skills and develop talents. Many say that the competitive nature of our society is driving parents up the wall to
make sure that their children stand out from the crowd. How is it that this has little impact on the children? They too are facing so much
stress that they seldom see the joy they should in growing up. However, considering the flip side of the coin, educational stress may also
be a blessing in disguise when the children are rewarded with material satisfaction such as money and a lucrative career when they grow
up. Competition and a reasonable amount of stress are also necessary to push the children to achieve the optimal outcome. Joy can also
come in the form of being special and having an edge over other children in terms of securing places in top institutions.
Some may also claim that despite all their material wealth and comfort, many children growing up in Singapore are forced to grow up
faster due to parental neglect. The trend of both parents working takes a toll on children as many are left in the care of third-parties such
as nannies, babysitters, crèches, maids or relatives instead of being tended to by their parents. With such negligence and parental
absence, many children these days exhibit behavioral problems and have social and emotional troubles.
In conclusion, it is a sweeping statement to say that there is no joy in growing up today in Singapore. There are many factors which
determine the joy experienced by the children, such as the environment they live in, the experiences and activities they go through, being
healthy and fit and the rewards they get from the hard work they had put in. There is little reason for the children to be totally and entirely
deprived of joy in their growing process. Admittedly, there would be some extent of adversity and troubles which is part and parcel of life. It
is vital to deal with these difficulties and put things in perspective instead of brooding or taking for granted the many blessings we have in
Singapore.
Su Huifen 08S416
Review
The writer has raised largely convincing and effective points that address the issue at hand. The overall structure of the essay is also clear
and well-organised.
There is no room for imagination in the classroom. Do you agree?
Mention the word ‘classroom’ and studies, books, grades, teachers and uniform rows of tables and chairs naturally spring to one’s mind.
Classrooms have been labelled staid places of learning for so long that people nowadays have the impression that classrooms simply
have no room for imagination. No doubt the emphasis is still on obtaining the elusive distinction grade, but today’s modern classrooms are
increasingly becoming places where students are able to express their creativity, have more freedom of thought, and let their emotions
and feelings flow. In short, the classrooms of today have expanded to include more space for imagination and creativity.
Teachers in today’s classrooms are encouraged to infuse creative thinking in their lessons. Teachers have been given more time and
resources to conduct activities that bring out the imaginative side of students, yet still follow the curriculum. The use of group-work,
projects, field trips and even ‘outdoor classrooms’ to teach is fast becoming the norm in many schools. Even in Singapore, schools are
encouraged to follow the ‘teach less, learn more’ framework, cutting content in many subjects and enabling teachers to spend more time
on creative activities in class. Students in Singapore have also been granted an ‘Edusave’ fund by the government, where the government
provides a sum of money which can be used flexibly to participate in enrichment activities, overseas trips and other such activities, many
of which involve the elements of creative thinking and freedom of thought.
The diverse array of subjects being offered today even allow students’ imaginative and creative prowess to be part of the lesson. Art,
music, literature, knowledge and inquiry and even philosophy form only the tip of the iceberg of the list of subjects students can take which
places more emphasis on imagination and critical thinking rather than hard facts and formulae. In Singapore, music and art are even
compulsory subjects until secondary school. New initiatives such as the Art Elective Program (AEP) and Music Elective Program (MEP)
also see students taking the subjects at internationally recognized levels, the General Certificate of Education’s (GCE) ‘O’ (Ordinary) and
‘A’ (Advanced) levels.
Students themselves are being given more leeway to express their inner imagination. Subjects such as English and General Paper have a
tendency nowadays to have no fixed curriculum, thus allowing students more freedom to learn the subjects through new methods and
fresh perspectives. Not only that, students also have more say in the way a lesson is conducted, and are encouraged to organize their own
activities. The number of student initiated activities planned outside of schoolwork is increasing; examples include charity work and fund
raising. In Singapore, some schools even allow students to create their own learning environment, allowing them to paint and decorate
their classrooms and schools as they see best.
However, people argue that schools and students are too focused on obtaining good grades so as to better the school’s reputation and
enable more career prospects for their students. Although it is true there seems little incentive for schools and students to concentrate on
creative and imaginative thinking, especially since it is not reflected in report books, studies have shown that students who participate in
more of such activities that encourage more expressions of creativity and imaginative thinking, tend to have more active minds and are
more receptive to learning. Not only that, in the fiercely competitive market today, job seekers are finding it increasingly difficult to find
15
employment based on good grades alone, employers are on the lookout for brighter minds who are able to actively contribute to the
workforce in creative methods, rather than simply possess a good certificate.
Many people have also argued that nowadays, the frequency of tests and exams have constricted the time available for activities that
allow imagination. Although it is true that tests and exams occur on a regular basis in schools around the world, it would be fallacious to
say that they take up so much of students’ time that they are unable to participate in other activities. Even though teachers know the onus
is on the students to score well, many still find the time to carry out group-work and discussions. Such activities allow students to free their
mind and relieve much of the stress and pressure they undergo daily and give them a break from their lengthy studying routines.
The classroom of today is no longer a boring room where monotonous teachers drone on endlessly about scientific laws and mathematical
formulae, but instead is a learning environment not restricted within four walls, where teachers offer fresh and innovative perspectives to
learning, and students are able to freely express their thoughts and feelings, and let their imagination take flight. The main aim of schools
has always and will always be to produce students of high calibre with excellent conduct and grades, but now the production process has
become much more creative and liberal, giving students a more holistic and an infinitely more fun approach to learning.
Lim Cheng Kai 07S414
Review
Clearly and eloquently articulated, the essay was well-structured. More examples from beyond Singapore would have added to the quality
of the evidence used.
P1 QUESTIONS FROM PAST GCE ‘A’ LEVEL AND JC PAPERS
Youth
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To what extent do young people in your society take an interest in politics? (GCEA2006 – Q8)
To what extent are the young in Singapore favoured at the expense of the elderly? (GCEA2004 – Q1)
Was life for young people in Singapore better in the past than it is today? (GCEA2003 – Q9)
‘Affluence breeds political apathy.’ Is this a fair comment on Singaporean youth? (RJCJC2CT08Q9)
‘Discipline is a forgotten virtue among the young in Singapore.’ Is this a fair comment? (SAJCJC2PE09Q9)
‘Self before others.’ Should this be the motto of young people in your society? (IJCJC2PE09Q1)
‘The Singaporean teenager is attracted to other cultures because his nation lacks its own.’ Comment. (CJCJC1MYE8Q2)
‘The Me Generation.’ How far is this true of the young in your society? (DHSJC2PE09Q5)
‘The young in Singapore lack social awareness.’ To what extent is this a fair comment? (NYJCJC1MYE07Q3)
‘The youth of today have no high ideals or great dreams; just selfish desires and vain ambitions.’ How far is this true of
young people in your country? (HCIJC2PE08Q6)
‘The youths of today are too ready to discard their traditional culture.’ How far is this true of your society? (ACJCJC2PE07Q8)
‘There is no place I would rather be’. Is this the feeling of young people in your country? (AJCJC2PE07Q7)
‘Today’s youths are conditioned to be apathetic.’ How accurate is this description of your society? (CJCJC2PE07Q3)
‘You [Singapore teenagers] are a generation that is especially blessed.’ (Lee Kuan Yew). How far would you agree with the
Minister Mentor’s sentiments? (HCIJC2PE07Q3)
‘Young people today have never had it so good.’ Is this true of youth in your country? (TJCJC2PE08Q8)
“The new generation is fitter, but less tough.” How true is this of the young people in your society? (TPJCJC2PE09Q9)
"Performing community service has no appeal for the younger generation since it has no impact on their lives." How far is
this claim valid? Discuss with reference to the youth of your country. (PJCJC1MYE07Q1)
“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” (J.F. Kennedy) Are the youths in your
country able to take up this challenge? (SAJCJC2BT07Q6)
“The stumbling block for young people is their sense of hopelessness.” To what extent is this true with regard to
Singaporean youth today? (CJCJC1MYE07Q10)
“Young people today are selfish and apathetic.” Is this a fair comment on young people in your country? (TJCJC1CT07Q4)
How do we keep our youth rooted to Singapore? (PJCJC2MYE08Q7)
How far is it true that teenagers in your country are not making the best use of their time? (MJCJC2MYE07Q10)
How ready are the young in your country for the real world? (SRJCJC2PE07Q10)
Is the future for the youths of Singapore exciting and inspiring? (SRJCJC2PE08Q4)
It is better to be young than old in your society. Discuss. (MIPU3PE09Q4)
It is more important to educate the young Singaporean in science than the arts. How true is this? (NYJCJC2PE08Q5)
To what extent are the values of teenagers in Singapore today shaped by the mass media? (PJCJC2MYE07Q3)
To what extent do the young people in your country take an interest in the arts? (NYJCJC2MYE08Q9)
To what extent do young people in your country take an interest in volunteer work? (NYJCJC2PE09Q7)
Young people in Singapore today lack independence. Is this a fair comment? (NJCJC2PE07Q9)
Young Singaporeans are criticised for being too materialistic and self-absorbed. What do you think? (NJCJC2PE08Q12)
“Singapore youth today are too practical for their own good.” Do you agree? (AJCJC1MYE10Q5)
Is it possible for Singapore’s young people to truly live their dreams? (CJCJC1PE10Q11)
‘The youth of today are too sheltered and unable to overcome adversity.’ Is this true of your society? (IJCJC1PE10Q6)
Can we put Singapore’s future in the hands of our youth? (MJCJC1MYE10Q8)
Life for youths today has never been better. To what extent does this reflect the situation in your society? (NYJCJC1MYE10Q11)
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36.
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Education
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‘I don’t care.’ Is this an accurate reflection of youth in your society? (PJCJC1MYE10Q1)
How prepared are the young in your society for the future? (DHSJ2MYE10Q4)
Is it true that the young must always learn from the old in Singapore? (MIPU3MYE10Q1)
‘Far too much attention is given to young people and not enough to the elderly.’ To what extent is this statement reflective of
the situation in your society? (ACJCJ2PE10Q3)
Young people today demand their rights but do not fulfill their responsibilities. Is this true of Singapore youths? (TPJCJ2PE10Q5)
We are too pragmatic for our own good. Is this true of young people in your society? (NYJCJ2PE10Q5)
To what extent is your country an ideal place for both young and old? (VJCJ2PE10Q2)
How far are the young people in your country prepared for change? (MJCJC1MYE11Q1)
‘Youths today lead a life that the elderly envy.’ How far is this true in your country? (PJCJC1MYE11Q9)
Do young people in your society embrace trends too readily? (RVHSJ1PE11Q2)
‘Unprepared for the modern world.’ How true is this of the young people in your society? (DHSJ2PE11Q7)
‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ To what extent is this possible for young people in your country? (PJCJ2PE11Q5)
To what extent do young people in your society take a real interest in politics? (SAJCJ2PE11Q9)
Do young people in your society “have it all”? (TJCJ2PE11Q5)
Consider the view that the youth in your society today have an opinion on everything but a passion for nothing. (YJCJ2PE11Q1)
‘Only educated people should have the right to vote in elections.’ What is your view? (GCEA2009 – Q2)
‘The word failure should never be used in education.’ Discuss. (GCEA2007 – Q12)
‘Conformity should be the main aim of all schools.’ How far is this true? (GCEA2002 – Q2)
‘Academic excellence is inevitably attained at the expense of nurturing the wholesome individual.’ To what extent is this true
in your country? (YJCJC2BT08Q10)
‘It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be uneducated’ (Alec Bourne). How far is this true of education
in Singapore today? (VJCJC2PE08Q8)
‘The sole purpose of getting an education is to make money’. How reflective is this of your society? (IJCJC2PE08Q2)
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Should your society adopt this view in educating the young? (SRJCJC2PE08Q10)
Can the education system of your country meet the needs of the future generation? (YJCJC2PE08Q7)
How does education in your country strive to maximise the potential of each student? (YJCJC1BT07Q9)
How effective is the education system in your country in preparing young people for the future? (TJCJC2PE08Q2)
How should education evolve to prepare us for the future? Discuss this with reference to your society. (PJCJC2PE09Q3)
In today’s society, is imagination more important than knowledge? (TJCJC2CT08Q4)
Should all students in Singapore be made to learn at least one foreign language? (YJCJC2PE07Q5)
To ask questions is more important than to find answers. How far does this apply to education in Singapore? (MIPU3PE08Q4)
To what extent does the Singapore education system meet the needs of society? (IJCJC1ST07Q1)
‘In Singapore, education is what matters most for a child’s life chances.’ To what extent do you agree? (CJCJC1MYE10Q2)
‘Singapore’s education system is the key to its low crime rate.’ How far do you agree with this statement? (MJCJC1PE10Q6)
The sole purpose of education is to get good jobs. How true is this in your society? (NYJCJC1MYE10Q7)
‘Education promotes conformity at the expense of creativity.’ How far is this true of the education system in your country?
(NYJCJC1PE10Q2)
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
To what extent does the Singapore education system meet the needs of the modern world? (NYJCJ2MYE10Q12)
‘Too much testing; too little learning.’ Is this true of the Singapore education system? (TPJCJ2MYE10Q8)
Education has failed in its role of educating people. Is this reflective of your country? (SAJCJ2MYE10Q11)
To what extent should government influence education? Discuss with reference to your country. (RIJCJ2PE10Q12)
“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” (Oscar Wilde). Discuss this with reference to formal education in your
country. (RVHSJ2PE10Q6)
75. ‘Teach less, learn more.’ How realistic is this in your society? (MIPU2PE11Q5)
76. ‘Every young Singaporeans should have a taste of an overseas education.’ Do you agree? (RVHSJ1PE11Q8)
77. ‘The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things.’ Has education accomplished this
goal in your society? (RVHSJ2PE11Q2)
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