Groom, groom, with Humility (on education)

Pragmatic parting advice from Tharman
All-out egalitarianism or all-out elitism dangerous
TODAY, Monday • March 31, 2008
Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg

TREAT the brightest kids as the country's precious resources. Groom them but more importantly, instil humility in them by making them aware of their weaknesses.
But the last thing to do is to allow an "anti-intellectualist culture" from taking root here, warned Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who sheds his education portfolio tomorrow to concentrate on his new job of helming the Finance Ministry.

Speaking to Today on Saturday, in one of his final interviews as Education Minister, Mr Tharman — who has established good rapport with the ground despite his professorial demeanour — noted there are already traces of an anti-intellectual spirit among some Singaporeans.

Said Mr Tharman: "Every time I make changes to the Gifted Education Programme or this and that, some people think, 'Oh, wonderful!' But part of that people jumping up and declaring it's wonderful is that they just dislike anything that looks elitist."
He added: "We are not elitist in Singapore in social terms — that's the most important thing. But we have to be resolute in developing an elite in every field and providing the best education we can."
What is vital in nurturing these elites is to keep their feet on the ground from an early age — by getting them to realise that there is much to learn from others.
Said Mr Tharman: "I do sometimes think that our strongest students, those who are strongest intellectually and are in the top schools, are not sufficiently aware of their weaknesses… It is very important for people who are very strong in one department to recognise they are not so strong in another department and someone else is very strong in that other department."

And he argues that the Singapore education system is "far more" egalitarian than it is given credit for, in the way it recognises different abilities and allows children to stay in education for as long as they can.

Said Mr Tharman: "The systems that appear egalitarian – those of the French, the German, the Japanese, where they provide everyone with the same education and they think it's wonderful -- are totally inegalitarian in their outcomes. It is a great pretence because a large number of their kids are just trudging through the system and they end up dropping out." >
The move to abolish the traditional streaming in primary schools was cheered by many but far from moving away from ability-based education, Mr Tharman explained that the reformed education landscape is underpinned by two important principles: A person's potential should not be identified or fixed too early in life, and that every individual has strengths and weaknesses.
"In some ways, we have become more efficient at it by recognising more abilities, even within the same individual."

It boils down to striking a balance between differentiation and a seamless education, said Mr Tharman. And the best approach to achieve it is through pragmatism -- not ideology or succumbing to populist demands.

"If you want to be popular for six months or a year, we can scrap streaming altogether but what we've done instead is to introduce the flexibility and fluidity."
In short, meritocracy in schools, as Singaporeans knew it, have undergone an "evolutionary" shift.

Gone is the "very traditional, somewhat rigid system many years ago", enter a school environment that is "more authentic to the meritocracy of real life", where there is recognition of a wider range of abilities even within the same individual and where students are surprised to discover talents they did not know they had.

Yet, there are lessons to be learnt from the schools of the old days, Mr Tharman pointed out, recalling what
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said about his years in Telok Kurau Primary. Had he not attended that school and interacted with persons from a whole range of very different backgrounds, he may not be the same person.
"There's something about growing up in diversity that's very powerful in education, in the way it shapes your mind, your character," said Mr Tharman.

Which is why there was a need to reduce the "precision of measurement" that has resulted in the bunching of bright students in the top schools, by blunting the secondary schools' ranking system and introducing the Direct Schools Admission scheme as "sidedoors".
The changes in how schools are ranked were pivotal in removing the seeming fixation in schools with students' academic performance.
As a result, principals and vice-principals -- who are now also rotated between schools after a longer duration -- are committed to develop students more holistically, given that their KPIs do not revolve solely around how well their schools outdo others in nationwide examinations.

Said Mr Tharman: "Schools that work with students who start out with a disadvantage and motivate them to do better and to create surprises are noticed."

As he prepares to hand over the education portfolio to incumbent Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen, Mr Tharman identified the area of Normal (Technical) education as one where he sees much potential for improvement, in terms of stretching the abilities of students who thrive on hands-on learning.
"That's the part of the streaming system that I have the greatest confidence in, in many ways. This is a group of students who really can be provided with teaching and learning of a different style."

And the work has already started: Schools are designing their own curriculum for these students, with the Ministry of Education playing a supporting role by "finding a way of recognising it with certification", in Mr Tharman's words.

And he is confident the wheels have been set in motion -- as far as education is concerned -- for Singapore to continue to punch above its weight in the new economy where innovation is king.

"You don't need a whole load of individuals in any society to do something exceptional, but we need more of them in Singapore -- people who want to break barriers essentially," he said.



Tharman on his 'greatest satisfaction'
Three concepts that spawned a buzz
Monday • March 31, 2008
Derrick A Paulo
derrick@mediacorp.com.sg

It is the end of the interview and he needs to attend another meeting, but Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam pauses the longest to consider this last question: Could he distil the essence of his tenure into three words?
The answer is telling, not just about the education policies of the last five years but of what, personally, is important to him in education.
As education minister, the 51-year-old has consistently highlighted the role of teachers and principals in policy changes. And "ground-up initiative" is one of his three choice concepts, if not words, when he thinks of the education system.
It is for this reason that the "buzz" in neighbourhood schools has given him the "greatest satisfaction".
"The way in which our principals and teachers have taken ownership — they really give you pride," he said of the autonomy schools now have and the changes on the ground as a result.
While these "may appear small from a system perspective", they are no less meaningful "for the students and teachers in that school", said the minister who, according to his staff, makes it a point to visit a school once every two weeks at least. From those visits, he has compiled a number of examples to supplement his points.
Dunman Secondary in Tampines, for example, taught 30 of its Normal (Academic) pupils the express stream mathematics syllabus from Secondary one four years ago. Its first batch has graduated and 40 per cent received an A1 or A2 — the national average for the express stream.
This is one of the stories behind policy changes to give pupils more flexibility in what they study.
"Not everything was pre-planned, pre-cooked, announced and delivered," said Mr Tharman, who did know from the start, however, that he wanted the education system to become more fluid and more flexible.
In getting there, the pace of change in education has been one of the fastest overseen by an education minister, and Mr Tharman admits he is "by nature, not the placid type, wanting to do things on a decade-long timeframe".
"You've got to keep a certain momentum so that people know you are serious and the direction ain't changing," he said.
One of those key directions has been "stretching potential", which was another of the three "words" he gave in reply to Today's question.
And in his quest to stretch potential, he has seen — and he says it with passion — how when opportunities are provided "we actually have a lot of talent in Singapore", in the academic arena as well as the non-academic.
These first-hand encounters have made the switch from working with bankers to meeting pupils and teachers a "heartwarming" experience, said Mr Tharman, who was the former managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore before he joined politics.
"It really gives you optimism," he said, beaming as he recounted one example, of Orchid Park Secondary, which gets its pupils who are not involved in performing arts as a co-curricular activity (CCA) to put up an annual performance while those in the CCA groups work toward the Singapore Youth Festival.
"What a move, right? There was a real genius behind it, a collective genius in the school to want to do that. And, of course, the teachers got involved in that. They got some good dancers among the teachers," said Mr Tharman, who added that he enjoys finding "surprises" in schools.
Asked if education has helped change his image — Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was once worried that Mr Tharman might be "too professorial and talk over people's heads" before the latter showed he could connect with the ground — the education minister said with a smile: "I try not to have only one image … I think we have to try and multi-task even in terms of the way we interact with people."
Indeed, "interaction" is his third important word when it comes to education. And in this regard, Mr Tharman believes there is room for improvement in the system: "Getting that genuine ease of comfort with people of different races and backgrounds."
CCAs remain "far too typified by race", he said, and schools are now putting more effort into remedying this, he said and cited Telok Kurau Primary's basketball team, which won the senior boys' zonal gold medal with eight Malay and four Chinese pupils.
"That has to be a very important part of our agenda in education, starting especially with our primary schools," he said of an area that "is a work in progress and will remain so for some time because we are a young country."
"But you can shape these instincts in education," said Mr Tharman, who said his CCA background in sports gave him a big advantage.
"It shaped me. It gives you an interest in people that tends to stay with you."