Is formal education overvalued?

“Formal,” implies structure, organization, or a systemized approach that drives towards established objectives, whereas “informal” would imply the exact opposite, where matters are left entirely perhaps to the course of nature or lasse faire.

‘Education” is a process whereby an individual from childhood to adulthood undergo a developmental process within his or her society or environment, acquire the necessary skills and knowledge that will transform him or her into positive contributors, both socially and economically in his sphere of influence and existence.

There is value in formal education as it provides foundational literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge that is critical for intellectual development. These are the tools or the keys needed to open up, access and unlock the vast and limitless world of knowledge.

Few would and should dispute this point.

The question is therefore at what point and in what form of manifestations, does formal education become overvalued? In general, it is said to overvalued if
there are excessive pressure on the young causing a negative impact cited in first article
and when there are insufficient avenues to cater to “late developers”. The creative, the artistic who may not have any academic inclinations, but excel in sports, music or art.
. Rote learning and pure memorization power does not work in the new economy and this must be recognised by the relevant authorities to prepare our students towards a more diversed economy in the future.


Singapore has since been trying to change in many instances for the better. The Ministry of Education has been constantly luring people to turn to teaching as a profession with attractive incentives. The purpose of this is to increase the number of teachers to cope with the ever increasing amount of students and also to increase the teacher-student ratio and increase the quality of the education provided for the younger generation. The Ministry has also been developing the current curriculum and modifying it to include more broad-based activities. The focus is no longer entirely on academic-based programs but on an all round development of the student. This is a step to prepare the students for the future where they have to handle interpersonal relations on a day by day basis. From this two points above, it can be easily seen that formal education has got the needed basis for intellectual development and whether this can be fully utilised would be dependent upon the student and the amount of self effort that the individuals put in.

Singapore is a good example of diversified learning. It has a variety of schools catering to the different needs of the students. There is the Singapore Sports School, Nayang Academy for the Fine Arts , ITE, Polytechnics which provides a very diverse options for those who have different needs.

A simple study would be all it takes to identify the sky rocketing pressure present among students as young as 7 or as old as 24 in our current curriculum. Facing such extensive and excessive pressure in their studies, it is no wonder that many would crack. This is when the race for the degree comes in. Most entry level jobs now requires at least a Bachelor's degree. A career in performing arts or sports is not likely to be feasible in a market as small as Singapore. Most of us would be hired employees and would require that basic degree and would have to study hard and withstand the pressure put upon the students. With such heavy pressure on such young shoulders, formal education is said to be overvalued as skills are often overlooked and replaced by that wanted degree which may not teach the relevant skills for the job.