In Singapore, if you do not have your entire life planned out in front of you before you even take your PSLE, you are THAT close to failing.

We kid. But our observation is not too far off. Our obsession for "success" - given the quotation marks treatment because define success -  is world class. This gold standard explains why tuition is a multi-million dollar industry and why parents move in to a property that is a stone's throw away from a brand-name school without batting an eyelid.

It's a rat race. It's dirty. There's no time for the F-word.

A Failure Day? Wut?

So if there's no official day commemorating success (there's National Day but let's keep that as one to celebrate our independence), what's the possibility of a national Failure Day as mooted by Finnish education expert Professor Pasi Sahlberg.

The 56-year-old told Today when he was in town at the World Educational Leadership Summit on Wednesday:

“My favourite recommendation in the (conference) for Singapore is to establish a national day to celebrate failure.”

Sahlberg probably got his inspiration from Finland's Day for Failure - on October 13 every year to "promote the understanding of failure as a learning experience".

One famous supporter of the Day for Failure is Rovio - the company behind the smash hit game Angry Birds. Rovio was close to bankruptcy in 2009 and only succeeded with Angry Birds after creating 51 game titles.

The Finnish also spoke about Singapore's obsession with examinations and private tuition, which gives a head-start to families with more resources.

Not that it's all doom and gloom for us, the professor also added that Singapore's education system can afford to take more risks such as the one Finland is taking now: Students can choose what they want to learn and how they want to be assessed for at least a couple of weeks.

And Singapore's rigorous teacher selection and teacher training processes mean that we have the capacity to take this risk.

But the idea of a Failure Day is just about the wildest yet - at least for Singapore, a nation that even many other countries term as a success story.

Hang on, what is success?

Perhaps striving to be successful is so deeply-ingrained in our national identity, we often find it hard to face up to our failures.

Usually, Singaporeans associate failure with these adjectives: poor, unqualified, blue-collar. But what of success?

Yes, what exactly is success?

That you can afford a spiffy continental car? An ivy league education? A job that pays you millions?

Truth be told, failure and success are equally hard to define.

Singaporeans will probably baulk at such a day, but flunking your PSLE does not make you a failure.

Related stories:

18 ways Finland’s education system beats S’pore’s hands down

Yes, 88% of teachers are satisfied, but it doesn’t mean they should be working 56-hour weeks

Top photo from here.

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