6: Soft skills are totally neglected by (some) teachers
7: General education and Asian parents
8. Asian parenting, yes I blame Asian culture.
This then allows the parent to guide the child on the right career path: so it is yes to journalism and a flat no to engineering. It seems obvious when I explain it like this: in life you pick your battles, you play to your strengths to maximize your chances of success. But somehow, even this little piece of common sense has eluded a lot of Singaporean parents and they are the problem (rather than the system per se).