Is Formal Education Over Valued?

Yes, formal education is over valued in the Asian countries but not in the Western.
According to http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/referencematerials/glossaryofliteracyterms/WhatIsFormalEducation.htm, formal education is the process of training and developing people in knowledge, skills, mind, and character in a structured and certified program.
As such, we can see that the content delivered through teaching is restricted and everyone experiences and learns the same thing. However, the stituation is slightly different now because governments like that of Singapore, are starting to realise the importance of indivdual education. In my opinion, different education systems support different eras. Formal education has produced dependable people for predictable times. Referring to a quote by Tharman Shanmugaratnam in the 26 April 2002 issue of TIMEasia, "now it needs to produce a new breed of leaders who have a certain ruggedness, an ability to repond quickly to situations", we can see that formal education now is not as over valued as compared in the past.

However, comparing Asia's education system to Western's, they are worlds apart. Switzerland is one good example of producing quality and skilled workers through their decentralised education system. They offer apprenticeship which lasts 2-4 years. Apprenticeships include all kinds of professions, from handicraft (mechanician, carpenter, baker, hairdresser etc.) to office worker (secretary, bookkeeper, IT specialist etc.). Apprentice will get trained at a company or organization, but also attend school for one or two days a week. Therefore students get to choose to take up their subjects of interests and receive lots of hands-on training. Such little empahsis on formal education sparks the interests and curiosity of the students and make learning a more cohesive one.

For all I know, Singapore has not yet gotten over its indulgence in formal education as can be seen in the latest alteration to the criteria for entering Junior colleges(JC). Co-curricular Activity (CCA) points are not considered for deduction of the O level raw score compared to the preceding years. Hence all JCs' intake of students will soley depend on their academic result. How justifiable is that!


I personally do not resent the score-materialistic assessment system of indivdual's knowledge. However I think that the weightage of marks can be distributed more evenly throughout the year instead of just focusing on the four main examinations which are CA1, SA1, CA2 and SA2 respectively. This is because the performance of an individual, I believe, can be affected by many other factors such as stress and sickness. Another alternative is to empahsize weightage on applicational projects such as research and apprenticeship.

The above paragraph serves as solutions to not "over value" formal education system. To resurrect the apprehensive minds of these suggestions, according to 26 April 2002 issue of TIMEasia, recent math and science test scores has shown that U.S students are gaining ground on their counterparts in Asia. Hence less emphasis on formal education might not necessarily be detrimental.

Therefore, over valuing formal education is true, but restricted only to Asian countries.