australian economy booming..., page-12

It's all to do with culture from my view.

I schooled for a few years in Singapore, and can say the educational institutions there are more like boot camp. The children have drilled into their heads that the idea of "fun and play" is for lazy people, who are to be avoided. Primary schools there work on a "streaming" principle - the highest achievers are put together to form an "A" class while the lowest into an "E", for example. There's tremendous pressure on the children not to fall into C, D, or E classes as suddenly the whole society seems to think you are lazy good for nothings.

Yes, we're talking children here.

Schools there also go to great lengths to maintain discipline. I know of several times when we had a special parade called just for the purpose of watching fellow students get caned for doing something wrong. This is usually accompanied by the principal blasting the culprit with tags like "troublemaker" etc.

Comparing the education system here and in Singapore is a real eye opener. Peer pressure is against the uninhibited, carefree attitude there, while in Australia it is the reverse. It is the hardworkers, the "nerds" who are laughed at by their classmates here.

I can't say which system is better, but Singapore's system has certainly reaped the country considerable benefits. Their rise to prosperity is legendary. From being classed as a third world country half a century ago it is now a country with GDP per capita among the highest in the world, and this is despite it lacking any natural resources.

I can imagine imposing such a regime on Australian students to be unthinkable given how accustomed we are with our way of life. But I can see, in many many years from now, how we would have to adjust and become just like Singapore to remain competitive in the global economy once our natural resources run out.