The Flexible Education System

The Flexible Education System for the new gen Singaporean

Singapore’s education system has gone a long way the last 30 years where it was very much rigid and does not allow much flexibility from the norm. That has changed and our new system allows for diverse avenues to achieve an excellent education for an individual. It is a more diverse, forgiving and yet, higher quality education. 30 years ago, other countries like America made waves with child prodigies entering universities before they reached puberty, and right now, our system are starting to show the same education news every year of young Singaporeans doing amazing things in education, like that of Master Mark Sim.

We need to design flexibility into our education system, to allow for different avenues of growth and seed alternate talents to be harvested in the future. The next Colin Maclaurin, Pablo Picasso, or Nadia Comaneci doesn’t come from sitting in schools until they reach universities in their 20’s. They develop their talents at a very young age, and given the opportunity to develop it too. Being flexible provides small little crevasses that allows talents to thrive in, develop and mature. It is where ur society matures and we seek talents that paints the Singapore landscape into a diverse, multi-hue and capable society, providing an expert to every problem, enlarging the circle of knowledge that is required to thrive in the 21st Century.

We need to shift our education paradigm, to acknowledge that for a successful Singapore, we need a flexible world class education that allows individuals to thrive, and seed talents to mature to contribute to society. It is the way to go for a human resource dependent Singapore, and with bright sparks from our brightest minds that we see ourselves solve the future problems that will come our way.

extract from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/youngest-singaporean-to-score-a-in-physics-9-year-old-boy-not-born-smart

Straits Times: Youngest Singaporean to score A in physics: 9-year-old boy ‘not born smart’

PUBLISHED

AUG 18, 2015, 4:00 PM SGT

SINGAPORE – With a chunky physics textbook laid out in front of him, Singaporean Mark Sim is a picture of cherubic enthusiasm as he flips through the pages, pointing out the topics he is particularly fond of.

“I like electricity, and oh, atomic physics because my dad explained to me how bombs work. Although I find the property of waves a little hard to understand…”

That caveat, tinged with child-like uncertainty, is a reminder that the soft-spoken Mark is all but nine years of age – but already believed to be the youngest person in the world to score an A in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) physics examination.

The IGCSE is an internationally recognised qualification equivalent to the GCE O-levels.

Mark was eight years and three months old when he took the exam – consisting of three papers spread out over two days – at the British Council last November.

The feat earned him a place in the Singapore Book of Records when his result was ratified earlier this year.

“We tried to check with Cambridge if he was the youngest in the world, but they don’t keep such records,” Mark’s father, Mr Harry Sim Lim Onn, 48, told The Straits Times.

Mr Sim had originally intended for him to take the GCE O-level exam, but the Ministry of Education would not allow it as they had imposed an age limit in order for parents not to put undue stress on their children.

It cost Mr Sim $300 for his only child, now a Primary 3 pupil at Nanyang Primary, to take the exam. But he reckons it was money well spent.

Mr Sim, a Singapore permanent resident from Malacca who has lived here for 27 years and is married to Singaporean Wun Ju Sing, 46, revealed that Mark displayed a precocious talent for grasping basic physics concepts.

“I was explaining to him about acceleration and how my car differed from a Ferrari when he was six years old, and to my surprise, he understood,” said the section manager at a semi-conductor firm.

Mr Sim subsequently bought Mark a physics textbook, and the boy was hooked when he was told it was meant for students aged 15 years and above.

For a year leading up to the exam, Mark would study for half an hour every day on weekdays, while Mr Sim spent up to three hours on weekends coaching him.

But both parents, who graduated from the National University of Singapore with bachelor degrees, were keen to stress that Mark was unlike the usual geniuses who were born smart.

Singaporean prodigy Ainan Cawley, for instance, set a world record at seven when he passed his chemistry O-levels in 2007.

“It took Mark a lot of hard work and determination, along with a commitment on my part to allow him to focus on something he was really good at,” said Mr Sim.

“His English was not very good to begin with and he had to make an extra effort to improve in order to fully understand the questions.”

In fact, Mark’s growing up years were a source of constant worry for his parents, who feared that he might have been slower than other children.

“Our maid warned us not to expect too much from Mark; for example, he could not roll over on his own until he was nine months old,” revealed Mr Sim, who has written a book about his parenting experiences.

“He was also constantly at the last of his class in kindergarten.”

Madam Wun, an accountant-turned-housewife, supervises Mark’s daily schedule and coaches him on other subjects such as English and Mathematics. She is also his constant “sparring partner” in chess.

Mark was previously a member of Singapore’s national junior chess squad, but he left last year in order to concentrate on preparing for his physics exam.

And Madam Wun says that her son also enjoys computer games and travelling overseas – his small but tidy bedroom is filled with books a child his age would read, while he is also a huge fan of the film Minions.

“He has been getting attention in school and his classmates know of what he has done, but we try to keep him grounded and down-to-earth,” she added.

So what’s next for Mark?

There are plans for him to take the A-level physics exam within the next two years, although Mr Sim is wary of the demands of such an undertaking.

“Mark was the one who suggested it. He dragged me to the bookstore and made me buy the A-level physics textbook,” he said. “We’ll take it slow but he should have no problems scoring a B or C with the right preparation.”

October 6, 2015

It’s official, Singapore has the Smartest Kids. CNN 5th Oct 2015

Singapore has the smartest kids and here’s what CNN said. It is what we all believed in all this time and more. Definitely been making waves last few years as Singapore is also getting noticed for being 2nd in Global Competitiveness http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-competitiveness-report-2015-2016. Not too shabby for the little Red Dot. Proudly Singaporean and more to come.

We extracted the whole article just in case it gets deleted further down the line but here’s a link to their article http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/05/asia/singapore-smartest-kids/index.html

The extract from CNN 5th Oct 2015:

Why Singapore has the smartest kids in the world

Amanda Sealy, CNN

Updated 1031 GMT (1731 HKT) October 5, 2015

Singapore (CNN)It’s a world-class teacher’s pet — a straight-A student that’s top of the class: Singapore is officially the country with the smartest high-school kids in the world.

The country’s academic success has helped it become a thriving economy, and the way it has built its education system could hold lessons for the rest of the world.

“Singapore is a fascinating case,” said Marc Tucker, the president of the U.S. National Center on Education and the Economy. “[It] was a major British port before the Second World War. When Britain got out and closed its base Singapore was in terrible shape.

“Now today they are one of the best performing economies in the entire world. They did it largely with education and training.”

If Singapore’s rags-to-riches transition was built on education, the secret of its education system is the quality of its teachers. “They source their teachers from among the best kids coming out of their high schools,” explained Tucker.

‘Creative use of knowledge’

In the post-war years, Singapore had a low-cost, low-skill labor market, and it was enough for its education system to aim for universal literacy. But starting in the 1970s, Singapore’s economic needs shifted. It was quickly moving toward high tech, white collar jobs and the education system needed to keep up. Soon, the aim was for a world-class education for every single child, and that meant moving on from rote learning to encouraging creativity.

“They had a drilling system when that was the only option — they had to expand education quickly,” said the OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher. “But as they had achieved this, they were the first to think about, what is it that our children need to be successful … (in) tomorrow’s economy?

“One thing that’s been clear to them is that the world economy no longer rewards people just for what they know. Google knows everything. The world economy rewards people for what they can do with what they know.

“The emphasis on the application, the creative use of knowledge is very, very strong in Singapore and other Asian countries.”

The importance of education is instilled at a young age — before children even get to primary school.

“I think for us as preschool educators, we are the foundation years,” said Diana Ong, principal at Pat’s Schoolhouse Sembawang Country Club, a preschool in the north of Singapore. “We form the basic foundation.

“I think the first years of a child’s life is very important. So when you have a very confident child, that child’s confidence will carry him or her through primary school as well. Not only do you want a child that is smart, you want a child who is resilient.”

Schleicher says it’s part of the culture of many Asian countries for parents to prioritize their children’s education.

“It starts with resources, the priority they assign to education,” he explained. “In these countries, parents and grandparents are going to invest their last resources, their last money into … the education of their children.

“This is sort of a question of priorities. You can see in all tiers of public policy, education comes first. That’s your future.”

May 9, 2015

English Language going Glocal

English Language in Singapore has gone a long way since our independence and this can be attributed to three main components of increased business opportunity, parent’s desire for their children to be job competitive and the government’s push to be glocal.

English Language in Singapore

Thinking glocal is how we can be successful in a nation that takes pride in being the centre of the world. We are the avenues between the East and West, and our geopolitically advantageous positioning has put our small island onto centre stage of the international market by providing professional, competitive, stylish and efficient flow of air/sea traffic, a robust financial market, plus a hardworking and talented workforce that has adopted the English Language as their lingua franca.

The English Language, with 1 500 million speakers, of whom only 375 million are native (statistica.com), are the highest adopted language in the world. This is seconded by Chinese Language with 1 100 million speakers but are predominantly native speakers of 982 million. With the rest of the languages tailing far behind these two.

The dominance of these two languages means that commanding a mastery in either of the language lets you talk to 1 in every 5 or 6 persons living on earth. In Singapore, the Chinese population that learns Chinese as their second language (and English as a First Language) in school drives these statistics to 1 in every 2.7 person on earth. And that is a lot of people that bilingual English/Chinese speaking Singaporeans can converse with. Coverage is key to a successful business plan and if a business entity can serve a wider network, that unhinges latent opportunities and make connections with markets that would have been otherwise foregone.

This is an advantage that keeps us relevant. The ability to communicate with almost half of the world means we can do business with any country, help anyone in times of need, but more importantly, be a friend with everybody. It is where we become truly global, not only by going out and making friends, but to be a welcoming host and the world comes to you.

Inculcating English into Singaporeans started with our education systems 50 years ago. Compulsory English examination passes to advance, with every subject in school taught in English (minus ethnic languages) means mastery would be advantageous in learning fast and an ability to grasp complex technical concepts. That universities are lectured in English as well, attainment of a degree, a professional career and ultimately, survival, hinges on the proficiency of English.

But that is a 20th century strategy: language assimilation.

Latest generations of 21st century English-speaking Singaporeans pass on their English to their children as if the equivalent, a native speaker. English-educated Singaporeans now speak, read, write English as their first language and their children don’t need to learn “A” for Apples in Primary 1 like 40 years ago.

Our children is born into an English speaking household and vernacular to English. We have evolved and our children have become as native an English user as any other.

Our diverse ethnicity and international positioning keeps English relevant to our lives. Over generations, the English Languge has proven to be a viable marriage into our culture, keeping our traditions whilst adopting Western cultures and views that helps rather than deter. The ability to communicate with most of the world keeps us competitive and economically viable.

“The Limits of my language is The Limits of my World”-Ludwig Wittgenstein

It makes us globally active, engaging, dynamic and yet keeps us intimately connected with our immediate neighbors. Making friends where it would have been near impossible in our multi-cultural nation. Thinking glocal helps when our nation support such diverse ethnic groups where finding a common language would mean learning 4-5 languages just to talk to our neighbours. English breaks down barriers and carries our thoughts. To understand, first, we need to convey in a common language.

So where next for English in Singapore? We will continue evolving. Our primary education system for English Language just got tweaked this year after 4 years of research into what we need to improve in our education. There is a push to change from the government sector to include creative aspects into our system.

There is also a sudden increase in international awareness that Singapore is a global city, thanks to Marina Bay Sands and the yearly Formula 1 events. One can’t be hospitable unless one communicates and understands hospitality.

And what about English as an art form? Literature, poetry and sonnets. It is the existence of English as an art form, for the sake of art itself and nothing else that a society starts to fully appreciate the English Language. Appreciate the emotional powers and its beauty instead of just English being a tool of commerce or conversation. Appreciate that culturally, attainment of English as art means that we perhaps have arrived rather than be bystanders looking into a prestigious country club.

Thinking glocal helps when our nations’ resources is human resource. Keeping a common framework of English provides the bridge to our conversations and a strong spine to support our communication infrastructure. It is our bread, butter, main course, wine and sweet pastries. It provides for everything, and then some.

education singapore PSLE English Tuition Singapore singapore education system english tuition in singapore

April 21, 2015

Music and Our Brains-PSLE Science, Knowledge & Aesthetics

Music for our soul, and food for our brains, PSLE Science Knowledge and Aesthetics. Music and Our Brains, the Science explained.

I just finished watching “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” featuring Bobby McFerrin and it just made me feel like sharing this with you. In our effort to share small slices of knowledge and aesthetics, and beneficial for parents to think about their childs’ holistic brain development and PSLE Science Syllabus.

Dear Parents, use music to jump start your child’s brains. Explained in this video

Video talks about how music causes brain activities and induces thoughts, feelings, and reactions from our bodies. It also talks about how our brain is hardwired to react to music and how it fires off neurons when music is experienced.

Bobby McFerrin performs to an audience and invokes crowd participation, conducting experiments about how our brain fills in blank spaces and makes up for inconsistencies in what we see, hear and touch with our own knowledge through inference. Insightful and informative look at how music is very important to our brain development and its contribution as part of our evolution.

April 11, 2015

eduKate Primary School Enrichment Empowerment Team Building Holiday Activity Programme

Team Building Dynamic Primary Students

edukate student goes up Climb Central for Holiday enrichment programme primary school PSLE SEAB

At eduKate Tuition Centre, we believe that our students needs to combine both class work and dynamic character building to create confident, resilient and sociable personalities.

What to do during the holidays?

So we come up with holiday programmes when our students have extra time and our parents would like some extra enrichment and experiences that makes all the difference. Working closely with parents, and a collaboration with Climb Central, this is our programme for December 2014. We definitely are the Top, Most Progressive, Empowering and Nurturing Tuition Centre and we make sure our students get the best education.