While Singapore’s education system has cultivated top achievers, this could come at the expense of failing to inculcate in students a sense of innovation and adventure. As such, teachers must adapt their teaching methods and create a more versatile educational culture.
For example, Dr Tony Wagner, an expert-in-residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab, described Singapore’s education system as one rooted in a long history of “testing for meritocracy” and “testing for equality of opportunity”.
These methods however prepare students to take standardized tests well but lack important ingredients in nurturing creative talents.
Singapore could delay major tests for admission to institutions of higher education as well as change assessment methods to one that adopts essay-based exams, simulation and interviews, Dr Tony Wagner has suggested.