His actual response was rather crude, especially describing those who are in the Arts stream as “stragglers” and their only hope to do good in school is excelling in sports.
This was preceded by several hints from the government in Parliament since early this year by Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching. Very few probably got it right. Unless, of course, if they did vocational training, which provided them skills to give them a career head start. With the new crop of Form 4 students taking their place next year with STREAM, hopefully things will be better and they get to learn things they like or probably use to improve their lives.
On how to approach the younger generation, the nation could probably take a look at the casual yet cautious approach by the new Indonesian Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim.