Tangible Creative Breakthroughs Resulting from Students Topping PISA Assessments in Creative Thinking

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Darryl David, Ang Mo Kio GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education whether the Government is conducting any longitudinal study on Singaporean students who top the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment creative thinking tests, to see if this leads to tangible future innovations or creative breakthroughs.

Response

1. International benchmarking studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for students aged 15 have consistently found that our students perform well in 21st Century Competencies (21CC) relative to their international peers, such as in areas like collaborative problem-solving, global competence and creative thinking. As our students progress to Institutes of Higher Learning, they continue to build upon this foundation and develop skills that will serve them well in work and adulthood.

2. We do not have plans to conduct longitudinal studies to track if strong performance in PISA Creative Thinking domain leads specifically to future innovations or creative breakthroughs, as these depend on many other factors beyond one's creative thinking ability at the age of 15.