Came across this comment by Yeo Yang Poh entitled "
The disaster of forced assimilation" (The SUN Dec 17, 2009). Felt it was interesting read and an affirmation as well as appreciation of cultural diversity. Taking it a step further, schools should move away for these "forced assimilation" as well. As we look towards the future, we should think about liberalizing our education system. Some may say to democratize it - from central control, aka Ministry of Education, driven political policies. For too long, we have been brought up with the notion that if we all speak ONE same language, think the ONE same way and do the things the same way, we will be an integrated (whatever that means), peaceful and harmonious society. This has to stop because this is not the real world. Using schools to social engineer for the sake of control and power is against human rights. Schools today are so rigid and almost no choices are available, we don't even have the right to choose our education systems. With the exception of language and (probably culture) everything is the same, remember:
Article 26.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."
Take a leaf from our neighbours, Indonesia. They move from a very mono-cultural environement (when eg, Chinese did not even use their own Chinese names) to the introduction of an
Anti-Discrimination Bill in Nov 2008 when the Indonesian House of Representatives unanimouslypassed a bill that terms ethnic and racial discrimination as serious crimes.
We should all stand up and appreciate the diversity we are. Let's start with the our kids and the schools our kids go to.
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