I actually know the guy. He is a personal friend of Ravi Menon, used to stay at Horizon Tower next Grangeford where the Lee Brother used to stay. I recall he mention that the younger Lee bought him beer at the army mess. When he mentioned all this I was wondering if this guy has issue with his own ability and a desperate need to be associated with someone prominent. You know the type - talk big but has a small dick.
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Serious The PISA Fallacy...
- Thread starter zhihau
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Latest.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/aussie-magazine-pulls-out-article-moe-called-fake-news
Aussie magazine pulls out article MOE called 'fake news'
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as "fake news" by Singapore's Education Ministry (MOE), and apologised "without reservation".
PUBLISHED3 HOURS AGO
FACEBOOK9TWITTEREMAIL
Managing editor of publication apologises 'without reservation'
Yuen Sin
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as "fake news" by Singapore's Education Ministry (MOE), and apologised "without reservation".
The article, which was published in its August issue and was widely shared, had quoted MOE director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong as telling an international conference here in May that Singapore is "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear".
But MOE on Monday described the statements in the article, written by Mr Walter Barbieri, as "completely false" and " fake news". According to his Linkedin profile, Mr Barbieri is the director of eLearning at St Peter's College in Adelaide.
In the interest of "full transparency", MOE yesterday released an unedited video and the transcript of Mr Wong's 35-minute speech he delivered on the first day of the National Institute of Education's (NIE) Redesigning Pedagogy international conference.
Mr Grant Quarry, Australian Teacher Magazine's managing editor, told The Straits Times yesterday that it is investigating the matter and has been trying to contact the author for clarification.
In the interim, the report's webpage on EducationHQ, which publishes the magazine, was updated with an editor's note explaining why the article had been withdrawn.
Article carrying MOE remarks on Singapore's 'culture of compliance' is fake news, says MOE
"In the light of the evidence presented, and in the absence of alternative evidence to support the author at this stage, EducationHQ has withdrawn the story and apologises without reservation for any offence caused," said the note.
Mr Barbieri did not respond to queries from The Straits Times.
In his article, he had claimed that Mr Wong compared Singapore's stellar academic results in 2015's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) with the data on student well-being and innovation in the economy, which placed Singapore in the lowest quartile.
According to the article, Mr Wong attributed Singapore's Pisa success to standardised test drilling and a culture of compliance, and said at the conference: "We've been winning the wrong race."
The online article chalked up about 3,500 shares earlier this week. The earlier print version of the article had also mistakenly attributed the quotes to Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng before it was edited and attributed to Mr Wong instead in the online article.
According to the transcript and video recording provided by MOE, Mr Wong did not refer to the Pisa rankings - which Singapore students topped for reading, mathematics and science - in his speech. Instead, Mr Wong said that the literacy levels of Singapore students have "improved tremendously".
"They are now reading, writing, speaking in a very high level. They are learning their mathematics well, they're able to solve a lot of mathematical problems very competently," he added.
NIE said that this was the only speech that Mr Wong gave at the conference and that no other speakers had made comments similar to what was purported in the article, to the best of its knowledge.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/aussie-magazine-pulls-out-article-moe-called-fake-news
Aussie magazine pulls out article MOE called 'fake news'
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as "fake news" by Singapore's Education Ministry (MOE), and apologised "without reservation".
PUBLISHED3 HOURS AGO
FACEBOOK9TWITTEREMAIL
Managing editor of publication apologises 'without reservation'
Yuen Sin
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as "fake news" by Singapore's Education Ministry (MOE), and apologised "without reservation".
The article, which was published in its August issue and was widely shared, had quoted MOE director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong as telling an international conference here in May that Singapore is "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear".
But MOE on Monday described the statements in the article, written by Mr Walter Barbieri, as "completely false" and " fake news". According to his Linkedin profile, Mr Barbieri is the director of eLearning at St Peter's College in Adelaide.
In the interest of "full transparency", MOE yesterday released an unedited video and the transcript of Mr Wong's 35-minute speech he delivered on the first day of the National Institute of Education's (NIE) Redesigning Pedagogy international conference.
Mr Grant Quarry, Australian Teacher Magazine's managing editor, told The Straits Times yesterday that it is investigating the matter and has been trying to contact the author for clarification.
In the interim, the report's webpage on EducationHQ, which publishes the magazine, was updated with an editor's note explaining why the article had been withdrawn.
Article carrying MOE remarks on Singapore's 'culture of compliance' is fake news, says MOE
"In the light of the evidence presented, and in the absence of alternative evidence to support the author at this stage, EducationHQ has withdrawn the story and apologises without reservation for any offence caused," said the note.
Mr Barbieri did not respond to queries from The Straits Times.
In his article, he had claimed that Mr Wong compared Singapore's stellar academic results in 2015's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) with the data on student well-being and innovation in the economy, which placed Singapore in the lowest quartile.
According to the article, Mr Wong attributed Singapore's Pisa success to standardised test drilling and a culture of compliance, and said at the conference: "We've been winning the wrong race."
The online article chalked up about 3,500 shares earlier this week. The earlier print version of the article had also mistakenly attributed the quotes to Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng before it was edited and attributed to Mr Wong instead in the online article.
According to the transcript and video recording provided by MOE, Mr Wong did not refer to the Pisa rankings - which Singapore students topped for reading, mathematics and science - in his speech. Instead, Mr Wong said that the literacy levels of Singapore students have "improved tremendously".
"They are now reading, writing, speaking in a very high level. They are learning their mathematics well, they're able to solve a lot of mathematical problems very competently," he added.
NIE said that this was the only speech that Mr Wong gave at the conference and that no other speakers had made comments similar to what was purported in the article, to the best of its knowledge.
must be wary of all the bs posted online. 69% shitty and fake news.
This guy ought to give a response.
On the contrary, I thought those are nuggets of wisdom.
A pliant society will bring about its own downfall. Think about it.
I agree. He does not need to explain himself. Hopefully Papsmearer via Ravi Menon can reach the guy.
Do you mean he DOES need to explain himself?
Sinkies are better off sticking to the Straits Times and ChannelNews Asia. Most of the other social media platforms publish fake news and falsehoods.
Roy's popular blog on CPF has been found to be packed with defamatory lies and the Mothership in recent times had to retract two fake news articles.
You are guilty of fake news about new zealand stealing our cpf funds
And you came to this conclusion all by your lonesome self? Wow. Impressive. :kma:
When you see that most of the school age kids around you are dour and sad looking and seems to be always trudging to tuition in their heavy backpacks (even on weekends) - the society is truly damned.
'' There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children''-. Nelson Mandela
'' There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children''-. Nelson Mandela
It looks like another SIA NKF Durai episode where staff and management of SIA knew full well that Durai was travelling on 1st class but did not step forward and stop the lawsuit for defamation. Only after SPH took on Durai that the truth came out.
None of the conference participants who are Singaporeans will step forward.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...e-did-not-make-up-controversial-comments'Fake news' report: Author says that he did not make up controversial comments
PUBLISHED1 HOUR AGO
Yuen Sin
SINGAPORE - The author of an article containing statements that Ministry of Education (MOE) has branded as "fake news" maintains that they had not been made up, while acknowledging that he might have attributed them to the wrong person.
In a statement on Wednesday (Aug 30) published on the website of EducationHQ Australia, Mr Walter Barbieri, a freelance contributor to the site, apologised but stood by the remarks reported in his article: "I wrote the article in good faith and did not intend to cause any offence. I maintain that the words quoted were delivered at the conference, and convey my genuine apologies if I have attributed them to the wrong speaker."
Mr Barbieri's widely-shared article, published in the August issue of Australian Teacher Magazine, which comes under EducationHQ, had quoted MOE director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong as telling an international conference here in May that Singapore is "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear".
On Tuesday (Aug 28), MOE said that the statements in an article were false and Mr Wong had not delivered those comments. The conference organiser - the National Institute of Education (NIE) - had said that no other speakers had made comments similar to what was purported in the article.
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Mr Barbieri on Wednesday (Aug 30) did not say who might have made the statements at the conference.
He also did not provide further evidence indicating that the statements had indeed been made by Mr Wong or other speakers at the conference. Attempts by The Straits Times to reach the author, the director of eLearning at St Peter's College in Adelaide, were unsuccessful.
He had first attributed them to Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng in the article's print edition before attributing them to Mr Wong in the online version of the article.
mag30.jpg
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as
Related Story
Aussie magazine pulls out article MOE called 'fake news'
In its statement, EducationHQ said that it acknowledges that "quotes were wrongly attributed to Director General of the Ministry of Education, Mr Wong Siew Hoong."
It apologised "without reservation" for any offence the article may have caused. It added that "every effort is made on all occasions in our publications to ensure information presented is factually accurate, however in this instance we have fallen short of our lofty standards. Naturally we will be making every effort to ensure this does not happen again."
Australian Teacher Magazine said that it will be publishing a correction in its next edition in reference to the printed version of the article in question.
The Straits Times has reached out to MOE and NIE for comment.
None of the conference participants who are Singaporeans will step forward.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...e-did-not-make-up-controversial-comments'Fake news' report: Author says that he did not make up controversial comments
PUBLISHED1 HOUR AGO
Yuen Sin
SINGAPORE - The author of an article containing statements that Ministry of Education (MOE) has branded as "fake news" maintains that they had not been made up, while acknowledging that he might have attributed them to the wrong person.
In a statement on Wednesday (Aug 30) published on the website of EducationHQ Australia, Mr Walter Barbieri, a freelance contributor to the site, apologised but stood by the remarks reported in his article: "I wrote the article in good faith and did not intend to cause any offence. I maintain that the words quoted were delivered at the conference, and convey my genuine apologies if I have attributed them to the wrong speaker."
Mr Barbieri's widely-shared article, published in the August issue of Australian Teacher Magazine, which comes under EducationHQ, had quoted MOE director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong as telling an international conference here in May that Singapore is "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear".
On Tuesday (Aug 28), MOE said that the statements in an article were false and Mr Wong had not delivered those comments. The conference organiser - the National Institute of Education (NIE) - had said that no other speakers had made comments similar to what was purported in the article.
Get The Straits Times
newsletters in your inbox
SIGN UP
Mr Barbieri on Wednesday (Aug 30) did not say who might have made the statements at the conference.
He also did not provide further evidence indicating that the statements had indeed been made by Mr Wong or other speakers at the conference. Attempts by The Straits Times to reach the author, the director of eLearning at St Peter's College in Adelaide, were unsuccessful.
He had first attributed them to Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng in the article's print edition before attributing them to Mr Wong in the online version of the article.
mag30.jpg
Australian Teacher Magazine yesterday withdrew an article which was labelled as
Related Story
Aussie magazine pulls out article MOE called 'fake news'
In its statement, EducationHQ said that it acknowledges that "quotes were wrongly attributed to Director General of the Ministry of Education, Mr Wong Siew Hoong."
It apologised "without reservation" for any offence the article may have caused. It added that "every effort is made on all occasions in our publications to ensure information presented is factually accurate, however in this instance we have fallen short of our lofty standards. Naturally we will be making every effort to ensure this does not happen again."
Australian Teacher Magazine said that it will be publishing a correction in its next edition in reference to the printed version of the article in question.
The Straits Times has reached out to MOE and NIE for comment.
Of course he was confused. Don't all orientals look alike ?
Seee3 was spot on! Do all the Chinamen look the same?
I don't expect mavericks coming from a pliant society. It will be interesting if there would be anyone stepping out.
I hope Lucien Wong and Davinder Singh are taking an interest in this case. The aussie white trash have defamed our good education leaders and sought to besmirch the good name of the MOE system. We should sue the author and the australian teacher magazine for $10 million dollars.
Mai Tu Liao! Altogether now!!! Huat ah!!!
Well Walter Barbieri certainly handed the MOE a perfect opportunity to discredit anyone who dares to criticise Singapore's deeply flawed education system. It's a great pity that the MOE has been able to portray the article as "fake news" though use of such a Trumpian term makes the MOE look rather silly and blunts its efforts to discredit Barbieri's article
Anyway, the article's quote that Singapore had been "winning the wrong race" in getting top PISA rankings while scoring so poorly on student well-being and economic innovation was correct, whoever might have said it at the NIE's 2017 educational conference workshop. The same applies to the comment that Singapore was "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear."
Both statements accurately describe how flawed Singapore's education system is and how misleading are the PISA (and TIMSS) rankings which make it appear world-class as any close examination of it will reveal. This system is high-pressure and test-driven. It kills creativity, the capacity for independent thinking, intellectual curiosity and the desire to learn. It's also highly stressful for students, teachers are parents. A major reason why Singaporeans leave Singapore and migrate to countries like Australia is to save their children from the high-stress and dehumanising school system in Singapore.
Moreover, while Singapore's education system produces great exam and test-taking athletes - as the city-state's top PISA and TIMSS global rankings for student achievement show - it poorly prepares Singaporean students for the local job market where innovation, initiative and creativity have become critical attributes for any modern 21st Century economy like Singapore's.
Many Singaporean employers see local graduates as inadequate, claiming they are devoid initiative and self-reliance. One Singaporean manager for a MNC said they were deficient in "independent thought, need spoonfeeding, were whiney and complained about everything". My book "Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality" contains a report of one survey of Singaporean employers which found that 70 per cent of NUS graduates had limited job-seeking skills, did not leave a good impression and lacked independence of mind and resourcefulness to be good employees.
Not surprisingly Singaporean employers often prefer to hire foreigners over locals. Hence the flood of "foreign talents" flooding into Singapore to take jobs which should go to the locals but don't because the latter are deemed inadequate and not job-ready by local employers.
Even Singapore's scholar elite - it's best and brightest - lack such attributes. And that includes the most exalted scholars who join the country's elite Administrative Service. Australian academics Michael Barr and Zlatko Skrbis, in their book "Constructing Singapore", reported how one "very senior civil servant" noted the problem of conformity, intellectual timidity and lack of imagination among AS recruits. While they had abundant technical and professional skills the civil servant said that more than 80 per cent of such recruits in one group he had contact with displayed no capacity for independent thought at all. And they were from the top 1 per cent of students in Singapore's school system!
Unfortunately, you would never know about Singapore's severely deficient education system if you believed in the veracity of its sky-high PISA/TIMSS rankings. Both organisations' methodologies are severely flawed, including their sampling methods. Numerous loopholes exist for education authorities to practice biased sampling which permits weaker students to be excluded from doing the tests. PISA and TIMSS allow the education authorities in the countries it surveys to conduct the tests. While both may have detailed protocols for the conduct of such tests these protocols leave much room for test-sampling procedures to be manipulated by local education officials in ways that boost their countries’ rankings.
Clear correlations have been found between the numbers of excluded students and higher scores on education achievement tests, according to several US researchers. One was Iris Rotberg who noted that “The fewer the students who take the test, the higher the average score”. Others were Eric Hanushek and Ludgar Woessmann who contend that simple calculations show that “sampling bias certainly has the power to move country mean scores substantially”. Numerous loopholes exist for education authorities to practice biased sampling which permits weaker students to be excluded from doing the tests.
Singapore, it would seem, has been engaging in such behaviour, according to Singaporean teacher Sutharson John Isles. He disputed Ministry of Education (MOE) claims that students chosen for the PISA tests were representative, noting the MOE did not say how it selected them. At schools where he taught he found that students from the brightest stream were overwhelmingly chosen for the PISA tests. It was “very unlikely” that any students from normal streams were even chosen, he said. Singapore and East Asian countries place top priority on scoring well in PISA and TIMSS tests. Australian educationist Stephen Dinham remarked that these countries have “all placed a major premium on improving their PISA rankings”. And a “great deal of political pressure” is sometimes applied to ministries of education “to outperform countries like the US”, note US educationists William and Berchie Holliday.
Finally, the PISA and TIMSS tests measure only basic mathematical, scientific and reading skills. History, geography, social science, foreign languages, practical skills, arts and aesthetics are omitted, though they too are seen as central to a fully rounded education and the development of innovative mindsets which Singapore so desperately needs.
Anyway, the article's quote that Singapore had been "winning the wrong race" in getting top PISA rankings while scoring so poorly on student well-being and economic innovation was correct, whoever might have said it at the NIE's 2017 educational conference workshop. The same applies to the comment that Singapore was "building compliant students just as the jobs that value compliance are beginning to disappear."
Both statements accurately describe how flawed Singapore's education system is and how misleading are the PISA (and TIMSS) rankings which make it appear world-class as any close examination of it will reveal. This system is high-pressure and test-driven. It kills creativity, the capacity for independent thinking, intellectual curiosity and the desire to learn. It's also highly stressful for students, teachers are parents. A major reason why Singaporeans leave Singapore and migrate to countries like Australia is to save their children from the high-stress and dehumanising school system in Singapore.
Moreover, while Singapore's education system produces great exam and test-taking athletes - as the city-state's top PISA and TIMSS global rankings for student achievement show - it poorly prepares Singaporean students for the local job market where innovation, initiative and creativity have become critical attributes for any modern 21st Century economy like Singapore's.
Many Singaporean employers see local graduates as inadequate, claiming they are devoid initiative and self-reliance. One Singaporean manager for a MNC said they were deficient in "independent thought, need spoonfeeding, were whiney and complained about everything". My book "Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality" contains a report of one survey of Singaporean employers which found that 70 per cent of NUS graduates had limited job-seeking skills, did not leave a good impression and lacked independence of mind and resourcefulness to be good employees.
Not surprisingly Singaporean employers often prefer to hire foreigners over locals. Hence the flood of "foreign talents" flooding into Singapore to take jobs which should go to the locals but don't because the latter are deemed inadequate and not job-ready by local employers.
Even Singapore's scholar elite - it's best and brightest - lack such attributes. And that includes the most exalted scholars who join the country's elite Administrative Service. Australian academics Michael Barr and Zlatko Skrbis, in their book "Constructing Singapore", reported how one "very senior civil servant" noted the problem of conformity, intellectual timidity and lack of imagination among AS recruits. While they had abundant technical and professional skills the civil servant said that more than 80 per cent of such recruits in one group he had contact with displayed no capacity for independent thought at all. And they were from the top 1 per cent of students in Singapore's school system!
Unfortunately, you would never know about Singapore's severely deficient education system if you believed in the veracity of its sky-high PISA/TIMSS rankings. Both organisations' methodologies are severely flawed, including their sampling methods. Numerous loopholes exist for education authorities to practice biased sampling which permits weaker students to be excluded from doing the tests. PISA and TIMSS allow the education authorities in the countries it surveys to conduct the tests. While both may have detailed protocols for the conduct of such tests these protocols leave much room for test-sampling procedures to be manipulated by local education officials in ways that boost their countries’ rankings.
Clear correlations have been found between the numbers of excluded students and higher scores on education achievement tests, according to several US researchers. One was Iris Rotberg who noted that “The fewer the students who take the test, the higher the average score”. Others were Eric Hanushek and Ludgar Woessmann who contend that simple calculations show that “sampling bias certainly has the power to move country mean scores substantially”. Numerous loopholes exist for education authorities to practice biased sampling which permits weaker students to be excluded from doing the tests.
Singapore, it would seem, has been engaging in such behaviour, according to Singaporean teacher Sutharson John Isles. He disputed Ministry of Education (MOE) claims that students chosen for the PISA tests were representative, noting the MOE did not say how it selected them. At schools where he taught he found that students from the brightest stream were overwhelmingly chosen for the PISA tests. It was “very unlikely” that any students from normal streams were even chosen, he said. Singapore and East Asian countries place top priority on scoring well in PISA and TIMSS tests. Australian educationist Stephen Dinham remarked that these countries have “all placed a major premium on improving their PISA rankings”. And a “great deal of political pressure” is sometimes applied to ministries of education “to outperform countries like the US”, note US educationists William and Berchie Holliday.
Finally, the PISA and TIMSS tests measure only basic mathematical, scientific and reading skills. History, geography, social science, foreign languages, practical skills, arts and aesthetics are omitted, though they too are seen as central to a fully rounded education and the development of innovative mindsets which Singapore so desperately needs.
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