Originally posted by fymk:
I keep thinking about education and politics after reading about Mr Brown's article and my memory got refreshed by those NTU professors who dispute the statistics.
How can Singapore produce world class thinkers when there is a stranglehold on the freedom of thought and speech? Note I am not exactly an advocator of freedom of Speech as the Americans put it. Some control is good in the sense you don't want to create sedition with unsubstantiated speech advocating discrimination or violence etc.
How can Singapore even produce world class statisticians when statistics given are at most classed as superficial and the system is so non-transparent? I remembered trying to get statistics for a class project in relation to cancer several years back but told it was confidential yada yada . In Australia , just anyone can easily pull statistics out from their statistical and healthcare websites on morbidity , cancer mortality, treatment, number of treatments given , average length of stay , costings, get it sorted according to states and some hospitals etc without even asking for it.
Without information, people don't know what to think but trust that the newspapers got it right with such beautifully presented statistics . Who can argue against that when they don't have information to argue with? Who can think logically for themselves unbiasedly when they don't have information to argue with? Who can give feedback without information ? We can see it in the education system - people just follow like sheep and study/memorise textbooks but how about truly thinking for oneself? Disproving anything?
Non-transparency castrates thinkers but cultivates blind followers . This same non-transparency will in long term grow to affect adversely the education of Singaporeans in Singapore by curbing thinkers and telling them that thinking is bad - just follow the rules and textbooks without asking . True , there are some Singaporeans who freely say what they wish but how many of them can say it without the worry at the back of their head that they will get sued to the point of bankrupcy ?
No wonder Singapore need foreign talents from countries who were probably brought up to think freely , take risks and express their thoughts without fear . AND HAVE NO FREAKIN WORRY ABOUT GETTING STUCK IN SINGAPORE AS openly marked or " condemned " Singaporean for speaking up or AS A PERSON, be free to think without following textbooks or restricted information , but use the transparent information to affect change through debates.
The only constructive feedback I can give to the Government is be OPENLY TRANSPARENT. Never mind if mistakes are made because people can learn from the mistakes and do damage control rather than to let the mistake stay hidden and grow to bite Singapore in the bum . Alot more good can be done than giving people the sensation of information is hidden because people can see for themselves what is going on in the streets , what is going in their neighbourhoods and they will talk amongst themselves rather than to openly discuss it with the Government to improve things.
Gee... I don't think the root of the problem is this simple, fymk.
We're looking at Political Ego here, fymk.
And this is the worst kind of problem.