The PERI (Primary Education Review and Implementation) committee’s proposed changes have been approved and the Singapore Primary education landscape will be seeing some significant changes over the next few years. Amongst the many changes, the key ones to highlight would be increased emphasis on the arts (as part of a holistic Programme for Active Learning), gradual move towards all single session, reduced emphasis on examinations at lower Primary and improving the standards of teachers. You can read more about it here.
When I first read about all these changes, I had a few concerns.
Firstly, reading through the PERI website, many of those statements don’t really seem to say much or go beyond what is already being done . Amongst some of the initiatives are:
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Strengthen training of teachers in content mastery and in using a repertoire of generic and subject-specific teaching methods
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Develop a system to assess the schools’ ability to develop their pupils in academic and non-academic areas and to provide a more holistic education
Too much terminology and it does not really seem to go beyond what we already know about what an education system should be like, i.e. holistic development in non-academic areas etc.
Secondly, from what I perceive, this revamp of primary school education is not really a “revamp”, but rather an adding on to the existing system – which means more work for teachers. The revamp speaks of equipping teachers to use rubrics and give students’ more holistic feedback. What kind of holistic feedback would primary one students understand? What kind of rubrics could we use to assess a short paragraph by a primary one/two student? The skills assessed at that point, I would argue, do not require a rubrics for holistic feedback and sometimes imposing such a necessity creates extra burden on teachers to write things which might not be necessary. Similarly, there’s no talk of reducing the load of current subjects given to them, hence I assume the visual arts focus will be added on to what they currently have to do.
Thirdly, this revamp seems largely to be more structural rather than a fundamental change in how students learn in schools. This is perhaps a sign that our education system is still in transition. Out of the 3 areas of initiatives, I see the changes in infrastructure to be the most significant and the ones which would require the most adjustment to as a nation.
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I was just browsing through my Google Reader feeds today and it seems that UK, too, is undergoing a revamp of its primary school education. Obviously the world is realizing that we need to start at that age because kids are the most teachable and learn the fastest then. The article is available here.
Just based on that article alone, I feel that what UK is doing is genuinely a revamp.
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They are planning to axe traditional subject headings and group timetables into broad “areas of learning”. Interesting indeed! Do the traditional subject headings of “English”, “Math”, “Science” still serve us well in our society today?
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Students are taught proper conversational skills and use of proper English.
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Sex and relationship education at a young age.
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A requirement to learn about the role of local authority councillors and MPs. Our students could definitely benefit from learning more about this! Part of building up a generation of more politically active youth? I myself can’t even say that I’m fully sure of what my residents’ committee and MP does that directly impacts on my life.
I’m not saying that Singapore should directly import all these changes and use them, but I feel that the fundamental mindset behind the UK revamp is something we could learn something from. It seems that the education system is evolving to become more socially, politically and globally relevant, and the revamp really tackles the fundamental frameworks (not physical infrastructure) of the education system.
Perhaps it is true that Singapore is undergoing a transitional phase in its educational system, where the structures of our education system need to change before we look deeper into the frameworks of what and how we teach. It is hopeful though that students needs are being looked at and schools are given more flexibility in many areas. Let’s wait and see how the changes by this PERI committee unfold in the years ahead…
