Innovation and Enterprise!
I believe most laymen would not be familiar with this phrase that is bandied about in schools in Singapore. The phrase is Innovation and Enterprise, or I & E for short.
I & E simply means to get students in Singapore to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. Singapore has been known to produce the best textbook memorisers, but we are sorely lacking in the entrepreneurs column. Basically, our students are robots. If its found in a book, they can do it. But if it has to do with thinking out of the box, or book for that matter, they can’t do it.
The government wants our future generation to be brimming with new ideas and produce new innovative products. We want the next Hotmail, MySpace or Youtube founder to be from Singapore. So who do we turn to to make this happen? Why, the teachers of course!
Aren’t teachers supposed to be good at everything? Aren’t they good at Maths, Science, English, Social Studies, Arts & Crafts, Music, Health Education and PE? So they should be good at I & E too what…Just one more thing to think about. Can la…
Now the reason why I’m writing about this is that in every school in Singapore, there’ll be this one day which is called the I & E Day. On this day, pupils showcase their innovative and entrepreneurial side. Parents can then come down and see the fantastic ideas that these students come up with.
Now…as teachers are supposed to help nurture these ideas, most of the times, the ideas are nothing to be proud of. I’m not trying to put down the teachers, but seriously, why are teachers, teachers? Do you think they’d be teachers if they are entrepreneurs? How come these people who are supposed to impart their knowledge in I & E are not entrepreneurs themselves? Wouldn’t it be like a case of the blind leading the blind?
That’s why, when you go to these I & E carnivals, it looks like a mini pasar malam. You’ll have people selling food. You’ll have game stalls. Yeah sure they are making money. But what’s so innovative about selling chicken nuggets? Or throwing balls into hoops? I don’t think the government wants to create Pasar Malam people right? There’s already one too many people selling food in pasar malams.
One thing for sure though…you won’t see the next YouTube. I & E is just another idea from the upper echleons of the MOE. They push their ideas down the throats of the people on the ground and they expect these ideas to work, as always.
Here’s an analogy. One day…the government wants all the students to be able to fly. MOE has to create flying pupils. So how? MOE comes up with idea. Ok…got idea already. Buy lots of feathers for ALL pupils in Singapore. Hand them to the teachers (who don’t know anything about flying) and hope that these teachers would be able to make the pupils fly at the end of the day (They’d better…we pay so much money for the feathers already!).
Personally, I think that if you want people to become innovative, they need to meet with real-life entrepreneurs. Let them listen to these people. How they think. What are their motivations. How they come up with ideas. They’re the ones who should be planning I & E carnivals with the students, not teachers.
Leave the teachers in peace. Let the teachers go mark books, plan lessons and do all the other things that they are qualified to do. Don’t expect the teachers to be good at everything.
Note: To all the teachers out there…I’m not flaming you. That’s the last thing on my mind. I’m saying all this because it sickens me to see you people having to do everything in school. We’re like jack of all trades, but a master of none. If you don’t do a good job, it would reflect in your work appraisal. This sucks. I wish all this would change one day. But looking at the kiasu attitude adopted by the powers-that-be, I find this to be a pipe dream.
On the flip side, if you enjoy nurturing innovative students, then good for you. I’m not against you. My best friend is a fantastic teacher. Appeared in Contact magazine some more. And I’m happy for him. However, I’m speaking for all those who are not good at it, but are forced to do it nonetheless.
Enjoy your holidays while they last.