Time to release the valve of the EDUCATION pressure boiler?!

It is heartbreaking to learn of another case of student committing suicide, this time, a Primary 5 student, aged 11. This incident, together with other past similar incidents, should have served enough wake-up calls for those managing the education system. How many more lives that go to get "educated" must be lost before the pressure valves are prepared to be released in the education pressure boiler? Though many seemingly good steps have been discussed and some implemented a little too late. I strongly feel that more drastic positive changes should be implemented.

Education is about a holistic nurturing of an individual, not just academic excellence, but character building, personal responsibilty and morality as well. Parents, schools and community all play a part in the wellbeing of the students who are sent to school to be "educated", not to "study"! Recently, someone poked fun at the name "Ministry of Education", he said, it should be renamed "Ministry of Knowledge" instead, based on what has been happening in the education arena.

I have personally been aware and talked to some families where the teenaged children at home assault their parents. Just recently, an NTU student got beaten up and his laptop smashed because of some squabble over a minor disagreement over the online game they were playing as a group. Such gaming-addiction turned violent is not the first case that happened. Gaming addiction and online rage are becoming more worrying now. Sexual misconduct is another growing problem amongst the teenaged students.

Why are such undesirable behaviours becoming more and more prevalent amongst the youths? Problems are multi-faceted. There is no need to blame any particular body or party. I think students, parents, schools, ministry of education, community all have a role to play to eliminate these undesirable behaviours through a holistic education that does not take the fun and joy out of learning. Students should go to school to learn, not to study. Study is just for examinations, learning is for life. Study is stressful, learning is fun.

Therefore, stop emphasising and demanding academic excellence from students at large, those who are born leaders and with high IQ can be transferred to those so-called good and reputable schools and study to become future leaders; the rest, give them a break, let them go through the normal education path. Forget about streaming students into express, normal classes etc. where the word normal has already lost its original meaning! The Normal stream students today are being perceived as not-so-normal. Let every student complete a 10-year basic education up to secondary four, take their O-level examinations and carry on from there whether in ITE, Polytechnics, Junior College or start working. This will have more positive effects on the majority of the student population.

Many students told me very candidly, "I hate studies!!!". This is a fair and realistic statement that points towards the nature of the education system that many students and even parents till now still feel negative about, though many have really no alternative but to accept it with reluctance and some even pay a high price, not just emotionally but financially as well. Look at the recent comments posted on the internet by parents concerning the high level of difficulty of the recent PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) papers reportedly Mathematics and Chinese, as I read it over the internet.

May be, from now on, we should stop using the word "students", instead, we should call those who go to school to get educated "learners" because students only study, learners learn. As I mentioned earlier, study is stressful while learning is fun. Would someone commit suicide when he or she is doing something that he or she enjoys and is fun? Think about it.