ELL Expository Essay Examples

Friends & Loyalty

Hook
❖ “Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence,
sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than
perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” - Ann Landers

Advantages
❖ According to an article by Mayo Clinic, good friends are good for your health as friends
can increase your sense of belonging and purpose, boost your happiness and reduce
your stress, improve your self-confidence and self-worth, help you cope with traumas,
such as divorce, serious illness, job loss or the death of a loved one and encourage you
to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of
exercise.
❖ Studies found friends being able to stimulate one’s production of endorphins and as a
result lightening our moods. Furthermore, the ecstatic feeling when being with friends
also stimulates the release of serotonin in one’s brain, helping him/her to destress.
❖ In the psychological industry, theories and studies have proven the idea of social
facilitation, referring to the arousal triggered by the perceived evaluation of others. More
specifically, the aspect of co-action effects, where performance of carrying out a task is
better, merely because there are other people doing the same task as you.
❖ For example, in 2002 meta analysis, researchers determined that the presence of others
increased arousal when completing a complex task.

Disadvantages
❖ Studies have shown that people ending a serious relationship, especially one in which
they had invested significant time and emotional commitment, may be especially prone to
emotional problems, particularly depression. This, in turn, may also put them at a higher
risk for suicide.

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Education
Hook
❖ “I wished I were born 50 years later!” quipped Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an
interview on developing youths to succeed in their future in 2014.
❖ As former Education Minister Ng Chee Meng explained in Parliament, "Let's help our
children make good use of their time to branch out to explore other interests and
passions and to pursue what they want to do in life. Let's help them make good choices
about their educational and career pathways based on their aptitudes and aspirations.
Let's help them to be ready for the future."
❖ The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in
history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents.
Closures of schools and other learning spaces have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s
student population, up to 99 per cent in low and lower-middle income countries.
❖ “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it
today.”

Advantages
❖ National University of Singapore (NUS) is one of the top public universities in the world. It
is ranked #11 in QS Global World Rankings 2021.
❖ In the Programme for International Student Assessment, a study done every three years,
and run by the OECD to measure how well students use their knowledge and skills to
solve real-world problems, Singapore’s 15 year olds were ranked #1 for Mathematics,
Science and Reading in 2015. The results also show that the content and skills taught in
schools are able to produce outstanding students who are top amongst their peers
internationally, 3 times above American students.
❖ In November 1965, the government of Singapore mandated the study of a second
language in all government and government-aided schools of all language streams. This
led the introduction of the teaching of three mother tongues - Chinese, Malay and Tamil -
in English-medium schools. Such a bilingual policy has proven to be successful, and has
paved the way for English to become the common working language, breaking down
language barriers and allowing individual Singaporeans to be able to communicate and
negotiate with international businessmen who speak different tongues, giving us the
opportunity to venture globally.
❖ For example, students are being taught how to take exams: the methods, formats, and
even structures of their answers, be it in short answer form or essay format, in order to
gain the mark. Although it may seem as a guide for their answers, students are not always

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 given a chance to explore and express their ideas in their own formats. If they were to do
so, they may end up with an additional comment by the teacher to follow the structure
taught during lessons, and even penalised during that practice or official examination. But
when we think about it, is structure really that important for the future working world? Do
we really need to follow a specific structure to get our point across properly? Thus, we
can clearly see that Singapore’s education does not necessarily prepare and nurture us
for a future-ready workforce, but rather a generation of exam-takers that need to stick to
one specific “strongly recommended” structure when working.
❖ Educators said the shift in emphasis is to help arm students with life skills. Old-school rote
learning and memorising have given way to applying textbook knowledge to real-world
scenarios and more current content. Language lessons and assessment now place more
weight on communication skills to help students converse in English and mother tongues
more confidently.
❖ As part of a new National Outdoor Adventure Education Masterplan, all students from
2020 will also take part in three cohort camps during their school years, including a five-
day Outward Bound Singapore camp for Secondary Three students.
❖ At Primary Four or Five, pupils take part in a three-day cohort camp and learn to prepare
simple meals, adapt to the outdoors, and build resilience and camaraderie.
❖ In Japan, many schools make it mandatory that students attend cultural classes, such as
poetry or calligraphy classes. Though many would see these as useless since it would not
boost the students’ grades, it is important as these activities help students realise who
they are and where they come from, and only after truly understanding of oneself, then he
or she can achieve success in a certain sector.
❖ For example, as of 2012, the government stopped the publishing of names of top scorers
in the Primary School Leaving Examination. It also widened the criteria used for entry to
the best secondary schools.
❖ The Ministry of Education recently announced the new Primary School Leaving
Examination scoring system, in which students would receive an “achievement level”, a
broad grade, rather than a precise “T-Score” that was adopted previously.
❖ It is not uncommon to see students go and volunteer beyond the minimum hours they
need to achieve each year. For example, the 2013 National Youth Survey found that 33%
of teenagers aged 15 to 19 spent more than 10 hours volunteering a week.
❖ In 2014, the National University of Singapore piloted a grade-free system for freshmen, in
hopes of encouraging students to change the way they view grades and learning in
university. After a successful and well-received trial, since 2016, first year students can
now write off grades for up to eight modules, just two short of the ten that they take. The

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 university hopes to alleviate student anxiety and stress over poor grades and help them
make a smooth transition to the academic and social culture of university life.
❖ According to the Straits Times, the Ministry of Education had announced in September
2018 that there would be no more mid-year exams for Primary 3 to 5 pupils as well as
Secondary 1 and 3 students by 2021, to move away from the narrow focus of grades and
help school children discover their joy for learning.

Disadvantages
❖ For example, a 2017 OECD study reveals that 76% of Singaporean students reported
feeling very anxious for a test even if they were well prepared, compared with the OECD
average of 55%.
❖ One also cannot leave out the national examinations of the country, mainly the Primary
School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) for children aged 12, GCE “O” level for students
graduating secondary school, as well as the GCE “A” level for students completing pre-
tertiary education. With so many examinations that students feel pressured to excel in, it
is no surprise that they burn out given the intense exam schedules and little room to
breathe in. This is worsened in the case of the national examinations, as these one time-
only examinations ultimately determine the type and range of schools students will be
eligible to enrol in the future. Such immense stress to do well in the preparation for these
assessments is unimaginable and is ultimately detrimental to their mental health
❖ The percentage of teens with mental illnesses rose from around 10% in 2009 to around
15% now.
❖ 78% of Singaporean youths feel that the education system is not enough to pursue their
interests and 82% of these youths engage in additional activities and external interests.
❖ In Finland, the education system focuses on transversal skills like working together,
communicating and cooperating with peers in a diverse and open environment, as well as
digital skills. Upper secondary schools in Finland enjoy a modular structure that enables
students to customise their own learning programmes. With much less academic stress
being placed on students, Finnish students tend to benefit more from an enriching
learning experience and the development of soft skills through education.
❖ However, although Finland is still among the top PISA tables, scientific literacy among
young people in Finland has dropped from the 2006 level.
❖ According to the National PTA and the National Education Association, students should
only be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. But teens are
doing a lot more than that, according to a poll of high school students by the organization
Statistic Brain.

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 ❖ Jamie Sisson, an education lecturer at the University of South Australia has observed that
young adults of Chinese descent, including Singaporeans, sometimes find it hard to adapt
to the university’s style of teaching. “I’m seeing students, especially from China, struggle
because they’re used to memorising answers. When they come to study in Australia, they
have to shift their way of thinking.” she said.
❖ Youth service, ReachOut, had found that two-thirds of young-people aged are now
experiencing high levels of exam stress. A national survey of 1000 young people aged
between 14 and 25 revealed those experiencing high levels of exam stress had increased
from 51.2% in 2017 to 65.1% in 2018.
❖ Asian teenage students also spend over 10 hours a week on work at home after at least
40 hours of regular lessons. A report in 2012 revealed that 97% of all Singaporean
students receive tuition. Furthermore, the 2014 Household Expenditure Survey found that
families in Singapore spent $1.1 billion a year on tuition.
❖ For example, in 2016, an 11-year boy committed suicide due to examination and parental
stress. This is not a one-off incident, with Samaritans of Singapore reporting a spike in
2019 with 94 recorded youth suicides.

Sports & Health

Hook

❖ As the highest-scoring NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once said, “One man can be a
crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make the team.”

Advantages
❖ A Canadian study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health stated that kids who play
sports from grades 8 to 12 have less stress and better health. This was conducted by
asking students how often they experienced depressive symptoms and to rate their
mental health from 1-5. Students who played sports scored better.
❖ A survey of 156 people with depression were divided so half of them went for aerobic
exercise while the others took anti-depressed drug. In the long run, those who
continuously exercised were less likely to relapse into depression.
❖ According to the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the percentage of
Singapore residents who took part in sports at least thrice a week rose from 26.4% in
2015 and reached 35.9% in 2017.
❖ The Singapore Government has stressed its concern for the health of Singaporeans and
has invested heavily in health education and disease prevention programmes. The Health

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 Promotion Board (HPB), which was established in 2001, plays a key role in helping
Singaporeans to maintain fit through different initiatives, one of which was to get school
canteens to serve healthier meals.
❖ Exercise has been proven to reduce the risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease,
stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer by up to 50%, and even lower your risk of early death
by up to 30%.

Disadvantages
❖ The WHO recommends that children aged 5-17 should accumulate at least 60 minutes of
moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity daily. Yet, globally 81% of school-going
adolescents aged 11-17 are not active enough, according to the International
Baccalaureate.
❖ African countries such as Botswana and Malawi, where children attend school for a
minimal amount of time, the budgets allocated for physical education are instead used to
concentrate on subjects such as languages and mathematics, according to the
International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education.
❖ According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, only 1 in 3
children are physically active everyday.
❖ According to 2014 age-standardised adjusted estimates by the World Health Organisation
(WHO), Singapore has the second-highest overweight prevalence in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – at 32.8 percent. Even after accounting for
Singapore's ageing population, the prevalence of diabetes in Singapore (10.5 percent) is
higher than the world's average (8.8 percent). Rising obesity is also a significant
contributor to the rise in diabetes prevalence.

Social Media
Hook
❖ Social media is an unpredictable and volatile terrain. There is an ironic incongruence in
the way issues can be buried in an instant, with the same ease at which they first rose to
prominence.
❖ Aptly put by Herbert Simon, a noted economist in 1971, “a wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention.” While social media offers a platform to radically increase the
visibility of social issues, it may not provide the careful and sustained attention many
complex issues need in order to reach a solution.

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Advantages
❖ The ubiquity of smartphones - 2.71 billion people in the world owned a smartphone in
2019 - has created high levels of accessibility to social media and allowed social
movements to spread across the globe, no longer restricted by geographical distance or
location.`````
❖ With a population of 5.83 million people and 4.92 million internet users, Singapore has
one of the highest internet penetration rates (84%) in the world, according to We Are
Social and Hootsuite’s Digital in 2019 Singapore report.
❖ According to psychreg.org, the use of social media in education provides students with
the ability to get more useful information, to connect with learning groups and other
educational systems that make education convenient.
❖ Thai Cave Rescue
➢ On 23 June 2018, an expedition to Tham Luang cave in Thailand ended tragically
as 12 schoolboys and their football coach were stranded deep in the cave system
for seventeen days. It took a monumental operation involving international
specialists to safely extract the boys from the cave.
➢ The 21st century being the age of social media, Thai Navy SEALs constantly
documented their search progress on Facebook, even live-streaming videos of
the boys in the cave, which received over 26 million views and 750,000 shares.
➢ Individuals all over the world came together online to pledge their support in the
form of thousands of “likes” and posts, pushing hashtags such as
#ThaiCaveRescue to the top-trending lists. This attracted the attention of various
countries such as Britain, Australia, China and the US that dispatched their rescue
teams and donated diving equipment.
➢ International efforts to rescue the boys eventually succeeded, with the schoolboys
and their coach being evacuated within three weeks, which would not have been
plausible if not for social media’s role in spreading awareness about the incident,
with over 700,000 people tuning in for a live video on PR Chiang Rai’s Facebook
page after the successful discovery of the lost boys.
❖ March for Our Lives
➢ The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida
occurred on 14 February 2018. The incident that killed 17 people and injured 17
others was the deadliest high school shooting in United States history, and it
invoked widespread public outrage over lax gun laws.
➢ Survivors of the shooting formed the student-led political action committee Never
Again MSD, and organised “March for Our Lives”, a student-led demonstration in

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 support of legislation to prevent gun violence in the United States. It took place in
Washington, D.C., on 24 March 2018 with over 880 sibling events internationally.
➢ Previously, protests had occurred for multiple shootings in the United States, such
as the 2015 Charleston church shooting, but never amassed more than several
hundred participants. With social media, more information was relayed to a larger
audience in a quicker time, giving more people awareness of what was happening
across the nation.
➢ By National Walkout Day on 20 April, 2018, the social media accounts had
followings of over 1.3 million people and in Washington D.C. alone, 200,000
people attended the March for Our Lives protest, whom many younger adults
attributed to the big social media presence. The hashtag #MarchForOurLives was
used 3.6 million times, and over 7,500 tweets were directed at the NRA social
media account.
❖ #MeToo
➢ The #MeToo movement is another successful social change catalysed by social
media. A movement against sexual harrassment and sexual assault, use of the
hastag gained traction on Twitter following the exposure of widespread sexual
abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein in early October 2017.
➢ On October 15, 2017, American actress Alyssa Milno posted on Twitter, “If all
women who have ever been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a
status, then we give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”. A number
of high profile posts and responses from American celebrities such as Gwyneth
Paltrow and Jennifer Lawrence soon followed.
➢ Widespread media coverage and discussion on sexual harassment, particularly in
Hollywood, resulted after millions of people started to use the phrase and hashtag
in this manner. This led to high profile firings, criticism and backlash, but more
importantly resulted in changes regarding how the legislative branch of the U.S.
federal government treats sexual harassment complaints.
➢ Among other amendments to existing laws, the ME TOO bill enacted in US
Congress allowed staffers to transfer to a different department or work away from
the presence of the alleged harasser without losing their jobs if requested, and
extended the same protections to unpaid workers, including pages, fellows and
interns for the first time.
➢ Furthermore, the impacts were not only limited to the entertainment sector and
legislation in the U.S.. The movement had spread internationally, and exposed
sexual harassment and abuse in diverse sectors all around the world such as
finance, sports, medicine, churches, the military and fashion industries.

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 ❖ Youtubers Zoella and Tanya Burr have openly spoken about dealing with anxiety on their
channels, showing their viewers that it is a common experience, of which should be
openly discussed rather than kept a secret. As a result, it brought hundreds of people to
voice out about similar encounters, sharing about their personal experiences and the
methods they have tried to overcome their difficulty, getting advice from each other,
without feeling the shame or fear of being different.
❖ In a May 2015 study by Schlesinger Associates for Augure, 84% of marketing and
communications professionals worldwide expected to launch at least one campaign
involving social media in the next 12 months. Those who had already done so said they
were happy with the results: 81% said influencer engagement through social media was
effective.

Disadvantages
❖ A very common danger of social media would be the idea of the “ideal body type”. This is
a concept that is perpetuated by many brands, companies, celebrities, as appearances
and beauty is always at the forefront of social media. The “ideal body type” fluctuates with
the current trends of the fashion and beauty world. Most commonly, it is associated with a
slim figure and fair skin. Eurocentric features are thus idealised by social media, and
people are often seen trying to attain such a figure. What makes things worse is the fact
that studies have shown that 80% of women think that advertising in the media makes
them feel insecure, emphasising that this issue is common in society.
❖ The dangers of such concepts can be seen in the percentage of young women and men
who suffer from insecurity, or worse - eating disorders. Over 30 million people in the
United States of America suffer from at least one type of eating disorder.
❖ It is of paramount importance, though, to bear in mind that social media thrives on
spectacle. Major events like the Thai Cave Rescue or school shooting can swiftly gain
traction, yet many core issues underlying the events may not receive sustained attention.
❖ A panoply of insignificant articles can be found on social media sites such as Twitter and
Tumblr.
❖ The appalling ignorance of youths these days cannot be better exemplified by the fact
that college graduates are six times more likely to know who won “American Idol” than
know the name of the Speaker of the House.
❖ Twitter’s unique character limit on people’s ‘Tweets’ is now capped at 280 characters,
shortening attention spans of the masses, having been limited to such a small amount of
space to aptly convey their message.
❖ A study made by Statista showed that there was a drastic increase in popularity in
Instagram as the number of daily active users jumped from about 100 million in October

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 2016 to about 500 million users in January 2019. This shows how many people are using
Instagram almost everyday and might spend hours looking at stories to satisfy their
feelings.
❖ A report published by an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) in the UK, proposing that
internet addiction could be classified as a disease. The paper includes surveys showing
that 27 per cent of children who spend three or more hours a day online show symptoms
of mental ill health.
❖ Hailee Lamberth, a 13-year-old student took her life due to cyberbullying. She’s suffered
from epilepsy and her classmates taunted her for that. This in-school bullying continued
through online platforms and forums. They’d often tell herself to kill herself because of
her condition. At one point, a classmate left her a voicemail saying “I hope you died.”
Hailee gradually could not take the bullying anymore and killed herself.

Leadership
Hook
❖ Alexander the Great famously declared “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep;
I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

General
❖ Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain during the Second World War. Britawin
was on the losing end, with Nazi Germany constantly bombing the SAF bases, crippling
Britain’s air defense. It looked like Britain was going to lose the war, and the House of
Commons prompted Churchill to lead Britain to a national coalition. However, Winston
Churchill remained courageous, and was instrumental in insisting Britain continued
fighting, allowing them to win the war with the help of the United States
❖ Nelson Mandela rebelled against the apartheid regime in South Africa, and underwent a
trial for treason to the country. His final remark in the trial was that he had an ideal of a
democratic and free society for South Africa, and was willing to die for it. Luckily, instead
of a death sentence, Nelson Mandela was given a life long imprisonment. Even in the
harsh conditions of prison, he defied that prisoners who had the same ideal as him, and
even a guard, while risking his life helping the rebellion.
❖ People feel that Jacinda Ardern (the New Zealand prime minister) “doesn’t preach at
them, she’s standing with them.” She goes to the market to experience the lives of
commoners.
❖ Mahatma Gandhi was a compassionate leader whose heart was filled with tons of
compassion. He empathised with the people of all religions and faiths and respected

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 them. Once he was traveling in a train, and he was standing at the door enjoying the
beautiful scenery of India. Out of the blue, one of his chappals slipped away and fell from
the train, then he immediately threw the other chappal as well so that the finder can
benefit as he would have a pair instead of just one chappal.
❖ American storage retailer, The Container Store, made Fortune’s annual list of “Top 100
Best Companies to Work For” for 19 consecutive years, and bo tf asts a servant leadership
driven culture. CEO Melissa Reiff leads by the principle of “Communication is Leadership”,
which aims for every employee in the company to know absolutely everything, via
“consistent, reliable, effective, thoughtful, compassionate, and yes, even courteous
communication.”
❖ For example, a student, who failed his exams, got 1 out of 120 in a university maths
entrance test, failed to get into Harvard University 10 times, was never disheartened and
did not let failure get the better out of him. With his resilience and perseverance of
becoming a successful entrepreneur, he ended up being the founder of the biggest
commerce company in Asia, Alibaba. Jack Ma saw failure as an opportunity to
“understand what resilience (truly) is”.
❖ Another example would be the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. Be it facing the failure of the
first attempt trying to create the company’s first computer, or the consecutive failure of
creating the Pixar Image computer, Steve Jobs never gave up in his company, doing all
he could to retry and improve what they had previously failed. Through this, the company
pulled through. With his perspective that failure “should not be feared”, he persevered,
bringing his company to greater heights and where it is today.
❖ Singapore’s late founding Father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew was lauded as a leader with astute
and visionary foresight. From his policies of the HDB Ethnic Quota Scheme which played
a significant role in shaping Singapore’s widely admired harmonious multi-racial society to
his implementation of NEWater to reduce our reliance on Malaysia, it is evident that his
strong foresight has contributed, in no small part, to the success of Singapore today.
❖ A great testament of leaders who are able to clearly and convincingly articulate their
ideas and vision to their followers is 1960s civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, who
was widely acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest and most influential speakers to
date. His iconic “I have a Dream” speech, which captivated audiences with poetic
language and thought-provoking ideas, inspired the world and formed the bedrock of the
civil rights movement.
❖ For example, in Hong Kong, before the COVID-19 pandemic, large scale protests and riots
took place, to the extreme point where the police force needed to be activated given the
extreme violence and havoc brought about by demonstrators. This was the result of the
proposed legislation of the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill, of which establish a

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 mechanism for transfers of fugitives not only for Taiwan, but also for Mainland China and
Macau, which are currently excluded in the existing laws. The idea of the bill was to
reduce crime and ensure peace amongst the state. However, the opposite had occurred,
where about 2 million protestants ended on the streets of Hong Kong fighting for their
rights. After further havoc and disputes took place, Chief Executive Carrie Lam finally
announced her promise towards the withdrawal of the bill on 4 September 2019.

Gender
Hook
❖ Though we do live in a world that has been predominantly patriarchal, it is undeniable
that men face some great difficulties in a world still entrenched in conservative values like
today’s.

General (Males)

❖ Statistically, males are more likely to get sufficient exercise

❖ In the National Physical Fitness Award Scheme (NAPFA), a test of physical fitness for
Singaporeans, minimum requirements and standards of physical fitness is significantly
higher and stricter for males.
❖ Studies show that the largest percentage of people who commit suicide are males in their
40s, and that absolutely no one was aware of their mental health issues. They had not
talked to any close relations, let alone a therapist, about their struggles and inability to
cope emotionally, that had likely been the cause of their suicide.

General (Females)

❖ A large majority of people who seek therapy for suicidal ideation are women.

Disadvantages for Males

❖ Research has shown that males generally receive 63% longer sentences as compared to
women, given the same crime. Additionally, men are twice as likely to recarcerated after
conviction as compared to women.

Disadvantages for Females

❖ The lowest salary of a male athlete in the National Basketball Association is $897, 158
while the highest salary of a female athlete in the WNBA is $113, 500.

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 ❖ Based on recent elections studies, it has been found that 11.3% of politicians were female
in 1995, and this number has increased to 24.3% as of February 2019.
❖ According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), women in Singapore
earned 6 per cent less than their male peers in 2018. (Rebuttal that it is due to the fact
that men serve National Service and are conscripted into the military to undergo arduous
and intense physical training)

Personal

National
Advantages

❖ Singapore takes living in an ethnically diverse society rather literally with the Ethnic
Integration Policy (EIP). Under the EIP, there are limits on the total percentage of a
Housing Development Block (HDB) block or neighbourhood that may be occupied by a
certain ethnicity. The EIP is a product of the 1980s which had ethnic enclaves with Malays
in Tampines, Indians in Serangoon, Eurasians in Katong and Chinese in Ang Mo Kio.
❖ For instance, in 2014, American multinational consumer goods corporation Procter &
Gamble (P&G) set up a research facility in Singapore, citing its social diversity as one of
the key reasons for setting up its presence here.

Disadvantages

❖ The 300-strong Little India Riot between migrant workers from India and a Chinese bus
driver and timekeeper proves that racial tensions are alive and well in modern Singapore,
and have the potential to manifest as physical violence. Even after the rioting ceased, the
stern response from the dominantly Chinese public and Parliament proved that racial
animosity remained. An alcohol ban was immediately enforced at public places in Little
India every weekend, public holiday and eve of a public holiday. At the same time, looser
restrictions applied to the rest of the country.

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Sample Questions
What are the benefits of co-curricular activities in school?
❖ Develop oneself, both physically and mentally
➢ For example, getting involved in the school newsletter helps develop planning,
time-management, thinking and decision-making skills and also reading and
writing proficiency. The robotics club teaches teamwork and maths skills.
➢ Challenging CCAs such as maths clubs can encourage a child to stretch and
improve himself. When challenges are met, the child's confidence surges.
➢ A 2005 study on overweight children at the Medical College of Georgia in the
United States found that 40 minutes a day of aerobic exercise improved
"executive function" - the aspect of intelligence that helps us pay attention, plan
and resist distractions.
❖ Be more disciplined
➢ People have become more disciplined after taking up executive committee roles,
from a happy go lucky student to be a more disciplined student. It also teaches
them time management they need to cope with stress which would be used in the
real world.
➢ Many people in schools are part of school teams or participate in Singapore Youth
Festival (SYF), which will mean they will have to spend more time on a sport or
CCA practicing. Their commitment towards the CCA will be greater as they want
to make their school and themselves proud. This will thus inculcate discipline as
they will be more focused in what they are doing.
❖ Widen social circle
➢ People with a wider social circle are seen to be more carefree and less
introverted. A famous study in Australia used 15,000 people with different social
circles and people can live up to 10 years longer if they have a large social circle.
Since you meet new people in CCA, you will have more people to talk to so you
would not feel lonely and will bring advantages in terms of health.
➢ Research has found time and time again that if you want to live a long, healthy,
and fulfilling life, the most important factor is your relationships. Not only do the
number of social interactions play a major role in your life but the quality of these
relationships are also important. Empathy and attachment are two factors that
elevate the importance of a friend or a family member.

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What does an ideal learning environment comprise of?

In what ways does schooling prepare youths for the future?

❖ Develop teamwork
➢ For example, CCA. You will need to work with other people, be it in sports where
you play in teams or you participate in aesthetics. People will have to cooperate
with one another to achieve the best of everyone’s potential
➢ According to The Straits Times, the Senior Minister of State for Education and Law
feels that the best way to prepare children for their careers and for future change
and how to handle it is to ensure that students get real depth and substantive
knowledge, along with portable skills to prepare them for the future, like
communication, leadership, resilience and adaptability.
❖ Develop 21st century competencies
➢ These include communication skills, teamwork and problem solving. Project work
is a perfect example for this. In today’s world, you will plausibly be put in a team to
complete a communication-based task. Once you start arguing, the entire project
would be a mess. So project work in secondary school will play a massive role on
how good your problem solving skills and communication skills are. You will
definitely face problems in project work. For example, your websites may not work
the way they do and you will have to adapt to the necessary changes and improve
the website. You will also need to do presentations to propose your idea, similar
to pitching in the working industry. You will constantly be given questions that you
have never thought of before, which will constantly help develop your mind to
answer questions instantly. Communication and teamwork will be very crucial as it
will allow people to work better with one another.
➢ Students sitting for the A-Level examinations are required to take Project Work as
a course of study at the Higher 1 (H1) level.
➢ Through PW, students are expected to demonstrate the ability to generate,
develop and evaluate ideas and information so as to apply these skills to a project
task. The fact that individuals are unable to choose who they want to work with for
their Project Work component adds a layer of difficulty and students are obligated
to work with people whom they might have no chemistry with, enabling students
to hone their communication and collaboration skills. The final written products to
be submitted include a Written Report, which is a group component, as well as an
Insights and Reflections (I&R) piece, which is an individual component, for further
reflections and evaluation of their project.

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 ❖ School prepares us in the micro-world of the classroom for the bully, the nerd, the
charmer, the freeloader, the hero, the cheat, the manipulator, and the trusted friend.
➢ In work, you will definitely meet different types of people like stated in the point. In
school you will also continuously meet the same kind of people. Let us zoom into
the word ‘freeloader’. In school and the workplace, people are bound to freeload.
So this will prepare you for the future on how to deal with them.
➢ A research by Harvard said that in 30 years of investigation, they have
encountered countless cases of manipulating coworkers to do work for them.
What are the flaws of Singapore's education system?
❖ Over-emphasis on grades and results
❖ Meritocratic
➢ https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/trending/child-falling-behind-in-school-
home-based-learning-covid-19-13061106
➢ A study from the Strait Times of 200 students in Singapore in 2016 depicts that 41
percent of students in Integrated Programme secondary schools came from
families with a monthly household income that exceeded 10000 dollars,
compared to an average income household of 8846 then.
➢ In the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018, which measures the efforts
taken to tackle the gap between rich and poor, Singapore ranked a dismal of 149
out of 157 countries.
How can Singapore learn from the education systems of other countries?
❖ Finland’s education system - A low stress environment that, while not stressing students
out so much, still values learning, especially what can be learnt outside the classroom.
“Finnish culture values intrinsic motivation and the pursuit of personal interest. A third of
the classes that students take in high school are electives, and they can even choose
which matriculation exams they are going to take. It’s a low-stress culture, and it values a
wide variety of learning experiences.”
What are the advantages and disadvantages of pen and paper
examinations?

Should project work be an examinable subject?

Does Singapore's education system have more merits or flaws?

❖ Merits
➢ Competitive nature motivates students to do better?

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 ➢ Other than written tests, students also have project work, allowing them to gain
more experience when entering the market in the future
"Education in Singapore is flexible." Do you agree?
❖ PSLE’s scoring system will change from 2021, where students will be graded based on
their individual performance in the subjects, regardless of how their peers have done
❖ According to the MOE, “These changes support MOE’s effort to shift away from an over-
emphasis on academic results, and provide our students with more flexibility and space to
develop their strengths and interests throughout their education
"Home-based learning is better than learning in a physical classroom." What
are your opinions?
❖ The development of interpersonal skills is best done within an environment where
students learn alongside other students rather than one in which students learn in
isolation.
❖ Many learners stop watching or paying attention to online lectures after a short period of
time. For example, one study found that students tend to stop watching lecture videos
after six minutes, regardless of how long the overall video is.
❖ Unfortunately, about 52 per cent of the students in Sabah do not have access to the
Internet and smartphones, computers or mobile gadgets that are needed to participate in
the sessions scheduled by their respective teachers, she said.
❖ “Online learning is not new in education because it has been practised in school.
Normally, sessions in school are held at computer labs equipped with high-speed
internet.
❖ “However, conducting online PdPc sessions during the MCO is a challenge because the
students who are at home are separated from the facility. Some students do not have
access to the Internet, not to mention not having gadgets.
How far do you agree that Singapore's education system is competitive?
❖ A study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) found that Singaporean students were significantly more anxious about tests and
grades compared to their international peers
❖ This intensified dread over academic performance may be due to a more competitive
culture in Singapore.
"The main aim of education is to impart knowledge and skills to students."
Discuss.
❖ Education with the vocational aim will prepare each individual for an occupation which will
suit his needs, abilities, interests and attitudes.

17
❖ https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/education/what-are-the-main-aims-of-education/
76806#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20education%20should%20aim%20at,drag%20or
%20parasite%20upon%20others.&text=Education%20with%20the%20vocational%20aim,
%2C%20abilities%2C%20interests%20and%20attitudes - Aims of education

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