\u201cOne Sunday, we published Mary\u2019s column headlined, \u201cThe Great Paper Chase.\u201d In it, she decried the relentless pursuit of good grades. All the certificates she worked hard for, from primary school through university, were \u201cnot things I want to treasure\u201d. Lee Kuan Yew was stung by this sharp critique of the education policy.<\/strong> He saw it as an attack on hard work and the heavy emphasis on examinations. The next day, he demanded her head. He wanted her sacked.<\/strong> But how could we? As editor, I was responsible. My bosses and I decided that the best course was to move Mary out of harm\u2019s way. She would give up writing and work as a subeditor. If she continued to write the column, we would have endless problems with the PM. He would see her as an unfriendly critic of government whatever she wrote. Mary was not happy with her new duties though she was also a good subeditor. Writing was her forte and what she most enjoyed. It was not long before she left.<\/strong> She went to London, where she worked on Fleet Street.\u201d \u2013 Cheong Yip Seng, OB Markers, Chapter 5: The Knuckledusters Era<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I tried my best to find the column online, but I couldn\u2019t. I showed Sharan what I was up to, and she was determined to succeed where I had failed. We stayed up till 4am trawling through the digitized archives on NLB\u2019s website, but found nothing. We went to the National Library the next day, and we found Mary\u2019s column on microfilm. It was in the very first issue of Sunday Nation.<\/p>\n Here is Mary\u2019s column. (Emphasis mine.)<\/p>\n The Great Paper Chase is on. It is that time of the year to test the memory power of our 16 and 18 year olds, whose plans for a shining career may be made or broken at these \u201cO\u201d and \u201cA\u201d academic hurdles.<\/p>\n It is that time of the year when all of those enlightened statements by educationists and politicians about \u201cLet\u2019s not be a certificate-oriented society\u201d disintegrate as parent and child, teacher and student stampede \u2014 or rather, cram \u2014 down the path of learning towards \u201cmaking the grade\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is all right for those grown-ups to talk about not rubbing the teenager\u2019s nose into the books. They\u2019ve already found good, solid jobs. Anyway, when it comes to injecting new blood into their money-making empires or bureaucratic establishments, they still sift out the distinctions and credits.<\/strong><\/p>\n I have had my share of the pre-examination cramps. For 15 years, I was given to understand that passing examinations was the only purpose of my life.<\/p>\n My father bore down on me to get a Grade One School Certificate because he never even got close to sitting for one. And because my brothers had theirs Dad didn\u2019t want the family record broken.<\/p>\n And when all the sleepless nights and days of struggling (with revision, guilt and obligation, and coping with sinking confidence and rising panic) were all over\u2026 nothing.<\/p>\n I was then told: \u201cEven a Grade One means nothing these days. On to Pre-U you!\u201d So the bind of books, the wars of independence \u2014 to be allowed to \u201ctwist\u201d the worries out of my system at some mindless party \u2014 started all over again\u2026<\/p>\n And all for what? To get a piece of paper that might just give me a little head start on the trite but true \u201crat-race\u201d. And with the rat-race getting fiercer these days, you need more than just \u201cA\u201d levels or even an Honours degree for that head start.<\/strong><\/p>\n How hard it is to be student these days, to have to suffer through all those years before grown-ups deem you fit to enter their plastic world.<\/p>\n When I was in school, I couldn\u2019t see beyond not making the grade. The question didn\u2019t even arise, so set was Dad on my achieving it. All that he did to help was to refuse me permission to go out with schoolmates, to participate in ECA, to watch TV beyond 8 p.m., to read anything other than school texts.<\/p>\n My mind, he must have thought, was a machine. Any fool could pass an exam (and in our household, passing and passing par excellence were one and the same). All you needed to do was to keep the machine in good running order with constant \u2014 and I mean constant \u2014 programming.<\/p>\n I lied to my father about the date of my Pre-U finals. Just so I could take on the wardrobe mistress job with Raffles Players for As You Like It. But he found out on opening night.<\/p>\n The show must go on for all he cared \u2014 it had to go on without me, he said. After much useless pleading and too many tears, I stomped out of the house with my paper-bag of props. The show went on \u2014 for five nights \u2014 and after that, I returned to the flurry of preparing for the finals. Fortunately for me and for the teacher in charged of Raffles Players, I passed.<\/p>\n It is a wonder I never suffered a nervous breakdown before or during examinations. I used to secretly admire classmates who studied so hard, they fell sick just before or during the examinations. If I could only study as hard as they, I used to kid myself. And besides, think of the sympathy those \u201cwrecks\u201d must be getting at home.<\/p>\n I know better now and am thankful for my built-in timer which would tell me when I had had enough of all that cramming.<\/p>\n I know now that it is a tragic waste of precious time and energy to not be put to the actual test. And what kind of tests were these anyway?<\/p>\n We used to \u201ccheat\u201d by studying from booklets of questions going back seven years for the same exams \u2014 on Elementary Maths (the Achilles spot in my brain), Grammar and \u201cPrecise\u201d. At some point during my secondary school days, I found out that the test questions had a tendency to repeat themselves.<\/p>\n I now have an abhorrence for prepared answers to literature, geography or history questions. Instead of using them as food for thought, we were expected to regurgitate \u2014 and we did<\/strong> \u2014 these block answers to satisfy the faceless marker of our papers.<\/p>\n Which explains why by the time we made it to university, we were thought to be cloistered in an ivory tower. Those things that were beaten into our brains in school had little relevance to any part of our grown-up lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n We were never taught to analyse, to question questions. Training ground for useful roles as citizens? It is a miracle we are doing as well as we\u2019re doing, considering the kind of schooling most of us had.<\/strong><\/p>\n I realise that revolutions almost never begin in secondary school classrooms. So what\u2019s there to talk about? It is somewhat pathetic that boys and girls have to go back to school at nights, just so they can have some peace and quiet to do their homework and study (if they\u2019re lucky).<\/p>\n That their parents and brothers and sisters at home know only to demand that they excel in exams, never showing the much-needed consideration and understanding which would help smooth the furrowed brows of young pressured minds.<\/p>\n My mother was a great help during my exams. She never asked me when I came home, How Was It? if I didn\u2019t feel like telling her. Just a comforting squeeze round the shoulders and a \u201cIt\u2019s time you had a break\u201d. And she used to slip me comics to relieve my over-programmed mind.<\/p>\n My father on the other hand, would never fail to demand \u201cDid you answer ALL the questions, CORRECTLY?\u201d as soon as he got home from work. For a time, he would even go over the question papers with me \u2014 the one way to undermine an already shaky confidence.<\/p>\n But I soon learned to lie. I\u2019d say yes to all his questions and avoid a post-mortem by saying I had a lot more revision to do. My mother realised that I needed, not more pressure, but understanding and support during those awful weeks before and during.<\/p>\n I really appreciated her not going off for her usual mahjong sessions then \u2014 my exams provided the only break in her habit. I sometimes suspect that she was more relieved than I was when I passed out, the mortar board on my head, sweating under a rented gown and clutching an empty cardboard scroll (the real paper came a month later.)<\/p>\n The certificates I got on completion of my paper chase are now probably lost. No matter. They are not things I want to treasure\u2026<\/p>\n UPDATE: Mary Lee wrote a follow-up after this post went viral: How LKY changed my life<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n 2019: Gen Y Speaks: Don’t talk to me about grades<\/a> [todayonline.com]<\/p>\n 2017: Overemphasis on credentials could hobble country’s success<\/a>: Heng [todayonline.com]<\/p>\n 2016:\u00a0Singapore\u2019s education changes won\u2019t stop paper chase \u2013 because employers still look at grades first<\/a> [youngparents.com.sg]<\/p>\n 2015:\u00a0We must prevent paper chase for its own sake: Ong Ye Kung<\/a> [straitstimes.com] [mfa.gov.sg<\/a>]<\/p>\n 2015: Heng Swee Keat: S\u2019poreans \u2018must nurture deep skills, strong values, rather than focus on paper chase\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n 2014:\u00a0A Singaporean Graduate\u2019s Thoughts on PM Lee\u2019s Paper Chase Advice<\/a><\/p>\n 2010:\u00a0The “certified” paper chase in Singapore<\/a><\/p>\n 2009:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/the-great-paper-chase.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Great Paper Chase\u2026<\/h1>\n
\u2026 Training ground for the adult rat race<\/h2>\n
Since then, the problem of the paper chase has been something people have been talking about… for decades<\/h3>\n