hebu waambie!! we were doing some really useless things like Music e.t.c. Who says education needs to be hard? think about it education today is increasing levels of 'hardness' until you cannot take it any more. our philosophy on education needs to change.

As a mandatory, examinable subject, it was I did it and little good it has done me. However, it should not be completely scrapped. It should be taught as an introduction for a period of time to kids, and then schools that have the capacity can offer it as an optional examinable subject. May be a few kids would be interested to take it to advanced levels and hence there wouldn't be a total loss.
There is precedent for this,..some hip schools teach French and German, others Woodwork, Technical Design, Electricity, Power Mechanics, Aviation. These are not widely available courses, but they enrich the curriculum.
It is also time we lay the foundation for specialized schools (which offer Bachelors or Diplomas) ..such as Sports and Sports Management, Music (like Juilliard), Drama, Cinema and performing arts etc etc

Perhaps the education system should be reformed to look at extra curricular activities that require skills that are tested in real life instead of just looking at a students ability to cram and drill.

For example hapo stateside the Ivy league consider factors such as the following :

1.Top computer science programs like MIT ama Stanford, they look at what computer programming competitions you won. There are programming competitions between the best high schools. Hapo stateside there are 12-year-olds building mobile apps.Recently a teenager sold his mobile app to Yahoo for $ 32 Million.

2. Top Law schools look at how well a student performed in Mock Trials competitions. These are the equivalent of inter school debates. The difference is that high students actually have to study concepts of law. Each team then presented with a case and assigned the job of prosecutor or defence attorney. And the two teams have to argue the case like a real court of law. Excelling in MOCK trials is a passport to going to the best law schools.

3. Some schools even look at extra curricula work like volunteering.

4. Even non academic extra curricular activties are counted. Universities are interested in students who are well rounded and not one dimensional. A student who scores A but also plays sports is better than one who does nothing but study.

Long story short, exam should not be the only criteria. There should be other criteria to separate the real problem solvers from robots who are just drilled or just cram but cannot think their way out of a phone booth.

you can always go the international baccalaureate curriculum way for your kids. the fees are actually reasonable. considering.

Actually those subject ensured that even a Std 8 drop out had some skills. Today the sudents know zilch...even the basic stitches, it's a shame really!!!!