Knowledge and Education

I read 2 different articles on education trends on the same day. One was published in Singapore's Today newspaper. The other was in The Atlantic.

The Today reported that some enrichment centres now require 'entry tests' to enrol for their courses ('Sorry, your child is not bright enough'). It states that children as young as 6 need to pass a test to enrol into enrichment classes, which in the first place, was meant to help students get better results.

The other article, 'What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success' explains how Finnish schools emphasise on equality when it comes to education.

It appears that we have lost sight the purpose of education in the first place. I thought that education is to enrich the human mind. To expand our brain. To enhance the quality of life. It now seems that Singapore's education model (and for many other countries as well), the main purpose of education has been to become economically productive. To such an extent, we force our children to study subjects that will lead to high paying careers in law, medicine. We should revert to the original purpose of education - i.e. to enrich the quality of life.