Lessons Learned From The Education System In Singapore (Part 2)

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I believe that the purpose of Education is not only to learn how to perform differential equations, but also to become a good and responsible person who can contribute to society. In Islam, there is a term “adab” which is used frequently and which means putting things into its proper place. In the Malay language, if a person has “adab” it means the person is generally aware and is mindful of his position in society with respect to others.

In school, we were taught a form of “adab” which encouraged us to be respectful and mindful of teachers, a quality that I see is slowly declining among youth and students these days. Proper adab can be reflected in the smallest of actions. For example, students do not speak when the teacher is speaking. To speak, you have to raise your hand before you are allowed to speak. Also, when the teacher enters the classroom, students must stand up to greet the teacher as a form of respect. In addition, students are responsible for the cleanliness of our own classrooms and we had competitions every year in class cleanliness. We even had a schedule that rotated among students who were responsible for each part of the classroom.

We were taught to be thoughtful and mindful of others as well as our environment and it helped that we had one class with the same classmates each year with an assigned form teacher. This resulted in friendships that still remain strong today, friendships across race and religion and stemming from the fact that we were all from the same class.

I leave you with the lyrics of our school anthem that I had to sing every Wednesday, together with everyone else, in the school hall when I was a secondary school student at Tanjong Katong Girls’ School in Singapore. The school anthem was something we had to do on a weekly basis and was a fun routine that we enjoyed singing. In retrospect, the lyrics were meaningful, and if only we could appreciate back then that the school was preparing us for the long journey of the rest of our lives.

We cannot all be heroes and thrill a hemisphere,

With some great daring venture some deed that mocks at fear,

But we can fill a lifetime with kindly acts and truth,

There’s always noble service for noble souls to do.

We’re not all blessed with beauty not everyone with brains,

But each from every other has something good to gain,

So let us make an effort to keep it as rule,

That each one needs the other within the Katong School.

So let us fill the hours with minutes truly spent,

In helping one another towards a true content,

So let us serve in honor and work for selfless fame,

For credit to our country and glory of her name.

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