SINGAPORE'S education system has been very successful at the nuts and bolts - it churns out top students and is ranked highly worldwide, for example - but it is now time for it to evolve.

As parents become more educated, and children grow more questioning and learn in different ways, expectations will rise, and these will need to be tackled.

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In a speech at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on Thurs, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen spelt out new challenges for the system.

Top of the list, he said, is raising the number of teachers, and getting more with higher qualifications, to develop students.

Getting quality people, he added, will also mean schools can be given more autonomy, which is critical to allow school leaders to develop individual students under their care.

Turning to the fourth university announced recently, Dr Ng said this was one way to meet the higher aspirations of students. Their skills are well in demand, the minister said, and a way must be found for them to upgrade these quickly as technological cycles and such shorten.

Finally, Dr Ng said, the system needs to impart values, not just grades, to students.

The goal?

'At the end of their journey in our education system, (students) must leave it with a sense of wholeness and preparedness, and a desire to contribute to preserve, maintain and improve themselves and the lives of those around them,' he said.

'They must leave our education system confident of their self worth, and capable of being productive citizens.'