For many, Singapore represents the modern face of Southeast Asia. Held as a global hub of commerce, culture and tourism, the city-state also boasts the world’s best education system, according to a 2015 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study.

It would be then almost unbelievable to think that this contemporary education system could be a “pressure cooker” of toxic cultural beliefs that are harming the nation’s students.