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A school in Singapore has broken twenty-seven records aiming to get some of them into the Guinness Book of records. Well done them. Of course breaking records in such diverse ways as largest number of people standing on one leg simultaneously or biggest sand art montage or largest logo made of balloons does not necessarily improve exam results but it is worthy of celebration for another reason.

Singapore built its amazing success on discipline and obedience. It could not have been achieved otherwise. Singapore has only one natural resource – people. In the early days of independence in the 1960s, people had to be harnessed to the tasks first of survival and then of building financial success. The prices paid for this were some loss of political freedom and a failure to develop creativity.

Every society has creative people in it and Singapore had its share but creative thinking was generally not encouraged because of the inherent questioning of authority and ‘stepping out of the box’ that goes with it. It was assumed (in my opinion, correctly) that such questioning would weaken the discipline needed to build a city-state. So creativity was not then encouraged.

All that has changed in the last few years and Singapore is starting to produce high level creativity in digital media, the world of high technology and the arts. We have an outstanding Symphony Orchestra, excellent local writers and actors plus computer and internet innovation as good as any silicone valley. There is still room for improvement.

Great footballers and cricketers come from countries where most people play these games; great music, from countries where everyone learns an instrument. So it is with great creativity. The more people engage in it the more successful will be the creative output.

And that is why breaking records is a good idea. It gives pupils the chance to think of the next record to break, to invent ways of exploring what is a record and the opportunity to think about the relevance of records as a measure of human achievement.

Education – not just in Singapore but all over the world – has become too dreary, joyless, financial-reward focused. The thrill of discovery has been replaced by the drudge of repetition and regurgitation.  Dish up the stock answer and get your certificate; challenge the established order and get labeled ‘difficult’. We have to learn to play in teams, for sure, but we also have to learn to build teams, our own teams with our own new ideas.

I have a challenge for enterprising Ng Shok Yan, Principal of the Fajar Secondary School. She encouraged the ‘record breaking’ experiment that has such possibilities. Can she now see if the school can break the most important record of all – to bring more joy and laughter than any other school to the children she so clearly cherishes?

That would be truly an outstanding and worthy record to break. Go for it!