2015, oil and emulsion on plywood, 85 cm x 180cm
By LIM HUI CHI, Bukit View Secondary School
Like the extending trunks and branches of a tree, the reach of education and educators is ever-growing. Grow depicts Singapore’s factory-like education structure that is traditionally deeply rooted in a system of tiered progression and standardised curriculum. The schools produce students in the same way as factories produce batches of goods.
The progressive education system is represented by primary schools at the bottom tier, followed by secondary schools and tertiary institutions in the middle. At the top is the CBD (Central Business District), where students ideally graduate and start their working lives.
This systematic route of education allows for orderly growth and progression of the nation as a unit, but does not always cater to the individual needs of students, and in the process may force the students to either conform or be marginalised.
Unwanted branches are trimmed. Each tree is pruned, prim and proper.
However, is this the only way we can grow?
aedge 