STUDENT: EDUCATION SYSTEM IN S'PORE IS TOO COMPETITIVE AND STRESSFUL

Dear Editors,

Singapore had all along been labelled as a stressful and competitive country, and i think we all as Singaporeans know it's true. I just want to provide some troubles and thoughts i have about the education and living here..

First of all, schooling itself is already a big competition. I think we all know how stressful students who gone through the national exams were, especially the ridiculous expectations from parents and the stereotype about 'neighborhood' schools from the society.

As a Singaporean student, we spend at least 6-7 of hours in school per day. And then we start to add up co-curricular activities, one could easily be spending 11-12 hours in school, twice or thrice a week. The rest of the days in a week where we get to be released in the afternoon (say 2 or 3pm), it will (quite often) be taken up by supplementary classes, meetings or consultations with teachers. After all these, we come back home at night, and will then be faced with piles of homework which are expected to be done in a short span of time. There are also tuition classes arranged by parents often.

Recently, all these things has really been taking it's toll on me. I start to find myself lacking time to even relax or take a breather. I find myself lacking time to get a life, chat with friends, meet up and hang out, or even get to do things i like. I start to lose joy in life.. If at this age i'm already feeling so overloaded by these things, i can't imagine how i can face it when i grow up.. Eventually i'll reach a point where I have to use results to compete for seats in a local university. Things are highly priced over here, we can work 10-20 years to fully pay for an apartment, not to mention fighting for jobs, feeding a family, and the list goes on..

But back to the topic, Singapore's education may be one of the best, but at the midst of it, i've felt so much stress, competition and suppression, to the extent that life kind of lost it's meaning for me. I no longer get to relax, enjoy and live my life, and judging and hearing on what is going to come when i grow up, i do not think i will get to relax, enjoy and live my life in the near future either. So then, what is the point of living my life?

Brine