The Tragedy of The Education System

What is tragic about the education system?

You should be grateful for the opportunity to go to school…!

Learning is joyful…!

Not really…

This is a piece that I wanted to write ever since I was a student going through the education system here in Singapore. I delayed it because my perspective in the past was probably not as mature. Alas, the time is ripe now that it has been two years since I ended my education journey.

My critique will not only be on the education system but the prevailing mindset surrounding education as well.

I will be talking about formal pre-tertiary education, which refers to the educational pathway starting from primary school to secondary school to junior college (equivalent of elementary, middle and high school in the US) before university. There are other shortened pathways leading up to vocational schools but I went through the abovementioned path.

As my experience had only been in the Singaporean education system, my critique will put special focus on issues in the Singaporean or Asian context. However, I believe that my points will find resonance on a global level as I examine the common educational model itself.

1) Rote Learning/Cramming

Curious question: Are students humans or machines?

The standardised testing in the system encourages students to become “studying machines”. To effectively prepare for tests and examinations, students tend to go through rote learning.

What is rote learning? It is the repeated process of memorising information only to forget about it after a test or examination. The student’s goal is to cram as much information as possible and regurgitate it when asked to.

Lack of Curiosity and Creativity

This method of learning is the greatest killer of curiosity and creativity. There is little incentive to be curious about things if what we “need” to know are already written in the textbooks. Does one also expect a rigid classroom environment to invoke feelings of wonder which are pivotal to curiosity?

While there have been attempts to facilitate creativity, it is met with limited success. One of the few moments where my imagination could flourish was in a secondary school subject called Design and Technology. Yet, it seems that students hardly care about the non-examinable subjects like Physical Education, Music, Art and Home Economics.

Yes, it takes an examination for people to care!

At the ‘A’ Level examinations in junior college, there is a more creative subject called Project Work where students work in a group to devise a solution to a chosen problem. Yet, it remains a question how much students can truly “think out of the box” when grades are at stake. I remember the sight of a few crying students on the day of the results release for this subject.

This brings me to the next point.

2) Graded Learning

Grades – the dreaded thing.

Grading system aside, the concept of grades itself is problematic as it kills the inherent joy of learning.

If I were to be told that I would be graded for this article that I am writing, I doubt I would enjoy it as much. In fact, the content and expression would probably be more subdued as I limit it to one that is more acceptable by the standards.

Knowing that you will be graded for something naturally creates stress as it creates an attachment to an outcome. When the focus is on the outcome instead of the process, any feelings of enjoyment would be overtaken by fear. This is detrimental to the creative process, which probably explains the general lack of creativity in our culture.

3) Overemphasis On Grades

If graded learning is already a problem, the overemphasis on grades makes it worse.

The stressful education system here did not gain its reputation from nothing. It has been likened to a pressure cooker where teachers, parents and peers contribute to the high-pressure environment that causes an immense amount of performance stress.

The perceived stakes of failure are simply so high! (I say “perceived” because it is simply a perspective which may not accurately reflect reality)

Educational Rat Race

With that, education is turned into a rat race where the aim is to stay ahead of others and not fall back behind.

The tuition industry in Singapore is a lucrative one, valued at over a billion dollars. (The population is only 5.68 million) The justification for taking up tuition is often cited as needing extra help for underperformance. I suspect the deeper reason is the fear of losing out. If our education system is truly the world class standard as it often claims to be, why would everyone be scrambling for classes outside of school?

If that is not enough, students rigorously prepare for examinations by doing past year examination questions from the infamous Ten-Year Series. I remember parents used to buy those from stalls that would display stacks of them from various schools. Teachers would occassionally ask in class if anyone would like to buy those and it would seem odd if you were the only one who didn’t raise your hand.

Does life work this way? Can you ever have full certainty over the future by revisiting the past? Can you ever feel prepared enough if you are constantly operating from a place of fear?

A Narrow View of Life

This overemphasis on grades from a young age inevitably skews and narrows the view of life. It is not uncommon to hear students lament over the few marks that they lost in a test and dwell on the possibility that they could have done better. The prospect of failure seems catastrophic to them which causes alot of anxiety and fear with upcoming examinations.

The truth is that there are vastly more important things in life to be concerned about, but the tragedy is that the student cannot see any of them.

Where does this obsession with grades come from? And why is it often described as an Asian problem?

While academic pressure is not unique to Asia, there are definitely cultural and economic elements which heighten the problem here.

Cultural Obsession

Firstly, the cultural obsession with grades can be traced to Confucian ideals. Confucianism advocates the duty of the self to family and state. In Singapore society which has a Chinese majority, there is the mindset that your personal achievements represent that of the family’s. Therefore, it is a highly honourable affair for a family to produce a first-place scholar known as “Zhuang Yuan” (状元). The converse is true where shame might be experienced over poor achievements. This extends all the way to the past when Chinese imperial examinations took place.

Which child doesn’t want to make their parents proud?

There is also something to be said about the different perceptions between Eastern and Western parents towards the academic ability of their children. A study once highlighted that Eastern parents mostly see it as correlated with hardwork and discipline whereas their Western counterparts see it as correlated with talent. This may explain the greater push from Asian parents upon their children.

I imagine the pressure to be far greater in countries like China and Korea where the scale of competition is much larger. Their university entrance examinations Gaokao (高考) and Suneung (수능) are notoriously difficult and students invest all their time in studying for these examinations which they believe would make or break their future. Some even repeat it to get their desired results, wasting precious years of their life.

Economic Motive

Besides, there is an economic motive in pushing for education. The four Asian Tigers (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan) were dubbed so for the economic wonders they performed due to rapid industralisation in the 1960s to 1990s. How did they achieve that with their limited land sizes and lack of natural resources? The focus had to be shifted onto human capital by heavily investing in education. It paid off as students from these countries consistently emerge as top performers in global competency tests.

But at what expense? Unfortunately, the well-being of the young.

The pressure that these stakeholders collectively put upon the young results in mental health issues and even academic suicides in extreme cases. It is not uncommon to delay treatment (or may even deny the presence of such issues) out of fear of interrupting the curriculum or examinations.

The previous generation which has reaped the economic benefits from the policies hold on to the belief in education as the only pathway to securing livelihood while in fact times have changed to allow more flexible options. More than that, people have been conditioned to lack trust in the creative intelligence of humans to find ways for themselves.

Again I ask, are students humans or studying machines?

How tragic is it for society to miss out on what is fundamentally important for a happy and fulfilling life?

4) Pragmatic Learning

The abovementioned factor is a reason for a pragmatic attitude to learning. A disproportionate amount of attention is given to different subjects. The math and the sciences have always been deemed worthier subjects than the humanities due to the value of these subjects for the economy, particularly so as the demand for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers grow in the global field. A student who is competent at math is more likely to be highly regarded than another who is competent at literature for example.

The consequence is that students are not really free to learn according to their interests. Their young impressionable minds would be urged to work on the “more important” subjects starting from primary school.

It is not until junior college that students have much more flexibility to choose their subject combinations. Yet, the ratio of students in the science stream to those in the humanities stream is alarmingly high. One of the reasons cited is that it is easier to score for the “hard” sciences where there are certain answers as compared to the “soft” humanities where it is more subjective. This also illustrates the result-oriented mindset.

I followed the crowd back then when the only science I was interested in was biology and I detested the rest. The subjects that truly captivated me like philosophy and psychology were not even available in the humanities stream. If I was at least able to study the subjects I like, I might have enjoyed school more.

5) A Non-Existent Purpose

The most common advice that students get is to study hard. I never understood what the whole purpose of it was so I fervently asked those around me “Why do we need to study?”. None of my peers knew as they were as clueless as me. The dissatisfactory answer I got from adults was “If you not, what would you be doing?” or “Because that is what everyone is doing.”

After being cast into the role of a student without one’s own will, he/she automatically assumes the duty to study hard and get good results. As long as this duty is fulfilled, it seems like an enough reason to be content.

Is that how it is?

The most painful years of my life were undoubtedly those years of schooling where I had to give all my time, energy and attention without understanding what it is for. Questions plagued me such as:

Why am I here? (Fighting to stay awake in the classroom) I didn’t sign up for this….

Why am I studying these subjects? (Looking at my textbooks) I want to know how these subjects came about… What is the relevance of it to my life?

Why do I need to study? (Hearing everyone say “I need to study”) Will I die without it? But studying = student + dying…

An Existential Vacuum

Life then was a cycle of waiting for classes to end, weekends to come and examination periods to end. I truly understood what the Monday blues and TGIF felt like for working adults who didn’t enjoy their jobs because that was how I lived.

In my opinion, a life where one is constantly waiting for something to be over is not worth living. I still occassionally feel grief over the time that I have lost in my youth.

As a Nazi concentration camp survivor and existential psychoanalysis/logotherapy pioneer Victor E. Frankl states, humans are driven by a will to meaning similar to philosopher Friedrich Nietszche’s concept of the will to power. The student who faces an existential vaccuum can be equally compelled to take his/her life as someone going through unspeakable suffering.

Admittedly, there were moments where I found myself with such thoughts going through my mind as I stared outside the window while bound to my classroom desk.

6) Impact on Self-Worth

At a young age, many students are still discovering what makes them special and have yet to establish a foundation for their self-esteem. By focusing on grades so early on in life, it can be detrimental.

Growing up, I have been showered with praises from adults about my academic achievements such as getting first place in class/school and obtaining an examination score which qualified me for the top junior college in Singapore. They express envy to my parents, making comments like “You are so lucky to have a smart child! You don’t have to worry anymore!”.

Hearing these, I couldn’t help but wonder the following:

Am I set for a smooth-sailing life just like this?

Is there anything else worthy about me?

I would rather be praised for the way I think about matters or the consideration that I display for others. But all I heard was about grades, as if it defined everything about me. Needless to say, my sense of self-worth was quite poor for many years until I learned more things about myself.

It doesn’t matter what the grades are itself. Many think that those who excel academically have it better than those who underperform academically but the truth is that no child would feel good having their self-worth based upon something as external and transient as grades.

Making of Elitism

In addition, the measure of worth based on academic performance contributes to the making of an elitist society.

I have encountered numerous examples of parents who are too proud of the fact that their child attends a prestigious school that they can be condescending towards those who do not.

When children are placed on a pedestral like that, it is easy for their naive minds to mistakenly think that they are superior to others while in fact there are different kinds of intelligence that we are blessed with.

What starts out from the school you go to and the grades you get slowly moves on to other criteria like the job title you hold, what company you work at and how much you earn.

Do I wish to live in a society where people are commonly judged based on superficial terms like this? No, I don’t.

Conclusion

These sum up the tragedy of the education system which continues to afflict deep and wide-scale impact on the young today.

If I have to guess the reason why adults cannot effectively tackle this issue, it is because they tend to justify it with having put up with the same thing themselves and they also lose the ability to relate to students anymore once they become immersed in the working world which is a whole new ballgame. People argue for work-life balance but who ever pays attention to school-life balance?

It took me several years of conscious effort to reverse the unhealthy programming from the education system. It may be difficult but it is possible. I also find myself much happier with a wider perspective of life. I only wish that more students can be liberated from knowing the truth that I wish I knew earlier.