TL;DR
Kids think chicken come from the supermarket. Parents blame education. I say, "Hold It!"
***
Mingle around with enough older Singaporeans and you will likely to come across a conversation where it details the very sad state of the education system back home. Horror stories where kids these days don't know what a chicken looks like or can't identify one apart from what they see in the supermarket, wrapped in plastic wrap all neatly dismembered and ready for cooking. I used to be horrified upon hearing this but after much thought, there is a deeper concern that I think is even more horrific.
I've recently met an older lady visiting Melbourne to see her cousin and she was a teacher in Singapore before uprooting and decide to call Vancouver home. She detailed that she has seen it all in the education system, including the said horror above. And so apparently when the opportunity came, she cashed in and "rescued" her children to a better place, home of the Canucks. She gave her reason that she didn't want her children to be growing up in this kind of environment where streaming happens as early as 9 years old and the pressure to perform academically continues to build up even past graduation from university. Also she didn't want the remote chance of her own flesh and blood stooping down to the level that they can't distinguish between the image of a live chicken and the one in the meat section of the supermarket.
While I do agree that Singapore's education system leaves a lot to be desired, like the unnecessary pressure to perform at such a young age, education via spoon feeding information and placing heavy emphasis on passing exams, I can't decide whether the said horror is a result of the state of the education system or just bad delegation of a child's education in common sense. Sure, the lack of ability to think critically or "outside the box" definitely came out from the far from ideal formal education system but I wonder whether the parents have simply shifted the responsibility of educating their children in the lost art of common sense to the formal education establishments.
And it is not surprising if it is the case that they did. Considering that the average work hours of the working Singaporean is around 9 hours (though this number is a very conservative number), commute time can be anywhere between 20 minutes to over an hour (which is amazing considering that the nation is only 20 km by 40 km), it is amazing that any time at all is available for themselves or their own relationships. For families, this means employing a domestic caretaker, additional classes for the children (not necessarily because the the child is weak in a particular area) etc. More and more responsibility that used to be on the part of the parents has now been moved to other people to do they jobs that they were meant to be doing as in their parent's generation so that they can, ironically, do the jobs that they are supposed to be doing.
It is going to be a matter of time before they hear of horror stories like this one, and they will be outraged, reminisce about the days when they were kids that they seem to have acquired an advanced stage of common sense that their kids. Common sense it seems, has become part of the school curriculum. And schools are not doing a good job at instilling common sense to the future of Singapore, it seems.
It is no wonder that more and more Singaporeans are leaving the country such as this lady that I've met. She left on the grounds of a failing education system and got out while she still can. I am more and more convinced that the reason is more of culture than schools.
I guess the point of this is that there are things that we can blame for the faults of others, whether it is in a person or in a nation. But to blame it on things that came as a consequence of a deeper issue is a red herring.
There are things that schools are meant to teach, science, math, history and the likes but there are some things that should be taught by parents and can never be left to schools to teach. They are, in my opinion, non-negotiable. Big words coming from a person who neither has children nor married. Not even having a pet. Whether you choose to brush me off because of my lack of "credentials" or expertise in the area is up to you. Just think about this, would you sit and do nothing about teaching your children street smarts that no school can teach?
PS: I have yet to hear the same horror story in urbanised Malaysian kids and we somewhat have the same sorts of problems as our southern neighbours, if not worse. Case of first world problems maybe?
PPS: That lady was a lot like my aunty. The character resemblance would be almost uncanny if my aunty was characteristically Singaporean. Very nice lady.
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