Possible for Singapore to stay 'forever young'?

After reading the extract on PM Teo’s view if Singapore to stay ‘forever young’, i have some views about this. Singapore has five 'building blocks' that provide it a strong foundation to continue to thrive in the future. PM Teo also related to ‘Iceland, also enjoyed a boom, particularly in the mid-2000s. It was regarded as quite a miracle. However, poor regulation of the banking and financial sector resulted in a highly leveraged economy and small nations like Switzerland , or cities such as New York or London, that have done well for centuries.’

Being 'young' is really an attitude of mind - to keep ourselves socially and economically energetic, competitive and attractive. Of those five points, i believe that a strong culture of education and learning is able to help Singapore stay ‘forever young’. By having a strong culture of education and learning, it will always allow people to stay fresh and new, and even relevant to the world. Due to the importance of education, it will encourage people to want to have the heart and the desire for even better education and seek for knowledge, innovation and ideas.

Singapore has all along been emphasising on the importance of education. Singapore students have consistently done very well in international comparisons in science and mathematics and also in literacy. Education is already encouraged at a very young age of four and Singapore does seek to provide even better education for all. Investments are made heavily for universities, polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education to be even better.

Both parents and students also see education playing a big role in their lives. It is definitely true that if parents were to not give their child any stress, majority would not even want to educate themselves. True enough that many want to pursue a good education as they believe that that would help them to get a better and stable job in the future.

Education will never ever grow old and it will always be relevant to any others. Education has never ever been about institutions as well. As long as someone is willing to learn and education oneself, that will do. Education surely plays a big and important part in helping Singapore to be ‘forever young’.

- Yongqing.