The "Conveyor Belt" Education System

In many Asian countries, students are put through a 'cramp' education system. A typical day starts in the morning at around 7 and sometimes end in the late afternoon at 5 or 6 o'clock. In addition, 'enrichment' activities such as sports are catered for students to ensure their holistic education.

While most parents wish for their children to be meaningful and purposeful adults in future, their children' mental health and well-being is now at stake.

Children now become regurgitating machines where what they study is simply viomited out on exam day. Knowledge gained is simply discarded when the term ends. In all, it is the certificate that counts.

The Strait's Times once reported that one in three Singapore students don't feel like living anymore, indicating that stress level has reached a considerable high level.

Parents have not been forgiving as well. They do also burden their child with enrichment lessons such as piano lessons and so on. They do this to ensure they do not 'lose face', an Asean trait.

For typical Singaporeans, kindergarten children have been reputated to have high degrees of myopia. This is due to many of them reading story books even before learning their ABCs!

Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, mentioned that an education is comparably to a life long marathon and not a 100-metre dash. As such, he advised parents not to overly stress on results of their children in just one examination sitting.

To all parents reading this, please kindly give your child a break.