It is not fair to hold our education system solely responsible for producing ill-behaved children (Our learning culture needs a reset, by Mr Seah Yam Meng; Jan 2).

Children are strongly influenced by the adults they are in contact with before the start of their school life.

It is important for parents to be aware of their role in the inculcation of good values in their children.

It is also impossible to impart positive values in a fixed way or time. The opportunity can arise at any time during the daily activities of the children.

If negative values are detected early enough, there is a chance that such values can be corrected. Otherwise, such values will stay ingrained in them.

When parents and teachers have their roles clearly defined, they can complement each other in inculcating good values in children instead of pushing that very important duty to each other, leaving the young and innocent open to the influence of others.

As our education system requires students to work hard, a negligible number of students might use wrong values to their advantage, such as by sabotaging others.

The education system can be blamed for instilling selfish behaviour in students only if the majority of them are sabotaging one another.

In fact, hard work itself is a positive value and the high expectations of our education system also offer students the chance to develop endurance and learn to manage obstacles in life.

This will come in useful when they are older.

Therefore, it is just as important for us to have a balanced view of the effects of our education system on the values of our younger generation so that we can head in the right direction in improving the education system

Yeo Boon Eng (Ms)