Education in Asia : Defeating or Nurturing?
In developed Asian societies, rising suicide rates amongst students unveil the insidious effects of academic pressures.
It is saddening to witness how the educational system impairs the budding mental capacities of students when its very purpose is to nurture these capacities. The children in our society determine the success of our futures and are vulnerable members of our society that we should fiercely protect, as we would, our futures and home. In this article, we employ the tools of systems thinking to examine how we can achieve our vision: to create a world where education standards in Asia are not wholly defined by academic performance, but emphasise values such as creativity and a joy for learning.
We hope for readers to understand how dire of a problem the Asian education scene presents, and recognize the possible factors that are attributed to this urgent issue. In this article, we identified leverage points to enact our proposed fundamental solutions: reducing class sizes by increasing the number of teachers, and reducing the weightage of standardized tests in university admissions processes. We hope to be part of the change in mindsets, to advocate for an active reduction in significance placed on one’s academic performance in Asian societies where this is commonplace.
Background
Education Systems in Asian Countries
Education systems in developed Asian countries are known for two things: their ability to produce top-performing students (World Bank, n.d.), and the overwhelming stress they induce in students. (Tan, J. & Yates, S., 2010) Some common threads among these education systems are: Higher levels of academic workload and stress due to parental and societal expectations (compared to other OECD countries), low tolerance for failure in school (detrimental for students lagging behind) - and lastly, learning being highly competitive and individualistic.
The aforementioned factors resulted in overly-competitive learning environments, often leading to overworked, demoralised and anxious students whose mental health suffer.
Causal Loop Diagram
A Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) aids us to visualize how different variables in a system are connected to one another. As seen in the CLD above, there are several loops that explain certain behaviour in a system. Reinforcing loops lead to an overall increase in a certain variable in the system, whilst balancing loops lead to a decrease of a variable in the system, contributing to a balancing effect. Our CLD has helped us in identifying these loops, as will be explained below.
Causes of a Societal Overemphasis on Academic Grades
Kiasu Asian Mentality (R1): Societal emphasis on academic grades resulting in stress worsens the Kiasu Asian mentality that plagues Asian societies in the educational scene. This worsens competition and reinforces the societal emphasis placed on academic grades leading to more stress.
Weightage of Standardized Test (R2): Societal emphasis on academic grades resulting in stress increases the weightage of standardised tests in admission criteria. This increases focus on standardised tests, leading to higher emphasis on the limited number of places in top programs. This increases drive to do better than peers, which in conjunction with student rankings, increases competition. Higher levels of competition then increases societal emphasis on academic grades.
Lack of Individualized Attention on Students (R3): Societal emphasis on academic grades increases workloads for students and teachers alike. The overtaxing of teachers reduces the attractiveness of the teaching profession, causing the supply of teachers to drop. This increases class sizes and reduces individualised attention teachers give to students. Learning satisfaction and engagement of students who are lagging behind decreases, reducing students’ joy of learning. This translates to deterioration of academic performance which reinforces the increasing societal emphasis on academic grades, resulting in greater stress.
Current Solution of Societal Overemphasis on Academic Grades
Current strategies tend to be symptomatic solutions which do not target the root causes of academic stress and hyper-competitiveness. These strategies aim to provide support for the students who are stressed from the competitive education systems.
Counselling Services (B1): As students become increasingly stressed due to academic results, schools implement counselling services for students. As more light is shined on the issue, there is an increased awareness of the harmful impacts that a result-oriented culture has on students’ mental well-being. This is not too apparent in the short term, however, in the long term, this solution aims to reduce the societal emphasis on academic grades due to the harmful impacts it has on society’s younger generation.
Policies to reduce homework and time in school (B2): Policies to reduce homework and time in school for students is an existing solution to ideally increase free time for students to focus on their own interests, promoting a balance between school and personal interests. In turn, academic responsibilities become less of a burden, thereby increasing students’ joy of learning, which improves their mental state and performance in exams. As their exam performances improve, there is less pressure on academic grades and therefore stress decreases.
Changing the grading system for national examinations to be less individualized (B3): Another existing solution is the change of grading systems for standardised tests. Such policies aim to reduce academic differentiation between students, thereby reducing stress and competition between peers. This increases the joy of learning as the additional pressure to do better than others decreases. Therefore, performance in academic exams improves, and there is less focus on academic grades and less resultant stress.
Systems Archetype
Systems Archetypes are patterns of behaviour of a system. This Shifting the Burden (STB) Systems Archetype is one that is present in the existing solutions in the problem of an overemphasis on academic grades in Asian societies.
B4: Firstly, with a greater emphasis on academic grades, stress of the students increases and the government implements policies in an attempt to solve the problem. The first balancing loop (B1) illustrates how existing policies, such as those mentioned above, target the resultant problems and therefore is effective in reducing the emphasis on academic grades in the short term.
R4: The short term fix of the problem leads to a complacency that the problem is already solved. Therefore, there is less focus on the fundamental solutions, which are solutions that change cultural mindsets towards grades and promote individual interest in learning. As the fundamental solutions are undermined, cultural mindsets do not shift, leading to a greater emphasis on academic grades, worsening the problem symptom. This is illustrated in the reinforcing loop (R1).
B5: On the contrary, in the second balancing loop (B2), an overemphasis on academic grades leads to an increase in the fundamental solutions, which target the root cause of the problem. Since these solutions attempt to shift cultural mindsets on academic grades, they take time to manifest into long term, tangible results. This results in a delay in the effectiveness of the fundamental solution, but ultimately still reduces the overemphasis on academic grades.
Our Suggested Solutions to Tackle This Problem
Our 2 tiered solutions are identified using the loops in our Causal Loop Diagram using the leverages, which are highlighted in yellow.
We aim to reduce class size and increase the number of teachers (B4), and Reduce the weightage of academic criteria in university admissions (R3) Reduce Class Size and Increase Number of Teachers. Ideally, these solutions target the attitudes held towards an overemphasis on academic grades, and hence act as fundamental solutions to solve the problem.
Reduce class sizes: Increasing the number of teachers
In 2019, the average primary school class size in Singapore was 33 (Statista, 2020), which is reflective of many other Asian countries. Evidence shows improvement of educational outcomes with reduction of class sizes to less than 20 students. (Evidence for Learning, 2021) Finland, known for its world-class education system, has an average class size of 19.6 (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2021). With smaller class sizes, teachers better understand each student and students form more meaningful connections with peers. (Team, M. S., 2016) Passive students also have higher chances to participate in class, boosting their confidence.
Reducing class sizes necessitates changes to attract and retain more teachers. A 2018 survey reported that Singaporean teachers averaged a high workload of 46 working hours per week, where 28 hours were spent on pre-class preparation. (Baker, J. A., 2019) However, they are often compensated less and have poorer work-life balance compared to private tutors. The solution is to increase government teachers’ pay to align with their workload. Simultaneously, reducing class sizes also lowers teachers’ workload, making teaching more attractive as a profession.
Reduce the Weightage of Academic Criteria in University Admissions
Asian universities’ admissions processes rely heavily on standardised exams. This stresses the need to excel in all subjects, including those unrelated to students’ courses of interest. Universities should differentiate admission criteria by the nature of the course. For instance, computing students can be assessed mainly on math and logic and business students on personal projects. This de-emphasises subjects outside a student’s domain of interest, increasing the joy of learning.
Conclusion
In developed Asian countries, children suffer from extreme societal pressure to outcompete and excel academically. This disheartening truth cannot go on. This white paper utilized systems thinking in crafting fundamental solutions to catalyse change through the alleviation of the unhealthy emphasis on academic grades and raise the joy of learning for students. We proposed 2 fundamental solutions in this article, namely, the reduction of class size and the changing of university admissions criteria.
As students from Singapore, we too have personally experienced the rigors of our hypercompetitive academic system, and intimately understand the overwhelming pressures such a system could impose on vulnerable youths. Therefore, it is our hope that children of future generations can thrive in a world where learning becomes enjoyable, with the focus placed on one’s growth rather than mere numbers and letters. This way, young students are encouraged to nurture their intellectual capabilities and regard learning as an opportunity to flourish collectively. Therefore, the value that future generations of students can add to society will be dramatically increased.
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Director of External Programmes at Residential College 4 | Senior Lecturer and Teaching Academy Fellow at National University of Singapore | Author | Poet
3 年Naviyn Prabhu Balakrishnan Navarun Varma, Ph.D. Bellam Sreenivasulu Adj. A/Prof Angie Chew
Director of External Programmes at Residential College 4 | Senior Lecturer and Teaching Academy Fellow at National University of Singapore | Author | Poet
3 年Nichelle Tiew great application of Systems Thinking! Here’s to the future generations of students and the joy of learning.
Director of External Programmes at Residential College 4 | Senior Lecturer and Teaching Academy Fellow at National University of Singapore | Author | Poet
3 年Fraser Morrison this is an interesting perspective on education in Asia.