Can students be given the autonomy to develop their own curriculum?

I believe that students can be allowed to develop their own curricula, depending on the circumstances.

In Singapore, education is key. Everyone wants to be first in the rat race, and to be first, one needs the best education one can get. The main point in giving students the autonomy to develop their curriculum is to help them in their education.

Curricula in Singapore can be split into three categories. There is the arts-based / sports curriculum, the holistic curriculum and the technical curriculum. The different curricula cater to different types of students. As such, they must place a different priority on each subject, e.g. more time allocated to academics rather than other subjects in academically-focused schools. The students will know their own needs better than teachers or parents. designing their own curricula allows the students to take their needs into consideration, and that will not only help cater to the students' needs but also allow them to practice decision-making skills, which will prepare them for real-life circumstances such as choosing a subject to major in or choosing classes in junior college / polytechnic. The students will benefit from this.

However, it very much depends on the students' maturity level. Assuming that the students are mature enough, they should be able to create a curriculum that is beneficial to them. However, in the case of immature students (primary school students) they might not be able to understand why the autonomy was given and instead use it for non-beneficial purposes (fewer of the lessons that they hate etc.). This will result fewer benefits for the students, and thus will not be beneficial for them.

In conclusion, it would very much depend on the maturity level of the students deciding how the curriculum should be designed, and if done right, could provide great benefits to students.

Inflation tidebreaker

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1121020/1/.html

It is heartening to see people come together and help each other in times of inflation. 320 hawker stalls in Radin Mas constituency joined the anti-inflation drive, a movement which gets stallholders to maintain their prices during six months of the inflation, regardless of how much prices increase. The stallholders are joining an increasing crowd of hawkers from many different places in Singapore, who in recent months have decided to join the anti-inflation drive and maintain their prices.

The hawkers are really kind to take the initiative to maintain their prices and their serving portions. This anti-inflation drive will affect their business positively but it might bring in losses for some unlucky stallholders who do not get much business. I believe this helps the low-income group the most as it helps them to tide over the inflation. In this way, the lower-income group can focus more on working to make their lives better and not worry about the rising food prices. In fact, anyone who goes to the hawker centre can benefit from it.

It is really brave of those hawkers to try and improve the lives of others when they may not be faring so well. How much can you earn in one day working as a hawker? They take the risk of losing money just to ease the burden on someone else's shoulders, even though their burden may already be very heavy. After all, some of them have many mouths to feed at home, and assuming the inflation does not stop, the hawkers will suffer heavy losses.

Them taking the risk to help someone out proves that Singaporeans still have a heart and that not all Singaporeans are money-minded.