thinking of....

s'pore's 5-day week measure.. have been doing chinese h/w and apparently laoshi wants us to write this long piece on the 5-day week maesure implemented by the govt. well i am going to blast off!

to be personal and frank, i seriously think this 5-day week thing is just going to agonise students further. by restricting the school activities to 5 days, it's like cramming a watermelon into a tiny bottle(okay, weird similie:) but really, we are already jampacked with activities from monday to saturday. by depriving us of one day, that only means that we will have even less time to complete them.instead of attaining its 'so called' goal of allowing students to have more personal and private time to pursue their interests and widen their horizons, it will only instill more than neccessary stress.

moreover, judging the current young generation in s'pore(yes, my generation) we are more likely to spend that 'so called' free time. either mugging, completing multitudes of work, having 'tuition' day or surfing the net and shopping. is that any thing near the 'pursuit of deeper knowledge outside school syllables'. i don't think so.

if one really has the deep interest and want for knowledge, one would pursue it no matter what obstacles. in s'pore's race to be a first world country, the government perhaps implemented a rigid education system and now finally realising it's mistakes.it's trying to salvage the system. gone are the days where the government wants more 'proffesionals' eg. doctors, lawyers. they have realised that s'pore has to thrive on creativity, originality, enterprise. how many more geniuses are in this world and is s'pore even in the league. they have realised that the product of this education system probably only results in people who can study. but can this people survive in the bullish society much later when they reach adulthood? if they can, are they actually fufilling their potential or does the potential still remain hidden?

programmes like the ip(integrated programme) works to improve this strict, rigid structure and perhaps liberate more young minds. our government probably realises their future successors can't be 'studyaholics' who only can "input" but not 'output'. this means they can regugitated information but can't analyse or think for them selves. formulate their own theories or improve on them. of course, they are still a minority that are able to do so, but so what about the rest of the population are they going to lead mindless, robotic lives? that's too harsh, i guess but i cannot guarantee their lives will be filled with self-fufilment.

of course, entrepreneurship, 'thinking out of the box' and even as we hear 'parliamentary camps' are being brought forward. but can this concepts be implemented into our society just like that? it can't be just plunked in the middle of nowhere and expect people to accept it after years of being in another fixated mindset. it has to be a gradual change, shifting the society's mindset isn't easy at all.

just a thought, can future leaders be nurtured?

i think not. leaders usually just sping up out of nowhere, you would realise. they just happen to appear at the opportunate time and place. take MM Lee for an example, it was his passion to bring s'pore to a better tomorrow. leaders are hard to come by, especially ones that are willingly to sacrifice a lifetime in buliding a nation. it takes alot of courage and passion and sadly,that cannot be instilled thus we can only hope amongst the lot seen as 'future leaders' there would be at least a few to rise up to this challenge.

looking on the other side,

you would realise that alot of people like to criticise the government's policies and doings(for eg. me! :P) but would i really have the guts and love for my country to stand up forward and try to bring change? it's easy for me to sit on this chair and type but when put in a position of decision-making for a nation's furture, would i even dare venture.. that's something to think about..

i'll post an essay i wrote on our education system a year ago, hopefully that will have a deeper insight into our fallacies in its structure.

p.s. jia, i have added you on admin. do your stuff, girl!