“…we do not spoonfeed our students.”, said a professor from Singapore Management University.

I had an interview there recently. I was with four other prospective interviewees who were like me, trying to secure a place in a relatively new establishments in Singapore.

“The Singapore education system is a conveyor belt.”, remarks a Polytechnic student in Singapore.

I was sighing as I was pondering over her quotes.

From a young age, I have been told that I must make it to university and be a lawyer or doctor. For years, I have been told to get good grades and degrees. For years, I have been taught to be a cog in this ‘machine’ called school.

I remembered Robert.T.Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad,Poor Dad) criticizing education systems in schools.

I was chucking as I was listening to the professor’s speech. In an education system, everyone goes through a fixed set of syllabus. Everyone is taught the same rules and protocols. In that case, how can it breed initiative and entrepreneurship if all is taught to conform?

Some of you may argue that every university has its own style of teaching and incorporating entrepreneurship, I beg to differ. By choosing the typical (and safe) route to university, everyone is now a conformist. Learning comes through experience, it doesn’t comes through rote learning. A better oiled cog is still a cog. It is still part of the system.

Am I part of a cog in this dreadful education system which Robert.T.Kiyosaki described?

In that case, you may be asking why I am still going into University. The reason is simple. I plan to equip myself with the essential skills necessary to be an entrepreneur. Thereafter, I will remove myself from the ’system’ and embark on my entrepreneurial dream.

I guess I am the intelligent cog which studies how the machine works and learns how to jam and defeat it.

The author is a student and budding entrepreneur.
Please goto my blog @ http://www.therichestmanonearth.blogspot.com

For information on ways to be an entrepreneur, please visit The Millionaire Mind

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Children with disabilities attend special education (SPED) schools run by Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs), which are partially funded by the Ministry of Education. Education spending usually makes up about 20 per cent of the annual national budget, which subsidises state education and government-assisted private education for Singaporean citizens and furnishes the Edusave programme, but the costs are significantly higher for non-citizens.

In 2000 the Parliament of Singapore passed the Compulsory Education Act, which codified compulsory education for children of primary school age, and made it a criminal offence if parents fail to enrol their children in school and ensure their regular attendance. Exemptions are allowed for homeschooling or full-time religious institutions, but parents must apply for exemption from the Ministry of Education and meet a minimum benchmark.

In Singapore, the English language is the first language learned by half the children by the time they reach preschool age and becomes the primary medium of instruction by the time they reach primary school. English is the language of instruction for most subjects, especially mathematics and the natural sciences; the official Mother Tongue languages are generally not taught in English, although there is provision for the use of English at the initial stages. Certain schools, such as secondary schools under the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) which encourages a richer use of the mother tongue may teach occasionally in English and another language. There are also other schools which have been experimenting with curricula that integrate language subjects with mathematics and the sciences, using both English and a second language.

Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew related the idea of English as a common language in Singapore that both connected citizens of all ethnic-cultural backgrounds, so no ethnic group is forced to learn the language of another, and tied Singapore to the world economy.