1. Several news platforms broke the story that Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, Mr. Lim Biow Chuan, had confirmed changes to the structure of the annual Singapore Youth Festival (SYF). At first glance, this move appears to be in line with the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) intent to minimise competitive sentiments with the performing arts in school, as it did in 2005 when it replaced two-tiered assessments with a single-tiered benchmarking exercise; however, upon closer inspection this time round, what exactly are the changes? These sentiments were articulated on cyberspace (here), and their concerns were not unfounded.
A quick comparison (above) shows that nothing has really changed. The Straits Times noted that the mark range for the highest standard has been lowered (from 85 marks), the Gold (with Honours) award has been removed, and the event will be known as SYF Celebrations. By persisting with the status quo of “no-change”, the Ministry of Education (MOE) ends up pleasing nobody.
2. Proponents for making the SYF non-competitive argue that students should experience and appreciate the joys of performance, instead of being unduly obsessed with the results they obtain. I am more inclined to take an opposing view, because I believe that elements of benchmarking and friendly contests would heighten motivation, they encourage participants to aim higher, and provide impetus for a collective group of students to work hard for each other. They say that long hours of practice could be detrimental to a child’s academic-scholastic progress, but I – on the contrary – believe that it emphasises the value of discipline (to get something, you have to work hard at it), and the importance of time management and straddling between commitments (which has to be intelligently facilitated by the teachers-in-charge).