Singapore students are not creative. What are your views?

Critical Reasoning Skills

Singapore students are not creative. What are your views?

Nowadays, it is important to be entrepreneurial, innovative and global-minded, so one should be creative. To be creative is to be imaginative. Therefore, I agree that Singapore students are not creative, to a large extent.

There are two types of students in Singapore, those who wear uniforms and those who do not. The two main reasons why students in Singapore are not creative are because they are too focused on getting good grades, they do not have the time to be creative, as well as the strict school rules and discipline.

Firstly, the students are too focused on getting good grades. The students have no room for creativity as they often follow rote. The rote would be to acquire knowledge, passing their examinations to get into a good university, all for the reason of getting a well paid job in the future.

Students in the incubation room at the Woodbine Ag...

Group of Woodbine Agricultural School students, Wo...

creativity

Students have a stressful life because they often have to race against time to complete their syllabus and studies. Some often fail to accomplish that. In addition, some students would be tired by the time they get home from school. Therefore, this has made the students have fewer opportunities to exercise their creativity.

Other people may say that, other than teaching the subjects that are required, some schools have also provided other extra activities which include music programs and programs to enhance their imagination. Many programs are introduced because the schools hope that through these programs, the student would boost their creativity. In spite of this, some of the students are still not creative because they do not express their creativity in through these events. Different people have different ways of expressing their feelings, thoughts and actions. Hence, the extra activities that some of the schools provide are still not efficient in getting students to be more creative.

Secondly, they do not have enough time to be creative. Besides rushing to complete the syllabus in school, most students often have extra lessons or tuition. The extra lessons are given by the teachers, of the various subjects, to the students because they have missed the class or they need extra revision. Tuition is often conducted after school or during the weekends. The parents have let their child have tuition as they know that the competition for jobs in the future. Hence, by having a lot of after school programs, the students have insufficient time to explore their creativity.

Some people may say that some of the after school programs that are conducted to improve the students' creativity. The school may hire professionals to come and conduct different enrichments, like public speaking courses, for the students. However, most of the time, the students are studying for their test or exams. Even though these enrichments are made compulsory for the students to attend, some would do their own studying while attending these enrichments. Hence, even if there are enrichments, the students would rather take the time to study then to enhance their creativity.

Thirdly, the students are under strict school rules and discipline that they do not have a chance to display their creativity. Most of them follow the school rules and discipline closely for fear of any trouble. They don the uniforms to have an identity that shows the school that they are from and that they are disciplined to have worn it. Their actions are limited because they do not have much freedom or say in the school. Most of the time, the students get to display their creativity in their co-curriculum activities. Other than that, the students' creativity is being blocked out from any chance of exercising it. Thus, the students are not creative.

Students from polytechnics and universities have more opportunities to exercise creativity because they have more freedom. They have more freedom because they are learning from institutions whereby the institution enforces on independent learning. For example, they do not require uniforms as they have the freedom to wear their own outfits to school. However, though they have more freedom, they would still have to keep to the school rules and discipline to a certain extend.

In conclusion, I agree that Singapore students are not creative, to a large extent because they are too focused on the similar rote to get good grades, they do not have the time to be creative and the strict school rules and discipline.

Students of Nan Hua High School gathering in the S...

Student

English: student leaders at camp