THE day before the second-year students at my junior college plunged into their preliminary examinations recently, my mathematics teacher told us a true story, which I wish to share.

There was once a girl who graduated from a top junior college with straight As, two S-paper distinctions and a scholarship to study at a prestigious university in Britain.

Unfortunately, she ran into relationship problems there, and despite her parents' help, she committed suicide.

The moral of the story? So much emphasis is placed on academic excellence and co-curricular activities that students here lose focus on the most important aspect of life: living.

The Singaporean education system has made students here among the top in the world for subjects such as mathematics and science, but it has failed to teach them a far more important skill: Learning to deal with failure.

It does not help that Singaporean society's definition of failure is anything other than perfection.

Many fear failure to such an extent that they sink into despondency at any setback deemed too hard to handle.

I am not asking the Ministry of Education to make students 'all-rounders' by introducing subjects on stress management or the like. What we need are not new subjects, courses or instructional materials.

What we need are more teachers who can help us realise that grades are not everything, and that a single failure is not the end of the world.

I honour all those teachers who have done this.

A belated Happy Teachers' Day.

GRACE TANG SHI MIN (MS)