Singapore Learnings

I was fortunate enough to spend several days in Singapore and to be amazed at what has been labelled an economic miracle. Largely attributed to the vision of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore a mere speck on the globe of 718.3 km2 is one of the world’s most advanced economies. I got a little appreciation of how this transformation has occurred, noting pre-independence it was identified as one of the world’s poorest countries in the 1960’s, when walking into a room of the Art Science Museum. It was a Sunday, the first weekend of their school holidays. I was greeted by a young boy in school uniform and offered to play a game. It was using one of the robotics’ he and class mates had built to pick up cubes and place them in specified areas. Not one for playing Play Stations or X-Boxes I was pretty hopeless with the remote control and scored accordingly in the allowed time. Next to this was a metre-tall mechanical crane. I asked the student about it and was given an extensive overview of the engineering process they used to build the crane that had to achieve several set tasks, including moving a weight of 1.25kg. I asked how old the student was. 12 was the response. What grade? 6 was the response. He was explaining the gearing mechanism, the challenges with the centre of gravity as the crane bent and extended with the load. I was gobsmacked at the conversation I was having with a 12-year-old. It took the team of year 6 students a week to build the crane from on-line learning, using class trainers only for assistance, not instruction. Here in one of Singapore’s signature buildings, which paradoxically had an international exhibition of graffiti art on display (you be hard pressed to find graffiti anywhere else), were these local year 6 students in another room explaining what they had built. A melting pot of cultures and religions, Singapore seems to have a unified focus on economic growth via universal education. Could we learn from Singapore? Indeed, we could. Would we all be willing to make the sacrifices needed, is more difficult to answer. What the verbal exchange with the Singapore students did for me was to stress the importance of students experiencing other cultures and education processes. We can learn so much from each other. We (and they) choose what we adopt from these learning’s. This is happening with students exchanges at Rockhampton high schools and CQUniversity. I’m not sure though if international teacher exchanges are as common in Rockhampton and Central Queensland, particularly in primary schools. That type of exposure to possibly different teacher styles, experiences and culture at a young age could have a significant impact on students’ future plans. Which eventually could add more diversity and vibrancy to Central Queensland’s economy. As parents we should not be just looking to the state government to help facilitate these teacher transfers, but also the multi-national companies that operate in CQ. These are the employers that because of continual innovation in their industry are often looking for skills that may not be taught at local schools and push the federal government for those with the skills to be imported. As part of their engagement with local communities could they bring relevant teachers/trainers to these communities and expose local students to the skill training required, either outside the school system or in conjunction with it, as well as the different teacher styles, experiences and culture? Would this have a greater long-term impact on CQ’s economy than temporary work camps and sponsorship of local events?