Mind is a not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. Discuss.

“Education” may be an ordinary word to most people, but very few actually understand the deep meaning beneath it. In this dynamic world, we need to be equipped with the necessary skills and hard work to survive. Understanding the education system is integral to allow students to understand the purpose of studying, the purpose of going to school everyday. Is education in Singapore really “holistic”? Are there flaws?

What is education? By definition, it would be something along the line of “ transferring knowledge”. I beg to differ. In my opinion, education consists of more than just knowledge. From Kindergarden to University, students are put through the daily
However, there are rooms for improvement. CCA, short for co-curricular activities, is a word that is often hung in the pupils’ mouth. Whether they say it out of pride in a good way or bad way, I do not know. This brings me to the point of CCA mismatch. Students who feel they are “not good enough” for a CCA only after a few years in that CCA, students who feel indignant as they feel they could have gotten into “better CCA”. What are the consequences of this? Students not attending CCAs regularly, students complaining about how ‘ sien ‘ ( boring and uninteresting) their CCA is. This leads to stereotyping about CCAs and split between different CCAs, especially Sports vs Non-Sports. While you might say it is good that CCAs are bonded together as a team, the purpose of bonding is wrong. They are making fun of other people and things they do. In the long run, this will not work. Another thing is when pupils do not attend CCAs, the school has no choice but to use deterrence methods such as demerit points. To tackle this whole situation, there is Direct- School- Admission put in place to reduce scenarios like this however the success is limited.

After talking about limitations of the current education system put in place, I have some suggestions. What I will say is also something simple : passion. Again, a simple word yet deep meaning behind it. If a student is an active learner, problems such as late/no submission of work, lack of focus during lessons,