In no uncertain terms, he correctly pointed out that the effectiveness of our education system would be defined by its ability to equip our children with the capabilities to cope successfully with 'a changing world'.
Indeed, the future world of dynamic changes and uncertainties demands urgent education review. Schools must now equip our children with the ability to learn without being taught.
Three areas have to be addressed as we set out to realise PM Lee's vision for excellence in education.
Firstly, the examination orientation of our education system means that generations of students have grown up lacking soul and passion for things outside the exam syllabus. Most employers found that they show little curiosity about things and events in their proximate communities and the world.
Their lack of curiosity produces an uncritical mind that listens without attempting to examine the limits and applications of what they hear. They are therefore unable to learn by themselves without being taught.
Education should produce individuals able to think for themselves and who do not merely follow what someone else has told them. Teaching should excite youngsters' natural curiosity, and set them on the road to more self-discovery through self-learning.
PM Lee said in his 2004 National Day Rally speech: 'We've got to teach less to our students so that they will learn more. Grades are important - don't forget to pass your exams - but grades are not the only thing in life and there are other things in life which we want to learn in school.'
However, little in the school curriculum has been reduced. Teachers and principals continue to 'push' students to know contents which are beyond the scope of their curriculum. Principals and teachers often compete with other schools for awards and recognition by setting ever tougher exam papers for their students at the expense of their self-esteem and learning.
Secondly, parents should be made active 'partners' in education matters, instead of having to engage the services of tuition centres and tutors to compensate for their children's lack of learning in the classroom. Schools' preoccupation with 'teaching' instead of 'learning' has turned the tuition industry into an unhealthy 'shadow education system'.
Parent support groups and parents-teachers associations should be genuinely engaged in the tasks to transform PM Lee's vision into reality. They are currently relegated to fund-raising and fun fairs or other inconsequential activities not related to adding impact to the education of their children.
Thirdly, a new breed of school leaders is critical. Principals cannot afford to remain merely 'administrative' leaders who spend most of their time compiling statistics and preparing reports for their superiors; they have to become the true leaders of their people and talent developers of their teachers.
The 'new' principal should involve his teachers in decision-making.
Teachers performance-management practices should be reviewed critically. Open appraisal practices, teachers' appraisal of their principals, a more transparent system of promotion, abolition of 'secret' staff reports that contain unvalidated staff incidents and a more open teacher transfer system should all be reviewed and some practices discarded.
Truly, the goal of education 'excellence' is to prepare our children for a life of active citizenship, and empowering them to become better persons with choices for brighter and more successful futures.
PM Lee's vision for education demands urgent school reviews and education reforms to create in our children a 'readiness for the world'.