PAP responsible for deteriorating Singapore's Workforce

The Ministry of Manpower, MOM initiatives, such as those skills upgrade programs implemented through WDA, are merely short-term, interim measures which appear not to be that effective, despite the huge amounts of taxpayers' monies plunged in. These initiatives also lose their meaning and objective when the current ultra-liberal FT/FW policies only further depress the effectiveness of such programs to upgrade workers' skills. No matter how upgraded their skills are, it seems apparent that many companies continue to pay more attention on cheaper labour.

My personal opinion is that the root of the issue is education system that we should look into.

The education system in the past worked well for Singapore: the need to churn out more technocrat-oriented workers who could find meaningful employment in the manufacturing sectors which are the basis of our economy in our early decades of independence. The education system then appeared to zoom into the following: providing a critical mass of workers able to be employed usefully in those factories, and therefore emphasis on science and maths. I'm not saying this is not important, but the process of such education system neglected the need to cultivate innovation and critical thinking. Or perhaps, as it seems to be, the PAP government's aim is to nurture automatons who will conform to, not question, to its system which is uniquely Singapore Inc. Rote-learning became more important than the ability to question and think critically.

But what's the drawback? Decades down the road, we continue to be stuck in this old education system which has become obsolete in the face of a changing world. We continue to rely on manufacturing industries despite the struggling shift towards knowledge-based economy (KBE). We find ourselves losing out to those countries which can attract MNCs due to their cheaper labour, yet our economy did not transform fast enough. We aren't able to nurture the type of manpower base which can critically think, innovate in order to keep pace with the increasingly globalised economy. Our education system remains locked in the times of its past, and we find ourselves lagging behind counterpart Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea, if you notice how their people were able to keep pace with the modern KBE as their education system allows room for individualism, not conformity; and more critical thinking instead of rote-learning.

If our education system doesn't catch up with the needs of this modern world, we will continue to find ourselves unable to think out of the box. Do we seriously think importing foreign labour and resorting to casino revenues a long-term, sustainable way of developing our economy? For all the astronomical salaries we pay our PAP ministers, they appear unable to 'think out of the box' to make us progress socioeconomically and keep pace with the world. Or maybe, they feel it's in the PAP's best interest to do so, because making a radical shift in our education system will only in time endanger its political dominance by producing better informed citizens capable of thinking critically.

Revamping the education system is the only solid way for our country's progress, though it might not necessarily be so for PAP. On the contrary, a revamped education system may pose a grave threat to its continued political dominance.