Singapore Education

Singapore Education: Why underdogs and late bloomers have the better end of the bargain

SINGAPORE - There is a popular phrase “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Our education system is somewhat like the proverbial kitchen. There are a lucky few who managed to escape the kitchen, and have the fortune of learning the ropes of life in a less stressful education system. The rest have no choice but to stay behind and face the heat head on.

Thanks in no part to our media’s endless glorification of academic high-achievers, read “President Scholars” and “SAF Overseas Scholars”, the heat merely intensified a few notches. I remembered the fateful day when I received my ‘A’ levels results, sullen expressions were synonymous with results slips peppered with “Elephants” and “Donkeys”. Nowadays, the odd B or a single “S” paper/H3 subject credit is sufficient enough to trigger that sullen expression.

Yet in the midst of all that heat, it can be argued that underdogs and late bloomers are at a greater advantage than their high achieving peers. Sounds strange, right? After all, the high achievers will be at the top of the academic ladder, successfully gaining entry into programs such as the Gifted Education Program (GEP), Integrated Program and NUS High School, all of which have the word “prestige” written all over them. Such programs are obviously aimed towards students with a high academic calibre, and are designed to further hone their academic ability. In short, the good just gets better. And alas for the late bloomers, it is the early bloomers who will be on top. The education system is unfortunately designed in such a way that only early bloomers are identified and further groomed.

So on paper, the score card reads High Achievers 1 Underdogs/Late bloomers 0. Yes, apparently the scoreline is in favor of the high achiever because they simply get better in the academic sense. However, the important life experience the underdogs and late bloomers gain place them at a commanding advantage.

The word “failure” is a familiar one in the vocabulary of the underdogs and late bloomers. This is not a bad thing per se. Encountering failures early in life will imbue one with important life skills. Besides acquiring the important ability to cope with adversity, those who fail will be in a good position to understand what it is like to bounce back from failure.

And such students will wizen up after experiencing failures. Wizen up in what sense? Well, in terms of planning back-ups in case of subsequent failures. And this ability to come up with contingency plans in case of failures is considered an essential lifelong attribute. It is sort of like “I have failed at the third hurdle. Perhaps I will try clearing it again. But what if I fail again? Maybe I should come up with an alternative plan then”.

Perhaps, I can use my experience to illustrate. I was among the batch of Primary School students who had to go through streaming into EM1, EM2 and EM3. I happened to fail a preliminary exam before the actual streaming examinations. Being the simple-minded kid that I was, I told myself that if I streamed into EM3, I would become a car technician after undergoing courses at a vocational institute (ITE) since I cultivated some interest in machines at that time. When I took my PSLE (at that time I wasn’t in the top stream either), one of my contingency plans in case I fail to meet my targets was to go to a neighbourhood school with low PSLE cutoffs, but a good athletics and field sports program in addition to having a strong value-added reputation (a school with value-addedness is able to significantly improve the academic performance of their students). When I had Elephants and Donkeys for my “A” level preliminary examinations, I was mentally prepared to pursue a diploma at any of our polytechnics should I get the same results for my actual “A” levels.

In addition to the pressure to succeed, the typical high achieving student who has achieved successes after successes and never encountered failure once may not have the opportunity to learn the important life skill of dealing with failure at an early age.

Another advantage is that those considered at the lower tier of the academic ladder will naturally have lower academic targets to meet. And this translates to less pressure, and more freedom to pursue other passions. Having less pressure to succeed can be considered a blessing. The annals of sports history are awashed with episodes whereby underdogs ironically perform their best when they were under no pressure to even draw in the first place. In addition, I also found time to pursue my other passions when I was in secondary school, which coincidentally opened GEP classes at the same time. Whilst I discovered that I could play ping pong decently (recreational at best) during our recess breaks, my GEP peers were still having their lessons, yes even during our recess time.

In addition to the pressure to succeed, the typical high achieving student who has achieved successes after successes and never encountered failure once may not have the opportunity to learn the important life skill of dealing with failure at an early age. And if they do encounter failure, all hell breaks lose especially for those who simply cannot deal with it. An analysis of student suicides usually yielded this common profile - higher achiever, under pressure to succeed, encounter failure of some sort, breakdown and finally suicide.

Every parent would naturally want their kids to succeed. Yet when their kids encounter failure, all is not over. We should see this as an early beckoning of what life has to offer, and hopefully, this would mould their character and benefit them in their subsequent careers.

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