Dr Alex Lin suggested in his Forum letter that there are positive lessons to be learnt from failure (Valuable lessons in pursuing entrepreneurship, Sept 18).

This is something that can help build a resilient society, one that is prepared for challenges such as the Covid-19 crisis. But whether it is achievable or not is debatable.

A study released last year by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that 15-year-olds in Singapore are more afraid of failure compared with their counterparts overseas.

This is not a surprise as it is ingrained in us that our country cannot afford to fail, considering our vulnerable circumstances.

Our education system is such that from a young age, we are under pressure to achieve the best scores in order to enter the best schools.

Failure would well mean a lesser educational journey, job prospects and future. We hence naturally stigmatise failure. This can cause a student to shun challenging situations, which would prevent his growth through experiences.

He might develop a fixed mindset, such that he thinks he would be unable to handle challenging situations, and would thus rather avoid them.

Such a mindset would cause people to give up easily, which would be detrimental to society. It would not be conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship.

It is hence a good thing that streaming in secondary schools will be scrapped in 2024 and replaced with subject-based banding. This will hopefully prevent some students from thinking they are failures and would never do well.

We should continue honing the way we do things in our society.

It may be difficult for some of us to change our views about failure overnight, but it might not be too late for the next generation.

Benjamin Ng Wei Jie