{"id":3765,"date":"2026-05-04T17:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/?p=3765"},"modified":"2026-05-04T17:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:52:07","slug":"singapores-tfr-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/singapores-tfr-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore\u2019s TFR &#8211; is the Education System really the issue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Are people not having children because of PSLE stress and the education arms race?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K1egkpJw3bc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This video is extremely on point. I am heartened to hear that the Minister is well aware of all the issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to distinguish between <strong>why people don\u2019t want to have kids<\/strong>, versus <strong>why they don\u2019t want to have MORE kids<\/strong>. I think the reasons we hear from parents about<strong> the education system is one of the key reasons why many stop at 1 or 2<\/strong>. Of course, housing size, general affordability, and access to private vehicle will also affect these decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People not wanting to have a child altogether is \u2014 as minister points out \u2014 often a <strong>lifestyle choice<\/strong>. Why give up a nice (and tidy) house just for two, a car (not a minivan), annual travels instead of tuition fees, being able to easily immigrate for job growth? These all are likely reasons some avoid having children entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I personally didn\u2019t think that much, I just &#8220;went with the flow&#8221;. But I have to be very frank that if it wasn\u2019t for my wife \u2014 and now my children \u2014 I would probably have left the country for career opportunities when younger.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, the points on the education system really hits home. Perhaps one thing many do not know is that the PSLE is a one-of-a-kind system in the world. No other country puts children at age 11-12 through a nationwide high stakes exam. Malaysia had something similar and also did away with it some years ago. In most parts of the world, students automatically progress to middle or secondary school without an exam. Typically, entrance exams only apply if you wanted to get into a prestigious or private school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSLE was devised in early post independence Singapore because we didn\u2019t have the capacity for every citizen to have secondary education, and also because the education standard of the nation was low, PSLE was necessary as a blunt filter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But today, after all the tweaks and adjustments to the system over decades, the system is probably due for overhaul. The idea that we should do away with it, or push it further, is starting to make more sense. Perhaps regular, smaller exams should be used more as a <strong>diagnostic<\/strong> exam, rather than a singular high-stakes <strong>selection\/placement<\/strong> exam like PSLE. The subject-based banding subtly happens (as it does now at primary 4) at every stage \u2014 perhaps every year or two \u2014 all the way to JC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The video also mentions a few important points about the <strong>post-AI world<\/strong>, just like the post-Internet world where I grew up in: is rote memorisation and certain knowledge skills still desirable or practical? How do we teach our next generation about creativity, cross-domain synthesis, learning to learn, judgment, morals \u2014 all the \u201chuman\u201d things that we shouldn\u2019t be outsourcing to AI?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlb.gov.sg\/main\/article-detail?cmsuuid=3e296875-caae-47bf-a36d-8ac83271e05c\">History of the Singapore Primary School Leaving Examination<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This video is extremely on point. I am heartened to hear that the Minister is well aware of all the issues. It is important to distinguish between why people don\u2019t want to have kids, versus why they don\u2019t want to have MORE kids. I think the reasons we hear from parents about the education system [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[618,649,650,648,282],"class_list":["post-3765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-education","tag-jasmin-lau","tag-moe","tag-psle","tag-singapore"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}