Reflective Journal 5: Reflect on education. You may choose
reflect on the necessary priorities of education, how far the ideals and
realities of education converge, how the problems discussed about education in
US and China can be resolved. You should explicitly explain how class
discussion on education in US and China have influenced/shaped your views.
The objectives and priorities of education vary with
different people. From the class discussions pertaining to US and China’s
education, I have come up my own list of priorities an ideal education system
should have. It should cater to the needs of the economy, produce students with
sound moral compass.
Firstly, in order to meet the needs of the economy, we
should first identify what our economy needs. Innovation is definitely one of
the most important criteria required for the economy to perform well in the
globalised world today. However, I noticed a misconception that some of us may
have about creativity and innovation. Creativity is the ability to think of and
come up with something completely new. Innovation, on the other hand, is “a change in a
product offering, service, business model or operations which meaningfully improves the
experience of a large number of stakeholders”. (Carpenter, 2010) This means
that innovation need not be an invention; it can be an alternative to existing
products and most importantly, it must be beneficial to a large group of
people. Therefore, what is necessary for innovation is not solely creativity,
but also critical thinkers. Critical thinking is essential as it allows one to
identify the problems existing in current products or in our daily life and
this lays the foundation for innovation.
Before I go on
discussing about the needs of the economy, I would like to raise a point
regarding the issue as to whether China’s education is stifling innovation. I
feel that it is quite biased to say that just because the education system does
not produce people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; it is a failed one that
stifles innovation. Furthermore, US have been developed many years before
China, which just opened up its economy in 1978. US have a huge head start
compared to China and it is only natural that people like Steve Jobs come from
US. In addition, I also feel that rote
memorisation has been criticised too much. It does have its merits and this
brings me to my next point. For an economy to function properly, the education
system also needs to equip its students with scientific and technological
literacy. Even though engineers, mid-level accountants are not very much
appreciated today, they are still necessary for the economy to function. What
is the point of having a brilliant idea but no one capable of materialising it?
Furthermore, scientific and technological literacy is also vital to sustain
innovation. Without a firm foundation of knowledge, people like Steve Jobs and
Bill Gates would not have been who they are today.
Moving on from
meeting the needs of economy, I feel that producing students who are morally
upright is equally, if not more important than catering to the needs of
economy. Even if a student is blessed with extraordinary talents, it doesn’t
make him useful to society. We need students to have the morals and integrity
to always do what is right and what is wrong so that they can become beneficial
and contribute to the society. We have rampant cases about frauds and issues pertaining
to the lack of morals in various places around the world, like the one about melamine
milk. These people are intelligent, but they misused their gift for their own
selfish desires at the expense of others’ welfare. In order to produce students
with good morals, we need schools to emphasize more on moral education instead
of students’ academic grades. The schools and teachers may have attempted to inculcate
moral values in students, but the irony is that having good morals does not
provide students with admission to college and higher education. At the end of
the day, students will just choose to ignore the moral education as the message
they are receiving is that getting good grades is the only way to guarantee a
bright future. Therefore, in order to accomplish this, we need the cooperation
of other stakeholders, including students’ parents, the media, business and
corporations. These parties have great influence over the students as they are
constantly around and part of their lives, hence their cooperation will
definitely be required to nurture morally upright students.
Now when I think
about it, there is actually quite little that schools can actually do. Apart
from the usual academic subjects, there isn’t really much time left for them to
promote innovation and inculcate moral values. In the case of Singapore,
although there are many events and competitions held to achieve the above
objectives, the opportunities are usually prioritised for those who have good academic
grades. Ultimately, it is still grades that are going to be the major factor
determining your future. Unless the education systems undergo a reform and
prioritise innovation and moral values, schools will be compelled to focus on
students’ grades before anything else.
