Having spent several decades watching Singapore’s education system evolve, I have seen some remarkable changes in the way our children learn. I have also seen some habits that are much harder to change.

One of the things that concerns me most today is not whether our students have enough knowledge. Many of them do. It is whether they are developing the ability to think independently about what they know.

This has become particularly apparent to me through my work teaching Trinity College London Communication Skills.

I have taught the programme for around 16 years, and the changes to the syllabus in 2025 made me look at communication skills in a rather different way. The earlier syllabus already placed importance on research, presentation, delivery and spontaneous speaking. However, the revised syllabus places a much stronger and more explicit emphasis on analysis, critical thinking and considering different perspectives, particularly at the higher grades.

At Grades 6, 7 and 8, students are increasingly expected to do more than present information. They have to analyse it, question it, evaluate it and form their own conclusions.

When the changes were first introduced, I wondered whether so much emphasis on analysis was really necessary for a communication skills examination.

After teaching the new syllabus, I have changed my mind.

I now think the timing was remarkably appropriate.

Communication has changed because the world has changed

The arrival of artificial intelligence has made these skills more important than ever.

A student today can ask AI to research a topic, summarise information, suggest arguments, structure a presentation or even improve a piece of writing within seconds.

That can be incredibly useful.

But there is a danger if students simply accept whatever AI produces.

They need to ask: Is this information accurate? Is it relevant to my question? What might be missing? Is there another perspective? Does the evidence actually support the conclusion?

In other words, students need to know how to think about the information, not simply how to obtain it.

This is why I believe critical thinking is becoming a fundamental communication skill.

Singapore is already moving towards greater AI literacy in education, and this makes the ability to evaluate information particularly important. Students will need to understand not only how to use these tools, but also how to question and verify what they produce.

Are we giving students enough opportunities to think for themselves?

This is where my concern comes from.

Over the years, I have noticed that many secondary school students are very comfortable when they are given a clear task, a model answer and something to practise.

The difficulty often begins when there is no obvious answer.

Ask a student, “What do you think?” and I sometimes hear, “What is the correct answer?”

Ask them to review their own work and they may wait for the teacher to tell them what is wrong.

This is not the case with every student. I have taught many young people who are curious, independent and willing to challenge ideas. They ask thoughtful questions and are prepared to work things out for themselves.

But I feel that this needs to become much more common.

There is nothing wrong with tuition or structured teaching. Both can provide valuable support. My concern is what happens when students become so accustomed to being taught that they rarely have to struggle through a problem independently.

Education should not only be about learning the answers. It should also be about learning how to find them.

I learned this lesson myself

This is something I learnt personally when I went to university in the United States.

I remember taking a humanities course as a freshman. Having grown up in Singapore, I expected my university lecturers to teach me and provide me with the knowledge I needed.

Instead, my professor told us that the purpose of university was not simply to give us information. It was to teach us how to teach ourselves.

At the time, that was a rather shocking idea.

Looking back, it was probably one of the most important lessons I received from my education.

Much of what I have learnt since then has come from teaching myself. I have spent years reading, researching, asking questions and pursuing subjects simply because I wanted to understand them better.

That habit of learning independently has stayed with me throughout my life.

It is also the habit I would most like to see more of in our students.

The skill students cannot outsource

There is another issue I increasingly notice in my teaching: self-editing.

Students are often very willing to let someone else tell them what needs to be improved. The teacher corrects the work, explains the problem and the student makes the changes.

That is useful when learning.

But eventually, the student has to take responsibility for the process.

They need to be able to look at their own work and ask:

Does this make sense?

Have I actually answered the question?

Is my argument convincing?

What could I explain more clearly?

What would someone who disagrees with me say?

AI can help with this process, but it should not replace it.

Otherwise, we risk moving from dependence on teachers to dependence on technology.

The goal should be neither.

The goal should be independence.

Preparing students for the world ahead

I do not believe our education system is failing. Singapore has many excellent schools, teachers and students, and our students work incredibly hard.

But the world they are entering is changing very quickly.

The ability to memorise information will remain useful, but information itself is becoming increasingly easy to obtain. The more valuable skill may be knowing what to do with that information.

Students will need to research, question, analyse, evaluate, make decisions and communicate their conclusions clearly.

That is why I have come to appreciate the direction Trinity has taken with its revised Communication Skills programme.

It is no longer enough for students to know what to say. Increasingly, they need to understand why they think what they think, and be able to explain it.

Perhaps this is something we should all be encouraging, both inside and outside the classroom.

We should give young people opportunities to work things out for themselves.

We should allow them to make mistakes before immediately giving them the answer.

We should encourage them to question information rather than simply collect it.

And, most importantly, we should teach them that learning does not stop when the teacher stops talking.

In a world where AI can produce an answer in seconds, perhaps one of the most important things we can teach our children is how to stop, think and decide whether that answer is worth accepting.

The future may belong not to those who know the most, but to those who know how to think, learn and keep learning for themselves.

About Jackeline Carter

Jackeline Carter is the Founder of J Carter Centre for Public Speaking and has been coaching children and teenagers in public speaking and communication skills for over 16 years. With decades of experience observing the evolution of education in Singapore and having worked with students across different age groups and abilities, she has developed a particular interest in how young people learn, think and communicate. Her work with the Trinity College London Communication Skills programme has given her a close view of the growing importance of critical thinking, analysis and independent learning in preparing students for a rapidly changing world.