My-Daybreak.org

I refer to your report ” Towards a nation of innovators” ( NST, Jan 28) that said Bugs Tan, co-founder of the Malaysian Association of Creativity and innovation, and an inventor with 15 parents to his name, said it was important for the education system to foster a creative mindset.

He said the present education system, angled more towards rote-learning, did not favour thinking.

He said : ” Our system is based on memorising information. We do not teach children to develop thinking skills.”

According to Confucius, education should be such that if a student is taught one corner, he should be able to discover the other three corners by himself.

In our examination results oriented system, more often than not, children are spoon-fed with model answers for all four corners, to memorise and regurgitate in the examination hall.

There is no need, under the present system, for the student to develop thinking skills; to discover anything by their own effort. What is developed is memory storage capacity and the ability to recall facts from memory.

That which is memorised is just stored for recall during the examination. It is not digested, assimilated, and absorbed to become an integral part of  the student’s thinking; It is not applied to discover new knowledge or to find new applications for it, or to solve practical problems.