Are schools in Singapore getting too commercialised or business-like?

As we travel around in Singapore, we could see virtually every school has "marketing" banners hung over the fences or displayed prominently on the front facade of the school buildings. Most of these banners carry the success stories of the students and the awards the schools have won etc.

Schools seem to be constantly geared up for the ongoing contest in ranking, competing against one another trying to maintain their lead or fight for a better position in the school ranking exercise. As a result, schools have to spend substantial amount of time, effort and resources to meet and discuss the strategies and actions to outdo one another. Is that absolutely necessary? I am not sure if schools are getting a bit too commercialised or business-like now?

As a result of this, many teachers are involved in meetings, projects and administration work instead of dedicating themselves to teaching which is what they are originally called for. There are teachers who feel that such involvement runs contrary to their initial calling and commitment. Some very good teachers have even quit.

I simply feel that teachers should just teach, administrators should do administrative work and operations managers should run the operations. We have to go back to basics; otherwise, the problem of teachers shortage would be a permanent feature in the education landscape in Singapore. I still remember when my girl was in primary 5, in four months, she had three different form teachers. Nowadays, there are even newly-created positions known as co-teachers, in some schools.

For school ranking to be fair and effective, schools should not choose the students based on results. As it is right now, certain so-called reputable secondary schools are taking in only the cream of the crop from the primary six cohorts. Four years later, when these "smart" students do very well in their O-Level examinations, is it the school or the students who do well or both? If these same "smart" students were put in neighbourhood or not-so-reputable schools, does it mean that they would not do well four years later? Why not try it out once and see the results.

Every exercise that is run consumes resources which are already limited. Therefore, regular evaluations must be done, and any exercise that does not yield significant, meaningful and useful results should be discarded boldly. Primary one and two examinations once considered a must, are being done away with now and primary four streaming long-held as sacred is now abolished, I am just wondering, what is so significant about the school ranking that it cannot be stopped?

Once the school ranking exercise is called off, the schools could spend more time looking into ways to build the characters of the students and imparting to them moral values that are fast eroding among the students, besides teaching them to excel academically. Teachers should be released back into the teaching frontline so that the students could learn more in schools.