As I read yet another report on how well 15-year-old Singaporean students have done in the international Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests (Pisa study: S'pore students top in intercultural and global issues, Oct 23), I wonder why there is such a disconnect between school performance indicators and the obstacles faced by older Singaporeans in securing jobs, especially when in competition with foreign workers.

It is difficult to argue an association between current results for 15-year-olds with the employment potential of Singaporeans already in their 50s, 40s or perhaps even 30s.

Still, it is worthwhile looking at this to ensure that the same fate does not befall the current batch of teenage Singaporeans 25 years down the road.

As artificial intelligence and robotics make "jobs/careers for life" obsolete, as new types of jobs are created and as we live longer, we need to anticipate not just lifelong but "lifewide" learning, and ditch the concept of retiring in the job we first trained for at school.

The sooner we acknowledge this and modify our educational curriculum to this end, the better our 15-year-olds can be prepared for an uncertain future, whatever their current Pisa scores.

Cramming knowledge into young heads will not prepare them for their future, as knowledge becomes outmoded very quickly.

We need to teach critical thinking skills so that workers know how to learn, when it is time to unlearn and what knowledge it is they must relearn.

Critical thinking skills - involving the ability to analyse/synthesise, evaluate and create - keep us curious, and will therefore help us to learn outside the traditional disciplinary "silos" to engage in lifewide learning. Only then can Singaporeans be flexible and prepared for their next meaningful career, whatever their age.

Lee Siew Peng (Dr)