What is education and what is schooling? The Singaporean Experience.
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education." Mark Twain
Come experience what school is like now for an 8-year-old public school student in Singapore, currently the #2 ranked OECD-PISA education system in the world. We would assume that he has a great experience and gets a great education that prepares children for the uncertainty and ambiguity of the contemporary world.
But is that the case?
Perhaps, if the OECD-PISA measurement system takes into account 21st Century and VUCA knowledge work requirements.
Perhaps not, if it doesn’t.
This week’s DD with Serene Seng examines the possibilities and problems of bringing up a child in one of the best education systems in the world. She will ask:
- What’s education and what’s schooling? Schooling serves many other purposes besides education in Singapore (childcare, propaganda, compliance, indoctrination etc)?
- What’s the right KPIs for education?
- What function should schools serve to prepare our children for their future?
