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SINGAPORE: Singapore's education system aims to provide a global oriented education, with a strong focus on innovation.
The world’s leading educators have said there is a very low correlation between grades and future performance.
Speaking at the Forbes CEO conference, William R. Brody, President of The John Hopkins University, said: "Be kind to the students who get As and Bs, because they will grow up to be your colleagues. But be especially nice to the ones who get Cs and Ds because they will give money to the buildings."
Instead of looking at how to help students improve their scores, the world's top universities are trying to strengthen the experiential component in education and help students develop global experiences.
Education Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, explained how Singapore also shares the same goals: "There are two key things I would think about for the ingredients of success, be it individual or national success.
"The first is innovation, where individuals are prepared to work in innovative teams. The second is preparing individuals to work in global teams. This would require a greater degree of intellectual versatility than what we see now coming out of high schools and universities in most systems."
To achieve this, Singapore’s education system will place a greater emphasis on divergent thinking.
However, Mr Tharman cautioned against producing too many generalists.
He said specialist training is still important as he believes the depth of a specialist degree adds value, but there must be a free play of electives to complement it.
Mr Tharman said that in order to mould students with a global mindset, it has to start early even before students go to universities.
Thus, the aim is for one third of all secondary school students to have some form of overseas experience by 2012. - CNA/vm
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