Education system in Singapore must evolve

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/education-system-must/1164226.html

The Singapore education system must be transformed to ensure students have the relevant skills to keep up with changes in the economy, starting from giving children a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy to ensuring students have a good grounding in maths and technology skills as they move through the education system, said Education Minister Heng Swee Keat.

This goes with helping students build skills in problem solving and applying knowledge and, when they enter the workforce, employers must play their part to foster learning at the workplace, he said.

Mr Heng was speaking to the media after a five-day study trip to Norway and the Netherlands, where he noted that the eurozone crisis had affected employability and that the availability of jobs in Singapore should not be taken for granted.

“While education must continue to develop a person, we also have a responsibility to ensure it allows young people to access jobs,” he said.

Citing practices in the Norwegian and Dutch education systems, Mr Heng said that without a “rigorous foundation” of numeracy and literacy, students cannot learn new skills and pick up new jobs later in life.

A strong foundation in basic STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills is also needed. Although not everyone is strong in these areas, Singapore needs a “significant percentage” of students to take on rigorous STEM subjects, said Mr Heng.

Said Mr Heng: “What is striking (in the Netherlands is that from) … pre-schools right up to research-intensive universities, everyone is grappling with this need to bridge theory and practice, to break boundaries between academic institutions and the real world.”