education – what is really valued and important

the answer to the above can be glimpsed from the recent speech by our minister at the teachers’ conference event. below is para. 15 i copy-n-pasted:

“15. Beyond these very important shifts in what we teach and how we teach, our students will also pick up important cues from their school environment regarding what is really valued and important. For our students to value their holistic development, they must perceive that their schools strike a good balance in the educational experiences designed for them. Schools ought to prioritise character development and the development of attributes that will put the students in good stead for the future. An over obsession with grades and over obsession with the outcomes, rather than the process of school programmes, will run counter to the intent of what we seek to achieve. In other words, we must find the balance between what can be measured (grades) and what can only be observed (values and character). As Einstein once said, ‘[n]ot everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.’

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