Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . In the recent Committee of Supply Debate, Workers' Party MP Jamus Lim called for smaller class sizes in Singapore's schools . Class sizes now average 33 pupils. MP Lim proposed a cap of 23 pupils. As he argued in his Facebook post, "It all depends on what we think the purpose of the classroom is. Is it to simply deliver the material in the prescribed syllabus, leaving the onus of understanding to the student? Or is it to foster genuine learning, ensuring no child is left in the dark? There’s nothing inherently wrong with the first position. In fact, that’s what often happens at the tertiary level; the student is expected to take ownership of their education. But if it is the latter, especially the lower levels, then I think our system falls short." It is a mistake to view education as "delivering the material in the prescribed syllabus" at any level of the system. As the o...

Weekly column written for Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Gaudy Boy, our imprint for publishing Asian voices, has been from the start a team effort. Our Managing Editor Kimberley Lim was instrumental in setting up operations in 2018. We were soon joined by Judy Luo as an editorial intern. With her sharp literary intelligence, Judy has been so valuable in assessing new manuscripts that we are over the moon that she has accepted the role of Assistant Editor, beginning yesterday. Last summer Jia Sing Chu came on board as a publicity intern. You have seen her thoughtful and beautiful social media posts promoting the press and our books. We are absolutely delighted that she is undertaking a bigger role as our new Assistant Publicity Director. Congratulations, Judy and Chu! We are sad to bid farewell to Kathryn Monaco, our Marketing Director. Her expanded duties in her day job now demand her whole attention. Kathryn spearheaded our Instagram outreach, putting our books in th...