Singapore EDUCATION
Raffles Junior College chemistry laboratory
Courtesy
Courtesy
The School System
The government frequently referred to Singapore's
population as
its only natural resource and described education in the
vocabulary
of resource development. The goal of the education system
was to
develop the talents of every individual so that each could
contribute to the economy and to the ongoing struggle to
make
Singapore productive and competitive in the international
marketplace. The result was an education system that
stressed the
assessment, tracking, and sorting of students into
appropriate
programs. Educators forthrightly described some students
and some
categories of students as better "material" and of more
value to
the country than others. In the 1960s and 1970s the
education
system, burdened with large numbers of children resulting
from the
high birth rates of the previous decades and reflecting
the
customary practices of the British colonial period,
produced a
small number of highly trained university graduates and a
much
larger number of young people who had been selected out of
the
education systems following secondary schooling by the
rigorous
application of standards. The latter entered the work
force with no
particular skills (see
table 5, Appendix). Major reforms
in 1979
produced an elaborate tracking system, intended to reduce
the
dropout rate and to see that those with low academic
performance
left school with some marketable skills. During the 1980s,
more
resources were put into vocational education and efforts
were made
to match the "products" of the school system with the
manpower
needs of industry and commerce. The combination of a
school system
emphasizing testing and tracking with the popular
perception of
education as the key to social mobility and to the source
of the
certifications needed for desirable jobs led to high
levels of
competition, parental pressure for achievement, and public
attention and concern.
In 1987 some 4 percent of the gross domestic product
(
GDP--see Glossary)
was devoted to education. The government's goal
for the
1990s was to increase spending to 6 percent of GDP, which
would
match the levels of Japan and the United States. Education
was not
compulsory, but attendance was nearly universal. Primary
education
was free, and Malays received free education through
university.
Students' families had to purchase textbooks and school
uniforms,
but special funds were available to ensure that no student
dropped
out because of financial need. Secondary schools charged
nominal
fees of S$9.50 per month. Tuition at the National
University of
Singapore for the 1989-90 academic year ranged from
S$2,600 per
year for students in the undergraduate arts and social
sciences,
business administration, and law courses to S$7,200 per
year for
the medical course. The university-level tuitions were
intended to
induce prosperous families to bear a share of the cost of
training
that would lead to a well-paying job, but a system of
loans, needbased awards (bursaries), and scholarships for superior
academic
performance meant that no able students were denied higher
education because of inability to pay.
The schools operated a modified British-style system in
which
the main qualifications were the Cambridge
University-administered
General Common Entrance (GCE) Ordinary level (O level) and
Advanced
level (A level) examinations. Singapore secondary students
took the
same examinations as their counterparts in Britain or in
British
system schools throughout the world. All instruction was
in
English, with supplementary teaching of the students'
appropriate
"mother tongue"--Malay, Tamil, or Mandarin. The basic
structure was
a six-year primary school, a four-year secondary school,
and a twoyear junior college for those preparing to enter higher
education.
As part of the effort to reduce the dropout rate, some
students
progressed through the system more slowly than others,
spending
more time in primary and secondary school but achieving
similar
standards. The goal was that every student achieve some
success and
leave school with some certification. Both primary and
secondary
schools operated on double sessions. Plans for the 1990s
called for
converting secondary schools to single-session, all-day
schools, a
measure that would require construction of fifty new
schools.
As of June 1987, there were 229 government and
government-aided
primary schools enrolling 266,501 students.
Government-aided
schools originally were private schools that, in return
for
government subsidies, taught the standard curriculum and
employed
teachers assigned by the Ministry of Education. There were
157
secondary schools and junior colleges, enrolling 201,125
students,
and 18 vocational training schools, enrolling 27,000
students. The
15 junior colleges operating by late 1989 enrolled the
"most
promising" 25 percent of their age cohort and were
equipped with
computers, laboratories and well-stocked libraries. Some
represented the elite private schools of the colonial
period, with
their ancient names, traditions, and networks of active
alumni, and
others were founded only in the 1980s, often in the
centers of the
housing estates
(see Land Management and Development
, ch.
3). In
1989 the government was discussing the possibility of
permitting
some of the junior colleges to revert to private status,
in the
interest of encouraging educational excellence and
diversity.
Singapore had six institutions of higher education:
National
University of Singapore (the result of the 1980 merger of
Singapore
University and Nanyang University); Nanyang Technological
Institute; Singapore Polytechnic Institute; Ngee Ann
Polytechnic;
the Institute of Education; and the College of Physical
Education.
In 1987 these six institutions enrolled 44,746 students,
62 percent
male and 38 percent female. Enrollment in universities and
colleges
increased from 15,000 in 1972 to nearly 45,000 in 1987,
tripling in
fifteen years. The largest and most prestigious
institution was the
National University of Singapore, enrolling 13,238
undergraduates
in 1987. Only half of those who applied to the National
University
were admitted, a degree of selectivity that in 1986
brought
parliamentary complaints that the admission rate was
inconsistent
with the government's objective of developing every
citizen to the
fullest potential.
The Ministry of Education tried to coordinate
enrollments in
universities and polytechnic institutes and specific
degree and
diploma courses with estimates of national manpower
requirements.
At the university level, the majority of the students were
enrolled
in engineering, science, and vocationally oriented
courses. The
Ministry of Education and the government clearly preferred
an
education system that turned out people with vocational
qualifications to one producing large numbers of general
liberal
arts graduates. The ministry attempted to persuade
students and
their parents that enrollment in the three polytechnic
institutes,
which offered diplomas rather than the more prestigious
degrees (a
common distinction in the British system of higher
education), was
not necessarily a second choice. In promoting this choice,
the
ministry pointed to the good salaries and excellent career
prospects of polytechnic graduates who were employed by
large
multinational corporations. Similar arguments were used to
persuade
those who left secondary school with respectable O level
level
scores to enroll in short courses at vocational and
technical
training institutes and to qualify for such positions as
electronics technicians or word processors that were
beyond the
capabilities of those who had been directed into
vocational schools
after the primary grades. Almost all of the graduates of
the
demanding four-year Honors Degree Liberal Arts and Social
Science
program at the National University of Singapore were
recruited into
the upper levels of the civil service. Many graduates of
the
ordinary three-year arts, social science, and science
programs were
steered into teaching in secondary schools.
Data as of December 1989
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