During Chinese New Year, I went to Hong Kong and visited an annual festival flower market - similar to a pasar malam in Singapore.

What struck me was that some stalls were manned by secondary school students and supervised by their teachers. Such experience can help youngsters develop important skills.

First, manning such booths encourages real-life learning outside the classroom. Students get a chance to learn about entrepreneurship and various business skills, such as budgeting, marketing, logistics and inventory management.

Second, youngsters get to hone their social and interpersonal skills. They need to work with their fellow students and learn to support one another through a division of work.

They also need to know how to bargain and deal with customers when customers try to haggle over prices. They will also need to negotiate with suppliers to get the best deal possible.

I hope that such real-life learning experiences will be available to our students in Singapore too, as the Government has emphasised the importance of learning and developing skills beyond the classroom.

Perhaps, the town councils could allocate a certain number of stall spaces and give priority to student groups at pasar malams.

Kinsey Yiu Yi Hin, 14

Secondary 2 student