We all marvel at the innovations of Apple. Driven by its dynamic and highly innovative leader Steve Jobs, we have seen the company move from near obscurity and demise to one of the most forward-thinking and prosperous companies in Silicon Valley. Not only have they revolutionised the computer and phone by practically merging those devices, but they have also re-oriented the music industry. The company has created a brand that is synonymous with radical innovation that have serves up the iMac, iBook, iPod and iPod nano, iPhone and, most recently, the iPad. Their collaboration with the music industry to create iTunes has placed them in a much better position in the music industry than long-established recording companies.
Apple's comeback journey started with the return of Jobs to Apple in 1997, when the company was at the brink of failing. To help rebrand the company he brought in new talent with a mandate to make the computer more simple and sleek while being very functional. He also created an advertising campaign that featured radical thinkers and leaders who challenged the status quo, like Martin Luther King Jr, Einstein and the Dali Lama, with a two-word slogan: think differently. Many analysts believe that this advertising campaign was not only aimed at the general public, but his main focus of the campaign was to get his own employees to think differently.
Mankind has risen to the top of the food chain because we have been able to innovate in radical ways. We are ever searching to find new ways to relate to our environment and create new ways to solve old problems. Some maybe to be inclined to say that like the yesteryear cartoon character Topcat, we have been so smart it would seem that we have even outsmarted ourselves. Take, for instance, the way we have moved forward to create industries and economies based on the prevalence of fossil fuel, which is now destroying the planet. That itself would now call for radical innovation and reorganisation if we are to secure a better future for our children.
What is clear is that like Steve Jobs and Apple, we need to think differently in the way we see the world and how we perceive the solutions to modern day problems. To make that happen, we need to establish a culture of innovation in the way our young minds are trained and developed. It might be difficult to teach people to be creative, but we can provide the learning environment where their creative side is encouraged, rewarded and enhanced. This must be uppermost in our minds when we are thinking of tinkering with our education system. For example, the recent announcement of the plans to move the SEA examination to May. This would mean that rather than have the exam at the end of the second term, it would now be held in the third term. Have we really thought of the implications of such a move?
Already some organisations, like the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, has voiced its reservation as it would affect their Baal Vikash Competition, which develops and exposes the musical and other artistical talents of primary school students. I am surprised that I have not heard an objection from the Primary Schools Cricket Council and, by extension, the TTCB. Depending on the time in May that the exam is held, students would have to choose between cricket and exams, and no right-thinking parent would have their kids playing cricket when they are preparing for SEA. I am sure that there are other activities on the school calendar which are vital to the holistic development of the child that is usually placed in the third term when the students are free from the drills of the SEA, and which will now be affected.
One of the main reasons to justify moving the examination is that it would give the children more time to prepare. This raised another set of relevant questions such as: do we need to give more time or streamline the syllabus? Can those young minds take an extra month of the rigor of SEA preparation? Getting our children to think differently means getting their creative juices flowing in a pressure-free environment and that means all-round development and not more of the same linear thinking.
There is a reason why children like to draw, paint, dance and play. It is fun for them and it is nature's way of having them develop in a way that best for them. When we impose a strict academic syllabus on them, it stifles their natural learning style and education becomes a chore.
The match through the primary school system with a steady diet of academic drills that crescendos with the SEA very often beat their creative side into submission. If we destroy the chance to rekindle that spirit with sports, music and dance and other artistic exposition that is left to happen in the third term of the school year, we are destined to create more clones than thinkers. I know there are plans to introduce some new examinable area, such as drama and dance. Here again we need to be mindful of what we are trying to achieve.
Remember SEA exams are molded within a certain mindset of drills and marks. Taking what should be fun and making it examinable in a SEA context could cause the well intended purpose to move far from sight. When we think of the fact that we have secondary school places for all yet still there is pressure in writing the SEA examination, it means more is in the mix. The reason is that there is the grab for places in what is seen as the better schools. The answer, therefore, is not to be juggling calendars but bringing all schools up to a standard and creating specialist schools for different areas. Think differently!
Balraj Kistow is a member of faculty,
Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.