Education stress - whose fault?

In a recent media interview, Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat told parents that they had to accept new methods of teaching to prepare children for the future.

Rightly or wrongly, I was disappointed. Not because I don't agree with him but because it would appear that he missed the point. I don't think parents are anxious so much about the new methods as the fact that we seem to be constantly chasing an upwardly moving (and evolving) target. Stress over new methods is simply a symptom.

Incidentally, I thought it was funny that he used algebra vs the MOE method of maths models as an example of old (bad) vs new (good). I'm a big proponent of maths models myself but come on, it's essentially two different methods to solve the SAME problems. We're not actually teaching our kids how to solve new problems so I don't see how it better prepares them for the future. And by the way, someone should tell him that maths in secondary school reverts to algebra. Nobody touches maths models after p6. So much for continuity.

What I was disappointed with was that instead of addressing parents' anxiety, he seems to put the blame squarely on parents.

After I wrote my letter to him last year, I received some comments saying that parents are at fault too for being kiasu and myopic. I've never denied that. I've always maintained that our society does not exist in a vacuum and there are usually many contributing factors to any breakdown in a system. So I will now state categorically that I believe parents are at fault too.

In an interview for a Dan Rathers tv documentary, I was asked why Singapore parents are so involved in their kids' education, I told them it's a cultural legacy. If there's a common thread among Asian parents, it's our focus on education. Truth is, we all have some degree of the Tiger Mum syndrome. Some parents might protest, not true! I'm not one of those kiasu ones! I would like a less stressful system so my kids can enjoy their childhood and not mug all the time.

But from speaking to many parents, I know that most of us still want our kids to do well in school and by well, I mean just that little bit better than others. Most of the time, parents are stressed because they feel their kids are not keeping up with others. Ask yourself how often you've grilled your kid on how his other classmates did. I'll use my own example - when Andre gets 68 for a maths exam, if I find out that the class average was 50, I breathe easy. If the class average was 80, however, I go into panic mode.

It's no coincidence that the most academically competitive countries are Asian - China, India, Japan, South Korea and you can add Singapore. Asian countries also typically ace international maths and science tests, practically sweeping the top 5 in the TIMSS 2007 maths test and science test. The results don't even include China which didn't participate in the test.

Asian parents focus on academics no matter where they are. In Western countries, the Asian geek stereotype with parents who scorn any grade lower than an A didn't come about by accident. Asian parents just push academics harder. We can't help it, it's in our blood.

I know quite a few parents who are living overseas and tell me oh, it's so relaxed there and that's how education should be, about discovery. See, we're not kiasu. Here's what I think: sure, it's partly because the Singapore system drives kiasu behaviour, but maybe it's also because in the Western countries, it doesn't take that much effort for their kids to score well. It's certainly not because Western kids have lower IQs, it's just that they simply don't care as much about grades as we do so they don't put in as much effort.

Asian kids routinely top the honour rolls and sweep the academic medals overseas, sometimes without that much extra effort (I'm comparing to Singapore). It could be just a little parental coaching at home. If our kids can perform well, of course we can relax and not ply them with assessment books or tuition!

Whereas in Singapore, EVERYONE cares about grades. So it's a big fat competition and when our kids come home doing worse than others, we feel pressurised to do something about it. Hence, tuition. Assessment books. More tuition. Yes, even the parents who say they don't want to join in the ratrace. The very same "relaxed" parents overseas when they return, start piling their kids with assessment books and enrichment classes. So my suspicion is, when parents say they don't want a tuition society, what they mean is they don't want others to go for tuition so theirs can go for less tuition.

I personally know parents who publicly denounce the system, complain about the elitism of the system, and then quietly try to pull strings or beat the system to get their kids into branded schools (while sending their kids for tuition in all subjects).

Gasp. Am I actually agreeing with Heng Swee Keat that the brouhaha about the education system is indeed, all parents' fault?

Not exactly.

I find that our system, along with most Asian systems, is bad for kids because it exacerbates the competitiveness for reasons not related to education. Historically, our system has been a pragmatic one, stemming from our need for economic survival and it would seem that MOE is unable to relinquish this crutch.

My guess is, the Singapore education system is about identifying the top 1% for future leadership roles and training the remaining 99% to be hamsters to run the economic wheel. That's why the traditional focus on hard skills like maths, science, engineering and economics. Even when we claim to embrace sports and the arts, there is still a pragmatic angle to it - show us the medals.

The system used to work one, two generations ago when getting a steady job was the key consideration of many Singaporeans but today, nobody wants to be a hamster. We all want our kids to be the top 1%, hence the cramming and the scrambling. The few brave souls who initially refuse to be caught up in the hamster race find themselves at the bottom of the ladder and quickly realise that it's not such a fun position to be in. Inadvertently, they succumb to pressure and join in the race.

If our educational goals are really to identify talent and train individuals for industry, while raising standards so we can sell the system to our foreign counterparts, then no wonder our education system is the way it is. The excessive emphasis on exams, the long school hours to perfect exam skills, the setting of ridiculously complex questions and the constant haranguing of kids for not keeping up. I've always felt that my kids go to school not to learn but to perform. I've mentioned this before - education in Singapore is treated like a business entity.

Some schools still reveal class and level positions, causing those at the bottom to go into a frenzy to claw their way up. Many schools stream the kids every year from p3 into classes according to how well they performed the year before. The PSLE is scored based on your comparative position - it's not about how well you do but how well you do in relation to others. Our system encourages competition, not collaboration.

And why not? If the objective is to identify talents and boost standards, then it's in MOE's interest to ensure that parents continue to shoulder the responsibility of raising their kids' capabilities via tuition, assessment books, etc. It passes on part of the burden of education from the state to parents.

I've often spoken about Lesley-Anne's difficulty with maths. She's in sec 3 now and her maths teacher starts a new topic every couple of weeks. He goes so quickly that she can't keep up and she can't understand his method of teaching. When the class doesn't perform to his standards for the exam, he scolds them for not revising. Mind you, this is an SGBE class of extremely dedicated students who live to do well in school.

For the SA1, Lesley-Anne had spent almost as much time studying for this one subject of maths as her other subjects put together. Yet, she flunked her A maths exam miserably. On her paper, her teacher wrote, "REVISE YOUR WORK!" Bo pian, I got her a tutor. After looking at what she was learning, the tutor said she was learning stuff that's taught in A level maths. Lesley-Anne asked, "what on earth do they teach at A levels?" He replied, "oh they include some Further Maths."

Crazy, I tell you, crazy. She's forced to take up an advanced subject that she clearly has neither interest nor aptitude in (A maths is compulsory in her school), and to add to that, it's accelerated. What is the point of this? Why are we obsessed with knowing MORE of everything NOW? I'll tell you why. It's so that at A levels, the kids would have learned more than they need to know to ace the exams and the JC can claim their 80% distinctions. It's also why the school encourages all the kids to take Maths at A levels. They're openly told: "You should take it, it's easy to score."

When we went for the Parent-Teacher Conference, Lesley-Anne's form teacher looked at her report book - Distinctions for English, Literature and Integrated Humanities - and said, it's very clear where her strengths lie. Then she showed us the failing mark for A maths with concern. We shrugged and said "It's ok. We knew she was never going to be a mathemetician."

At some point, we need to stand our ground and realise that we are the ones who have our kids' best interest at heart, not the system. As Ken Robinson said years ago in his epic Ted talk and in this interview with Guardian, schools kill creativity because they're primarily there to meet the needs of industrialisation, not, surprise surprise, the needs of your child.

Our system evaluates each child according to a set of narrow academic scores and if we do not prevent our kids from internalising this flawed assessment of themselves, we run the danger of grooming individuals with either a misplaced superiority complex or deep-seated insecurities.

I usually like to remain hopeful but in Singapore's case, I get the impression that MOE thinks the system is generally working fine. And let's face it, if they think it ain't broke, they ain't gonna fix it.

So in the end, it's still up to us parents to make the difference. Accept the inevitable that while your kids are in the system, they will have to roll with the punches. Just be there to create as much balance as possible and know that you can have a more profound influence on your child than any school or system.