Some of the stress teenagers in Singapore face
December 9, 2010
Singapore is a pleasant city to live in, clean to the point of obsessive, full of greenery and generally safe. Yet at the same time, it is also one of the most competitive and driven places in the world. There exist a perpetual rush, from the home to the workplace, to achieve the highly desired “5 Cs: Car, Condominium, Credit card, Club and Career”, to reach the top of the corporate ladder, or simply to be the very best. The chronic problem with Singapore is that its always rushing to get somewhere, time that is wasted is time that you’ll be regretting later. You should always go the extra mile or twenty because if you don’t, you would lose out to your neighbors. This “Kiasu” mentality, or loosely translated, the fear of losing, has permeated every level of Singaporean life, including the lives of teenagers.
Sure enough, most teenagers in Singapore face the generic teenager stresses, such as relationship stresses, the pressure imposed by the change of expectations due to the transition towards adulthood, but for the majority of the population, the predominant stress is the fear of becoming a social failure, of not achieving enough As to get into the school of their choice, of being looked down by their peers in the future because of mistakes they make now. It is scary to contemplate, but many youths have an unhealthy fear of failure.
While I applaud the ministry of education’s attempt at providing appropriate education for different academic capabilities of students, its sad to note that its laudable efforts has seemed to backfire in the face of Singaporean Kiasuism. As quipped in the popular social commentary “I Not Stupid”, people are obsessed with academic grading and getting into “Institutes of Technical Education” or ITEs for short has been seen as social suicide, or “It’s the End” for teenagers.
In a society that is often quick to judge, and not particularly discerning about their judgments, teenagers in Singapore are driven to be stressed about every grade that they get, every single point that they receive and every tick or cross that flashes across their often myopic eyes. Young students that are getting exceptional grades in school, often see themselves as lacking, leading to several of them as young as 10-11 years old choosing to end their own lives, than to face what they perceive as a dead-end future. It is a distressing phenomenon and one that has to be stopped.
