Today's arena topic was does singapore education system breeds elitism... it's a battle between raffles institution and united world college... RI is for and UWC is against.... firstly what is an elite? It is a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group. Elitism is the consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group. RI being one of the top schools in singapore had made biased statments in their substantial as the topic was mainly speaking about them. So does singapore education system breeds elitism?? In my opinion, the answer is yes. Since primary school, GEP (gifted education programme) is being established for students with higher than average IQ to get together and study. Their education is more broader and more interactive compared to the normal stream. Once someone enters GEP, you are considered an elite. But doesn't mean that students not in GEP cannot be nuture to be an elite.
Next is PSLE, where students were stream to different secondary schools. Neighbourhood school vs Top schools... Top schools have more funding as compared to neighbourhood schools hence students in top school can learn more things and more field trips and oversea trips.
Followed on is O levels, or in fact those students who were in IP(integrated programma) where they skipped O levels and advances to JCs... But this system mainly focuses on academics where people will be considered "elite" if their studies were remarkable. But how about students who excels in sports, music or art??? or is there a paveway to nuture students towards an elite in these fields? for sports, there is singapore sports school, for art, there is NAFA(nanyang academy of fine arts) or the upcoming singapore arts school. But all this is just the minority group in the education system. Hopefully, we can see a broader field in them and also not forgetting NUS high school.
Getting in ITE may not necessary mean that you are not an elite. You can become an elite if u stands out and excel compared to your peers. Hence people in ITE may develop their elitism later but the final outcome will still be the same where people will still contribute their part for Singapore...
Watch a debate is very interesting... haha..
Took some photos at my office... the singapore flyer coming in march 2008... i'm patiently awaiting... =)
