Education The Sacred Torch

A Poem
by Allan CF Goh

Education starts from birth’s yell
To teach the young survival skill
Stories that all parents will tell
Enhance the infants’ growing trill
It is found in the lilting song
Or the constant loves that surround
Or the voices heard all day long
As well as all the things around.

School and ‘formal education’
To many are one and the same
That’s a narrow definition
That strives to bring the child to fame
School should be a knowledge centre
To fund children’s curiosity
Allow good values to enter
With proper generosity

School is the national cradle
To produce upright citizens
If the wrong knowledge is peddled
The Nation fails with denizens
With all the useless attributes
Unable to discern wrong from right
Disadvantaged to contribute
To bless the State with brightest light

Education the sacred torch
Must light up the mental darkness
With all righteous principles taught
To produce students of rightness
With useful knowledge and wisdom
And unquestioned ability
So as to build the best kingdom
Within the world’s community

All our schooling generation
Must not be manipulated
By contrived misinformation
Or ‘facts’ politically polluted
They must freely develop
To the best of their potential
In solid worth enveloped
Not crippled by politics racial

A good sensible government
Will give all our students the best
Ensure their destined fulfillment
To overcome all future test
A responsible government
Ensnare them not in politics’ whirl
But provide sound encouragement
And value them for the future world

Students should not be subjected
To wishy-wasy vagaries
With their best interests rejected
For political expediencies
The State must provide best features
In planning our education
For our youth to touch the future
Confidently for the Nation