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Provide 3 points each for the following questions on the hardcopy worksheet:

1)What do I  already know about this issue?
2) What do I want to know about this issue?

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1.Watch this video clip to have a better understanding of a possible cause of stress in Singapore.

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1.Watch this video clip to have a better understanding of a possible cause of stress in Singapore.

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Stressful Singapore Schools | Street Talk | Happy-TV

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2.Read this article on stress in schools/among students.

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2.Read this article on stress in schools/among students.

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Singapore students may be topping the charts in mathematics, science and reading, but it is exacting a heavy emotional price on them.

An international study suggests that Singapore students, known worldwide for academic excellence, also experience high levels of anxiety and have been exposed to bullying.

The findings emerged in a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which conducts the triennial tests called the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa). The study polled 540,000 students from 72 countries and economies to look at the connection between well-being and achievement in the Pisa tests.

One question that the 5,825 Singapore students who were polled did not have to answer was on how satisfied they were with life, but their responses to the other questions revealed that most were anxious about tests and grades.

Students were asked to respond to statements such as: "I often worry that it will be difficult for me to take a test"; "I worry I will get poor grades at school"; "I feel very anxious even if I am well prepared for a test"; "I get very tense when I study for a test"; and "I get nervous when I do not know how to solve a task at school".

It emerged that their anxiety levels were significantly higher than the OECD average for all five questions. For example, 66 per cent of students across all OECD countries said they were worried about poor grades at school, but among Singapore students, it was 86 per cent.

In Singapore, 76 per cent reported feeling very anxious for a test even if they were well prepared, compared with the OECD average of 55 per cent.

This could be related to the fact that Singapore students were also more driven. One question asked if they wanted to be top of their class. Some 82 per cent said they did. The OECD average was 60 per cent.

The study found that students who reported they wanted to do well in school performed better. On average, the most motivated students scored the equivalent of more than one school year higher in Pisa than the least motivated ones.

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Singapore students suffer from high levels of anxiety: Study

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Singapore students may be topping the charts in mathematics, science and reading, but it is exacting a heavy emotional price on them. An international study suggests that Singapore students, known worldwide for academic excellence, also experience high levels of anxiety and have been exposed to bullying.

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2. Reflecting on the culture of being competitive in Singapore.

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2. Reflecting on the culture of being competitive in Singapore.

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One way competitiveness can be good:

One way competitiveness can be unhealthy:

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The cases one clinical psychologist has seen suggests the idea that academic achievement is a necessary ingredient to obtain lifelong success can be a corrosive mindset.

(Updated: )
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SINGAPORE: Xiao Jia*, 12, came to us as she could no longer cope with an intense fear of the upcoming Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

She had set out to score more than an aggregate of 250 and didn't want to disappoint her parents.

A plan of getting into her choice school, excelling later at the O and A-Levels, getting into her choice university course, and eventually securing a good job all hinged on doing well in this first national exam.
PRESSURE TO PERFORM AT EXAMS
Her fears are not uncommon among her peers, albeit of varying degrees.

Children and adolescents in Singapore face pressures at school and at home. Other than relationship and family problems, a commonly cited issue that afflicts many of the students we see at the Institute of Mental Health is academic-based stress.

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 astounding story of Singapore's success has been largely attributed to its system of meritocracy, one where the best and brightest rise to the top by their own merit and hard work, and tales of leaders emerging from humble backgrounds are largely celebrated as testimonies that the system works.

Singapore's system of meritocracy in our education system is still based on academic success, and Singapore has done well in that aspect. It is ranked first in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment conducted by the OECD, based on assessments of 15-year-olds on reading, mathematics and science.

However, despite the brilliant performance on global academic rankings, Singapore has produced proportionally fewer top-ranked scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

When Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was asked about this by CNN many years ago by Fareed Zakaria, he replied that Singapore was an "exam meritocracy", compared to America which was a "talent meritocracy".

Understandably, there is no perfect measure to gauge a multifarious concept of merit. But studies have shown academic achievement is positively correlated to later occupational performance, and remains a valid measure of merit in Singapore's context.

Over the years, meritocracy has worked well to sieve out scholastically-inclined students, and develop them into prominent leaders and captains of industry.

This, in turn, reinforces the belief that doing well in school equates doing well in life and that conversely, doing badly comes with huge, adverse consequences.
TOLL ON STUDENTS' MENTAL HEALTH
Many students and their parents, driven by this belief, place utmost emphasis on academic achievement.

A competitive education system has put our students scholastically ahead of others globally, with benefits to individuals.

Studies have shown moderate amounts of stress and anxiety can motivate and encourage people to work harder and attain better performance.

Stress is an inevitable part of life, and exposing students to a reasonable amount in school builds resilience that will serve them well in their adult lives.

But an overly competitive culture can be detrimental for students' mental health. High expectations can lead to excessive stress and anxiety, especially during major examinations that have perceived consequence for one's future, such as the PSLE, and the O-, N- and A-Level national examinations.

In psychology, stress is the body's reaction to difficult situations, real or perceived. This "fight or flight" stress response, evolutionarily developed to enable humans to escape from physical danger, manifests as physiological symptoms such as a quicker heart rate, hyper-ventilation and muscle tension.

While there are far less opportunities to meet physical or predatory threats in the modern society of Singapore, the stress response still remains in us.

For some students who place utmost importance on academic success, performing "poorly" in examinations could represent a form of failure or threat. This could potentially trigger a stress response in some students as they try to meet their expectations.

In extreme cases, prolonged stressful situations associated with tests and examinations leads to the development of performance anxiety in some students.

Some suffer intense emotional symptoms like fear, anger, depression or helplessness, while others exhibit behavioural symptoms like avoidance or irritability or cognitive impairment that include racing thoughts, minds going blank, difficulty concentrating and negative thinking.

People also experience rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, nausea, diarrhoea or excessive sweating. In severe cases, test anxiety can lead to a full-blown panic attack, crippling the person with a sudden onset of intense fear and uncontrollable physical symptoms.

There are no exact causes of test anxiety, but studies have found that contributory factors include low academic self-concept, fear of failure, feelings of helplessness, and parental as well as teachers' pressure on students - that may be intensified by a hyper-competitive culture.

Worse, test anxiety as a disorder inevitably leads to poor performance, as the distressing symptoms inhibit a student's ability to absorb, retain and recall facts and information, and can lead to other mental health disorders such as panic disorder or depression.

We tend to underestimate the effects but anxiety and mood disorders are highly prevalent in Singapore, and carry a high disease burden due to the associated decreased work productivity and significant loss of function.
HELP NEEDED
In cases when test anxiety becomes so severe that it develops into a psychiatric disorder and affects the student's ability to function significantly, professional help might be needed.

Parents can help their children by moderating their own expectations, and focus on their children's efforts rather than their results. Regular and open dialogues about school and academic stress, and being empathetic towards their difficulties without making critical judgements can aid.

Ensuring that the basic health needs of our children, such as getting enough sleep, maintaining a balanced diet and exercising regularly, are met can go a long way. If necessary, a school counsellor can provide extra support.

However, it may be more useful to attenuate the development of test anxiety and other mental health disorders at a macro level.

A balanced approach where academically brilliant students are recognised and groomed, while the less academically inclined ones are supported and encouraged to pursue their interests based on their strengths, will be optimal.

We have already seen positive moves in this direction. There has been a shift in Singapore's education system away from the narrow focus of grades and academic achievements. There were no final examinations for Primary 1 students since 2013, and the PSLE will do away with aggregate scoring from year 2021.

FOCUS ON WELL-BEING
School rankings are no longer released to the public; and media reports have shifted from highlighting top scorers in national examinations to celebrating the achievements of students who overcame the odds and performed well.

The idea that academic achievement is a necessary ingredient to obtain lifelong success has become a long-held but unhealthy belief ingrained into our culture. It is a momentous task to shift this national mindset to one that is more encompassing, more accepting and less competitive.

Yet, as Albert Einstein once wrote:

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

There are many students who excel in other varied areas, such as arts, sports or music, and deserve to be recognised for these non-academic abilities.

At the same time, expectations should be set according to individual abilities, with appropriate cajolements to push our children to reach their maximum potential, but not to the point where it becomes corrosive to their mental well-being.

Meritocracy has driven Singapore well, scholastically, and economically. It has played a large part in contributing to our nation's success, and will continue to do so.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
However, it is also important to place emphasis on well-being and prioritise the mental health of students who are the future pillars of Singapore society.

Xiao Jia's case has a happy ending for now. She was able to communicate her feelings of performance anxiety and high self-expectations to her parents and the treatment team during therapy sessions.

Her parents responded well and constantly assured her that what mattered more were her efforts and not the final aggregate or whether she eventually got into her choice school.

To help her cope with her anxiety, she was taught calming techniques as well as encouraged to embrace a positive mindset that could help relieve anxiety during examinations.
Brian Poh is senior clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Heath's Department of Developmental Psychiatry.

That year, Xiao Jia sat for her PSLE and successfully enrolled into a secondary school of her choice.

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Commentary: A hyper-competitive culture is breeding severe test anxiety among many students

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The cases one clinical psychologist has seen suggests the idea that academic achievement is a necessary ingredient to obtain lifelong success can be a corrosive mindset. (Updated: ) Share this content SINGAPORE: Xiao Jia*, 12, came to us as she could no longer cope with an intense fear of the upcoming Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

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6. What are some ways Singaporeans can cope better with this?

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6. What are some ways Singaporeans can cope better with this?

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A work-life friendly workplace is a win-win situation for both employers and employees. You can get resources such as toolkits and funding to put in place work-life strategies at your workplace to gain competitive advantage with greater productivity.

What are work-life strategies

Work-life strategies are measures you can put in place to help your employees manage work responsibilities alongside personal needs. They help raise employee productivity at work and make your organisation more competitive.

Work-life strategies can be divided into 3 broad categories:

Flexible work arrangements

Leave schemes

Employee support schemes

Why implement work-life strategies

Work-life strategies are a good investment for organisations. The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) conducted a study on 11 Singapore-based organisations in 2003 and found that for every $1 spent on family-friendly programmes, the organisation reaped a return of $1.68.

Work-life strategies have also been found to benefit organisations in the following ways:

Higher productivity and shareholder value

Improved employee engagement and satisfaction

Improved attraction and retention of talent

Reduced health-related costs (e.g. absenteeism, medical leave)

Improved customer experience

Get started

Use these resources to help you get started on adopting work-life strategies.

Work-Life Works! portal
Provides useful information on implementing effective and sustainable work-life strategies. Visit the Tools & Resources section for more information.

Work-Life Harmony Report
Gives general and sector-based tips on how to implement work-life strategies. The report also covers examples of best practices from the banking, chemical, healthcare and infocomm technology industries, as well as small and medium enterprises.

Tripartite Advisory on Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA)
Provides guidance on how to implement FWAs effectively. This tripartite advisory also provides useful info for:

Employees on how to broach the subject of FWAS.

Supervisors on how to assess and manage FWA requests.

Get funding

You can get funding from the enhanced Work-Life Grant under the WorkPro programme to implement work-life strategies.

The grant has 2 components:

FWA Incentive - encourage companies to sustain implementation of FWAs for their local employees.

Job Sharing Incentive - encourage companies to implement job sharing for employees at PMET-level with gross monthly salary of at least $3,600, before job sharing arrangement.

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A work-life friendly workplace is a win-win situation for both employers and employees. You can get resources such as toolkits and funding to put in place work-life strategies at your workplace to gain competitive advantage with greater productivity. Work-life strategies are measures you can put in place to help your employees manage work responsibilities alongside personal needs.

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5. Going beyond schools, what is another source of stress for adults?

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5. Going beyond schools, what is another source of stress for adults?

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What does this article tell us? Examine the assumptions in the article and comment on them.

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Successfully managing our work-life balance can lead to better well-being but we need to first appreciate the complex relationship between work and life, say three business observers.

(Updated: )
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SINGAPORE: It's no wonder work-life balance is a commonly discussed topic in modern societies like Singapore.

For one, we're always complaining about how "awful" our work-life balance is, according to a 2016 survey by salary benchmarking site Emolument.

Never mind that significant progress has been made through schemes that promote flexible working arrangements in local companies.

In the early 1990s, "work-life balance" became a popular topic thanks to Juliet Schor's book The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. She explored how employment had created such high demands on Americans that there had been a sharp decline in the quality of their life due to a lack of leisure time.

Most Singaporeans would agree that the situation is not any different today. In fact, the current talk in Singapore is that work-life balance is at best an ideal to strive towards.

At worst, work-life balance is proverbial, elusive and even depressing to think about

Yet the debate surrounding work-life balance in government, industry and academia often occurs without a clear understanding of what it is.
NOT A 50/50 DIVIDE
Furthermore, various interpretations of work-life balance are based entirely on misconceptions about work, life and employee attitudes.

First, many of us think of work-life balance as an equal distribution of time between work and non-work activities.

This 50/50 approach to assessing work-life balance pits both work and life against one another.

It also suggests that life as a whole is something we can divide as we wish.

But "work" and "life" are elastic. We are constantly reinforcing or redefining our work-life boundaries in response to our needs, constraints and life phases.

Work-life balance is subjective and unique to each of us.

The nature of our work and life demands and responsibilities are different, so we tend to have our own preferences for managing our work and non-work roles.

For example, the self-employed (including freelancers and small business owners) are known to work longer hours per week, often working through weekends and even forgoing holidays. Yet in studies involving the self-employed, most seemed to be more satisfied with their work-life balance than employees holding a 9-to-5 office job.
A commentary on why soldiering on at work is bone-headed. ONE-SIDED CONVERSATION ABOUT WORK

More recently, work-life studies are showing that individuals who seem to "have it all" thrive on a sense of balance rooted in a strong belief in their own ability and daily recovery from work- or life-related stress.

Second, work experiences are often discussed in a bad light, such that any interference from work to non-work is bound to be harmful. The conversation surrounding work-life balance remains largely one-sided.

Work is often associated with stress, anxiety, conflict (with colleagues, supervisors and family members) and other negative health-related symptoms (including insomnia and heart disease). It is seen as an activity that intrudes into other non-work spheres (relating to the family, social, and community) and reduces an individual's overall well-being.

On the contrary, we derive resources (including psychological, physical, intellectual and monetary gains) from multiple life roles including work. Other than monetary benefits from work that are needed to sustain livelihood, all of us experience satisfaction, fulfilment, a sense of purpose, skill and knowledge enhancements from our work.
WORK AND LIFE SHOULD BE SEPARATED
As a result, we are better able to cope with the demands and challenges arising from other non-work spheres. We also feel happier, more optimistic and confident.

Such a phenomenon is called "work-to-family enrichment". Its positive impact on employees' well-being and life satisfaction has been proven in many studies.

The other common misconception is that work and life should be separated.

The ideal of compartmentalising our work and non-work spheres may sound appealing in a self-help book, but we all know reality is much more fluid.

Dual earner couples are now the norm in Singapore. The older norms of a breadwinner husband and a homemaker wife are fast becoming irrelevant.

As anyone who has received a call from their child's school during work hours knows, the barrier between our professional and domestic spheres now resembles a door more than a wall.
NEED TO GO BEYOND ZERO-SUM APPROACH TO WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Individuals no longer make a strict or marked distinction between work and non-work as they progress through each day. They work when needed, and attend to non-work demands when needed.

With mobile devices, Singaporeans are now able to switch between their work and non-work spheres by making use of flexible working arrangements, where offered by their employers.

Successfully managing the work-life interface has been shown to lead to increased creativity, organisational commitment and well-being. To achieve this in Singapore, we need to appreciate the complex relationship between work and life.

We need to go beyond the current zero-sum approach to work-life balance.

Work-life balance is definitely achievable, supported by flexible working arrangements, the strategic use of mobile devices and realistic work-life balance goals.

The underlying assumptions the current work-life debate draws upon need to be re-examined. What are the factors contributing to the perceived lack of work-life balance? Is it the time pressure, or the long work hours?

Might it be that in companies' unending quest for higher productivity, the work tempo of employees has actually gotten worse?

Or could it be that changing consumer behaviour and lifestyle aspirations are driving Singaporeans to work harder to climb the career ladder, sacrificing their non-work priorities in the process?

Another relevant issue is the gendered division of labour that pervades Singapore, such that married working women continue to contribute more to caregiving and household chores than married working men.
Carys Chan is assistant professor at RMIT University's College of Business. David Cheng is lecturer at the Australian National University's College of Business and Economics. Justin Field is principal organisational development consultant at Oracle and adjunct lecturer at the University of New England's Business School.
Unfortunately, none of the ongoing debates on work-life balance seem to be discussing these issues.

We need to start having a conversation on matters more relevant to a balanced work-life, which would enhance Singaporeans' job satisfaction, family satisfaction and life satisfaction.

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Commentary: Let's review our assumptions about work-life balance

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Successfully managing our work-life balance can lead to better well-being but we need to first appreciate the complex relationship between work and life, say three business observers. (Updated: ) Share this content SINGAPORE: It's no wonder work-life balance is a commonly discussed topic in modern societies like Singapore.

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3. Surfacing issues from the video and text

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3. Surfacing issues from the video and text

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In point form, identify the top three issues raised in both the article and the video.

Please include your name in your comment.
Example :

Cindy
1) Lack of __________________
2) Overt emphasis on __________
3) Social aspect of ___________

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4. Find out more about Subject-based banding and give reasons for the government's initiative

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4. Find out more about Subject-based banding and give reasons for the government's initiative

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What are some concerns or reservations you have about SBB? Post two concerns/reservations and comment on one of your peer's response.

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Ministry of Education Committee of Supply Debate 2019

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Find out more about MOE's Committee of Supply Debate 2019 here

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provide 3 points for the following question:

3)What have I learnt?