News

I am heartened to see that Ms Liew Wei Li, director-general of education, has discussed an issue of great concern to many parents and teachers in her recent LinkedIn post on Aug 12. She highlighted reasons why class sizes are the way they are now despite Singapore not being short of resources. For a country that takes pride in developing its people, it is short-sighted to be satisfied with an “about OECD average” teacher-student ratio.  A ratio, while seemingly small on paper, does not take into account real-life operational constraints, such as teacher absenteeism for various reasons, challenging class profiles and other administrative duties by teachers. Hence, the ratio is much larger in practice. With a smaller ratio, teachers can also teach better and have more opportunities to observe the class as a whole and students as individuals. Research has shown that children benefit greatly from smaller class sizes. Not only do they learn more, but they also learn better. Given the new political leadership in place, it is timely to consider allocating more manpower and resources to educating our next generation. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said he is prepared to re-examine all previous assumptions and ways of doing things. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the next best time is now. After all, it is our children, our future, who stand to gain.