Dear Editor,

Singapore has one of the better public sectors in the world, with its agencies consistently receiving awards from global bodies like the United Nations. Unlike most countries, Singapore recruits the best candidates from all fields and sponsors their training at elite foreign universities.

But attracting talent comes at a price. In Singapore, a senior executive in the public sector can earn up to US$2 million a year. For societies to remain competitive talent must be nurtured and and Singapore has mastered that art.

In education, selected secondary schools are responsible for administering the Gifted Education Programme, which allows students to engage in research projects related to societal challenges. Interestingly, these projects also include the humanities and social sciences. Furthermore, the Government has also established specialised schools for math and science, similar to America’s National Consortium for Specialised Secondary Schools of mathematics, science and technology. Education must service the demands of the labour market, especially in this global age when technical workers are in great demand.

IBM is leading the revolution in preparing graduates for the workforce by collaborating with departments of education, with the recent launch of the Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH). The

P-TECH programme represents a group of innovative public schools ranging from grades nine to 14 that will allow students to graduate with a no-cost associate degree in applied science, engineering and related disciplines within a six-year time frame.

Our Ministry of Education is planning to transform some high schools into STEM academies, but it must be noted that similar institutions in foreign countries only offer complex programmes. The reality is that STEM institutions are usually created to nurture the talent of students who possess superior abilities, therefore it wouldn’t make sense to transform any of our struggling technical high schools into STEM academies. They just don’t fit the profile.

Nothing is wrong with using a project-based approach when teaching science, but this does not make a school a STEM academy. We must not allow politicians to use public relations and buzzwords to get us to think that they are doing anything significant, and if we are really serious about building a knowledge economy, then we must nurture talent.

Lipton Matthews

lo_matthews@yahoo.com