In 2004, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong introduced the idea of “Teach Less, Learn More” as the next step under
the Thinking Schools, Learning Nation umbrella. Its aim was to open up more “white space” in the curriculum to
engage students more deeply in learning. Despite the system’s widely-recognised successes, learners were still
seen as too passive, overloaded with content, driven to perform, but not necessarily inspired. Teach Less, Learn
More aims to “touch the hearts and engage the minds of learners by promoting a different learning paradigm in
which there is less dependence on rote learning, repetitive tests and instruction, and more on engaged learning,
discovery through experiences, differentiated teaching, learning of lifelong skills, and the building of character
through innovative and effective teaching approaches and strategies.” (Ho Peng, interview conducted for this report)
Further moves in this direction were made in 2008 with an envisioning exercise that led to Curriculum 2015.
According to Ho Peng, Director General of Education in the Singapore ministry of Education, this review asserted
that the Singapore education system had strong holding power and important strengths in literacy, mathematics and
science, and that these should remain. However, it needed to do better on the soft skills that enable future learning.
In addition, “the overload of information has put a premium on the ability to do critical analysis. Working across
cultures will require language skills and a larger world view” (Ng, 2008).