PRIMARY school pupils who shine should be spread across a range of secondary schools, rather than the two or three elite institutions usually reserved for scholars.

This would ensure Singapore's brightest are equipped with a wider range of thinking skills to tackle today's complex issues, former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow said yesterday.

He suggested, for example, that those educated at Chinese schools here in earlier years tended to have more 'guile' as a result.

In previous decades, some schools taught classes largely in Chinese.

Speaking at a Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) lunch, Mr Ngiam said Chinese-educated Singaporeans generally have more guile and cunning than their English-educated counterparts.

They tend to be more 'doers' than just 'thinkers', an important trait

Singapore's scholar-dominated civil service needs to cultivate, he said.

Mr Ngiam, chairman of Surbana Corp, was speaking to 150 attendees at SCCCI's biannual Distinguished Speakers Lecture series at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel.

He raised the question of whether there was a divide between English-educated and Chinese-educated here.

Mr Ngiam, who attended an English medium school, recalled 'a famous speech in the 1960s' made by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then prime minister now Minister Mentor.

Mr Lee had described English school students 'as gold fish swimming in an ornamental bowl'. In contrast, Chinese-educated students were like 'piranhas in the wild'.

Mr Ngiam made clear that a mindset change was needed in Singapore's scholarship and civil service system.
He said he has repeatedly raised the issue with government leaders, arguing that different scholars 'may be more suited for business in their temperament, and others for the civil service'.

He said the best primary school pupils should not just be 'hothoused in Raffles Institution or Raffles Girls School', but spread across '10 or 15 schools'.

He said: 'They should be trained by different teachers, so they have more than just two ways of thinking to respond to difficult times.'

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