Rethinking talent: Lessons beyond the grading curve

As exam season returns, the writer wonders if Singapore’s definition of talent is too narrow for the challenges ahead.

- Yeo Whee Jim

One story stays with me whenever the season of high-stakes exams returns to torment many in our nation — as it is doing so now. My daughter sat her PSLE several years ago. She was usually quite calm about such things: the sort who would shrug off and smile at the endless advice that poured in from well-meaning uncles and aunties.

But even she, a few nights before the start of exams, broke out in a cold sweat and found herself unable to sleep. For a child raised to take things in her stride, this was the first real taste of pressure; as a parent, it was a sobering glimpse of just how heavy the education system can feel in Singapore.

We like to tell ourselves that talent rises to the top. In many ways, it does. Our small nation has built a system where hard work in the classroom is the surest ticket to success.

The model had served us well. Yet, as the world turns more unpredictable and with technological advancements, it is time to ask ourselves: Have we confused talent for skill? Have we trusted too much in what can be drilled, coached and rehearsed, and at what social costs?

Sure, such skills matter. But exams often reward what can be sharpened by repetition, not necessarily the quirks of curiosity, empathy, resilience or creative thinking that has been carrying us through the storms.

As parents, and as a society, we need to widen our lens. Talent does not live only in a straight-A script or a leadership badge. It can just as easily shine in a resourceful bus captain, in a tactful nurse, in a technician whose eyes light up solving a puzzle that has stumped his team. Our national task ahead must be to recognise, nurture and open doors for all kinds of talent, not just those marked out by the old certainties.

Yes, exams still matter. But we need to see beyond rank orderings and to give every person the room to grow into forms of talent we might not yet fully understand.

SKILLS VERSUS TALENT