Reflection on ES1102 journey

When I was informed that I had to take this compulsory module, instead of feeling dreadful, I was rather glad that I am given another opportunity to learn and improve English under the guidance of a professor. Indeed, after the whole course, I reflected and realised that I have really learnt and benefitted a lot from this module.

From young, I have low confidence towards my ability to write and converse in English language. Being afraid of making a ridicule of myself in front of others, I hardly talk to people who speaks English and will never post on any social media websites. This module enabled me to step out of my comfort zone by posting comments on the Facebook page as well as creating a blog to post my own article. Initially, I found it uncomfortable and was very conscious of my English Language. However, as time past, I realised that I could post and comment things more comfortably and I felt more confident about my English language. I feel that having confidence is the first step to improvement. This is because with confidence, it will then encourage me to write more and improve from my mistakes.

I feel that the whole idea of posting my essay on the blog as well as commenting on my peers’ essay is really beneficial to me. Not only did I have the opportunity to receive feedback from my teacher and peers, I also can read and comment on my peers’ essay and learn from it. Through identifying their mistakes, I became more critical towards the language of my own essay.

After writing the drafts and receiving feedback from my teacher and peers, I feel more at ease to construct sentences. In the past, constructing a smooth sentence is the most difficult part in my writing. I could not phrase my ideas in proper sentences and connect my ideas, making my essay seemed disjointed and unpersuasive. As I edit my essay drafts after drafts, I realised that I can write in a way such that my ideas flow more smoothly as compared to the past. This can be attributed to the class discussing on my peer’s essay where I learnt the various ways to construct sentences. By learning the errors and correcting them, it can make a difference in my own writing.

Although I have improved a lot in terms of constructing sentences, I feel that this is not enough and more improvements are required. I realised that the sentences I constructed lacks complexity and the vocabulary that I have knowledge on are very limited. Without the guidance of Brad as well as the comments from my friends, what I can do after this module is to read up more articles especially the newspaper to learn the language and vocabulary they used. I believe that the most effective way to learn English language or any type of languages is through practicing, reading is not sufficient as we need to apply what we have learnt in order to ensure that I my learning is fruitful. What I will do is that I will continue use a blog as a platform for me to post my articles and essay.

I am very grateful to have Brad as my mentor and the feedback he gave me really helps me to improve a lot not only in terms of language but also ideas. In conclusion, I feel that learning to step out of my comfort zone is one of the fastest way to learn and to learn English well, I know that I need to speak up and practice writing more in the future.

Final Draft on Research Essay

An evaluation of the effectiveness of using education as a solution to reduce income inequality within Singapore

In Goldin’s (2009) lecture, he mentions several problems that are rising due to globalisation, one of which is that “globalisation is not inclusive” and many people are left out of its benefits, resulting in income inequality. Income inequality is the difference in wealth between households. A large income gap within households indicates that there is a large difference in income between the rich and poor families. This is undesirable as it would cause an unstable society. Statistics have shown that people in developed countries have more capability and knowledge to reap more benefits from globalisation than those in less developed countries. This is supported by Ogunsola (2005), who acknowledged that “the more developed countries reap the lion share of the benefits while the less developed bypass the benefits” of globalisation. However, income inequality can also exist within countries. This can be seen in the case of Singapore. Although Singapore is ranked as one of the top countries for the highest GDP per capita, it has a significantly high Gini coefficient of 0.463 as of 2013, indicating that large income inequality exists within Singapore.

To address the problem on large income inequality, the education of citizens is adopted by Singapore government as one of the strategies. Education is also a globally recognised tool that can benefit and allow people to escape the poverty trap. For example UNESCO (2014) which recognises education as a solution to alleviate poverty adopted a mission called “Education for All” to promote education.

I feel that equipping the younger generations with higher level of education is an effective tool that can help to reduce income inequality between households in Singapore in the long run. The importance of education to reduce income inequality can be seen easily by comparing the difference in the income level between different people with different education levels. Davie (2012) mentioned that starting salaries of diploma holders in Singapore are estimated to be around $2000 while those of degree holders are $3000. It can be said that people without these qualifications will not be able to reach salaries of those stated. Qualification represents knowledge and capability in this society and individuals who are highly educated will more likely be highly sought for by the knowledge based economy as compared to the people who have lower level of education. This shows that as long as the poor are educated and have the required knowledge, they will be able to have the opportunity to leave the poverty trap and reduce the income inequality within Singapore.

In addition, Ji (2012) did an analysis on the education policies of countries including Japan and Korea which place a strong emphasis on equity in terms of opportunities for education. She mentioned that education policies focusing on ensuring availability of equal education for all might be a particularly useful way for countries to increase earning mobility between generations and reduce income inequality over time. Singapore, similar to Japan and Korea, also focuses on equity in education in terms of providing opportunities for all the individuals in Singapore. For example, all Singaporean are required to have compulsory primary education. To ensure that no families are denied of this opportunity, education for Singaporean students is subsidised for the needy families and every student is given a sum of money in their Edusave account annually. In addition, many different educational paths are available for the children after their primary school education to encourage the less academically inclined students to further their studies. For example, besides the conventional schools, Singapore also set up sports schools and School Of The Arts (SOTA) to encourage the students who do not do well to continue with their studies to develop their potential and pursuit their area of interest. The Singapore’s education policy is directed in such a way that the newer generations have equal opportunities in attaining at least primary school education. In addition, individuals also are encouraged to study beyond primary school. These will create a future workforce that has a higher level of education. It is believed that having highly educated workforce, the income inequality in Singapore will be reduced gradually.

The limitation of using education as a tool is that it requires a long time for the effects to be observed. Furthermore, it is impossible to eliminate income inequality in reality. I believe that income inequality can be reduced when the education level of the entire workforce increase as a whole. However this is a long process that requires decades to achieve this. This can be supported by the statistics from the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore (2013) which revealed through a span of 10 years from 2003 to 2013, the percentage of workforce that attained tertiary education increased by about 15%. This suggest that it still requires a long time for Singapore to obtain an even higher percentage of tertiary educated worker.

Currently, a phenomenon observed in Singapore’s society is that as the Singapore’s workforce gets more opportunity for education, the income gap increases. Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower of Singapore (2013) revealed that 49.9% of the workforce possessed tertiary education in 2013 as compared to 34.6% in 2003. However, within this same period, the Singapore Department of Statistics (2013) indicated that the Gini coefficient increased from 0.457 to 0.463. As the new generation of young individuals with higher qualification enters the work force and obtain a relatively higher salary than the lesser educated, it can be expected that the income inequality is going to further increase. This effect is further worsen when lower educated foreigner who demands lesser pay enter our workforce and push down the lower income bracket.

To alleviate such limitation, the government can adopt strategies like promoting further education for the less educated individuals who are already in the workforce. By doing this, each individual may become more specialised in doing their work, which can allow them to demand for higher salary. Educating this group of less educated workforce may also makes them more irreplaceable as compared to the foreigners who do not have that particular skill. By doing this, we will be able to increase or at least maintain the salary of this group of workforce who tend to have relatively lower income due to their lower education.

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power”. Education and knowledge are now one of the crucial keys to success and wealth in the Singapore society. I believe that education will be an effective tool to reduce income inequality in the long run when majority of the people have attained higher qualifications or knowledge in their specialisation. However, due to the different professions that exist and the different professions will be rewarded differently in terms of salary within the society, income inequality never be eliminated. But I feel that income inequality is not a major problem as long as most of the people have enough salary to earn a living.  

References

Davie, S. (2013, May 18). Is a degree really all-important?. The Straits Times. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/degree-really-all-important-20130518

Department of Statistic Singapore. (2013). Key Household Income Trends, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf.

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file].  Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Ji, E. C. (2012, April 25). How can education help tackle rising income inequality?. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.sg/2012/04/how-can-education-help-tackle-rising.html?m=1.

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2012). Singapore Workforce, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Publications/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2012.pdf

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2013). Labour Force in Singapore, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd_2013LabourForce.pdf#page=21

Ogunsola, L. A. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies and the Effects of Globalization: Twenty-First Century "Digital Slavery" for Developing Countries--Myth or Reality?.  Retrieved from March 25, 2014, from Obafemi Awolowo University, http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v06n01/ogunsola_l01.htm

UNESCO. (2014). Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century.

Reflection on class presentation

Since young, I always feel that it is a great challenge for me to present my ideas formally in front of a group of people due to my lack of confidence in my English language ability. However, I am aware that presenting skills is very important in today’s society, this is an especially important aspect for my intended future career, teaching.

This class presentation not only gives me an opportunity to present my essay and receive feedback from my teacher and peers, it also gives me the opportunity to observe how my peers present and learn from their presentation. Through my friend’s presentation, it also led me to reflect on my own presentation. I realised that in a presentation, depending on who is the audience, I need to explain some terminologies well. For example, in my presentation, I introduces “Gini-coefficient” without explaining the meaning of it. Also, I also learnt that I need to engage my audience more by having more eye contact with the audience.

I feel that it is good to introduce this class presentation aspect to the future batch of students taking this module. Although most of us dreaded giving presentations, it is undeniable that this opportunity valuable as we can learn how to present formally and receive feedbacks on our presenting skills. This skills is definitely useful to prepare ourselves for presentations in other modules which we will be graded in both the content and delivery.

If this class presentation is to be made compulsory for the future batch of students, I would suggest that it can be placed earlier in the semester where the students are still less tied down by other modules and they will have more time to prepare. In addition, since it is supposed to be a learning process for the students, it will be better if it remains ungraded so that students can treat it as a learning process rather than preparing it just for the grades.

I am very motivated by the TED talk, instead of hiding from what we fear, we should grab hold of all the opportunities and face our fear. Fake that we can do it until we really can do it without fear. This really motivates me to speak up more so that I can be a better speaker in the future.