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Education in Singapore (Points (SkillsFuture (Objectives (Help make well…

- - - - Help make well-informed choices in education, training and careers
      - promote employer recognition and career development based on skills and mastery
      - lifelong learning
      - integrated, high quality education system and training that responds to constantly evolving industry needs
    - - also works with schools to prepare students to face an ever-changing knowledge and skills-based economy
  - - - Develop the next generation to build Singapore as it strives towards becoming a smart nation
        
        require expertise and skills in technology, engineering and design
      - Upgrade the economy, become a modern , forward looking and technologically-advanced society- PM Lee (2015 at the opening ceramony of SUTD)
      - Help children learn valuable life lessons
        
        Not all experiments succeed the first time
        
        Encourage critical thinking
    - - Not enough focus on application of STEM (70% of teachers according to survey commissioned by Amgen Asia and Global Stem Alliance)
      - Lack of female representation
        
        Proportion of women taking STEM degrees in Singaporean universities have decreased over the years (<40%)
        
        UNESCO: only 23% of STEM researchers are females in East Asia and the Pacific
        
        Females in STEM SG
        
        Girls2Pioneer: Singaporean day camps for girls to cultivate and learn technical skills and inspire them to explore STEM
        
        21C Girls: charity that teaches girls coding
        
        Why so few females? (MasterCard study in 2016 that surveyed girls from Asia Pacific including SG)
        
        Lack of interest
        
        Gender bias
        
        Difficulty
  - - - lingua franca of international business, science and technology
        
        designated as the language for international business by LKY as it would connect Singapore to UK, US and the Western world
      - Prepare for a globalised economy (internationalisation)
      - common language for all ethnic groups to communicate with
        
        Unite people as one country (bond )
    - - Prevent cultural erosion of the three ethnic groups in Singapore (remember cultural roots)
        
        Strengthen cultural values and sense of belonging
      - Increasing importance over the years as China rose to power as an emerging market in the business sector (economical benefits)
    - - Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism (supports proposals for developing products to help children master bilingualism
        
        Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts and Cultural Troupe (cultural clan/ educational and cultural foundation ): play and enrichment activity for P2 Chinese children
        
        Saintly Education Centre: collection of Chinese rhymes (+ audio CD) for children ages 4-8 and reflective of Singaporean culture
        
        Sing and Learn with the Sallys: 8 original Malay language songs to develop an interest in Malay amongst children
        
        Ally's Adventures: bilingual (Eng/Malay) books about a kitten named Ally set in local context available in our public libraries
      - Speak Mandarin campaign (1979)
        
        Background
        
        Learning Mandarin among Singaporean Chinese was hindered by home use of dialects
        
        Aimed at creating a simplified and conducive environment for Singaporean Chinese to speak Chinese
        
        Evolution
        
        Past: discourage use of dialect
        
        Reduce barriers between respective dialect groups
        
        Complement Bilingualism policy (MT aspect)
        
        Present: encourage English-educated Chinese Singaporeans to hone their Mandarin skills
        
        Standard and emphasis on Chinese had dropped due to Singapore's emphasis on English in lieu of globalisation
        
        Better appreciate cultural roots
        
        Effectiveness
        
        Number of Chinese speakers at home increased from 10.2% in 1980 to 46.1% in 2015
        
        Younger generations unable to communicate with dialect-speaking parents
        
        Not exposed to dialects since young (General Household Survey: only 12% of Singaporeans spoke dialect at home)
        
        Various clan associations in Singapore have noted an increase in numbers for its language classes over the last three years (most notably popular amongst medical professionals, undergrads, property agents)
- - - - The paper chase is still real
        
        The civil service (Singapore's biggest employer) still looks at grades of applicants and even if two people have the same position, their pays might vary due to their different qualifications
        
        army captains have varied pay based on their qualifications (general degree: $4.3K, Honours: $4.8K)
        
        police force senior officers (inspectors and assistant superintendents) have varied pays subjective to their academic qualifications
        
        Measures
        
        Removal of divisions of its officers (Division I for graduates, II for diploma and A level cert holders)
        
        Not entirely effective as people can and will still mentally pigeon hole people based on their academic qualifications
        
        Success dependent on whether a non-graduate can rise up the ranks if promotion is not based on qualifications but his true capabilities
        
        mindset of meritocracy is deeply entrenched in our society
        
        fear of losing out
        
        parents perceive tuition as a safety net and something to help their children to keep up EVEN IF they might be doing well already
        
        bellcurve system: a student's performance is graded against his cohort
        
        someone who can get 85% but the rest of his cohort majority gets 90%+ will end up doing not as well in this system
        
        causes parents to worry and pull all stops to ensure that their children can still succeed and be ahead of others
        
        can also be affected by competition from foreign students
        
        China's math and science syllabuses are more advanced than Singapore's and Chinese students are able to tackle our syllabus with great ease
        
        many view academics as the way to go to enter top schools which often only accept the cream of the crop
        
        good networking opportunities
        
        most top schools such as RI have been known to churn out politicians and influential people in industries
        
        students can connect with their alumni to learn how to reach that stage/ potential role models
        
        more quality teachers?
        
        MOE has now introduced the rotating of teachers to different tier schools throughout their careers to expose them to students of different academic abilities and backgrounds
    - - OECD: Singaporean students (76%) have anxiety levels significantly higher than the OECD average (55%)
      - 2015: 27 suicides among 10-19 year olds (double of 2014)
      - 2016: an 11-year-old boy jumped to his death as he was fearful of showing his results to his parents (first time failing a subject)
    - - Abolishing PSLE T-score
      - Outdoor education
        
        All secondary school students have to take part in at least 3 intra school recreational sports competitions
        
        Additional hour of PE lesson (10%-20% of curriculum time will be set aside for outdoor education in primary and secondary schools)
        
        Benefits
        
        Help students to learn more about the environment, learn values such as resilience and become independent
        
        Thrown outside of their comfort zones i.e. during camps such as Outward Bound where students undergo adventure camps
        
        Learn outdoor living skills such as cooking meals
        
        Learn how to assess safety risks that they might encounter
      - Applied Learning programmes in all primary schools by 2023 (secondary schools already have)
        
        Wide range of programmes to allow students to apply their learning to the real world
        
        Basic coding (Fuchun Sec)
        
        3D printing (Teck Whye Pri)
      - Removal of examinations for certain levels
        
        What?
        
        P1 and P2s have no mid year and year end exams
        
        no mid year exams for P3, P5, Sec 1 and Sec 3
        
        Feedback
        
        Positive
        
        Gavin's Tuition survey: many students appreciated this move to reduce stress on students
        
        Negative
        
        Potential lack of true gauge of a child's academic performance
        
        Tuition centres such as Gavin's Tuition are keeping their in-house exams
        
        Some such as Ignite Tuition Centre are introducing more enrichment classes to supplement their current ones and more ungraded individual learning assessments on non-academic skills
      - A student's class position and cohort level will no longer be in report book
      - revision of school syllabuses to focus more on application of skills across subjects instead of pure regurgitation
  - - - Ten Year Series (ten years worth of past year papers for national examinations)
      - constant repetition of doing math for eg and enforcing certain types of thinking that can be regurgitated in examinations
        
        not much of avenues to allow students to freely explore potential ways to solve qns w/o repercussions i.e. failed grade
    - - one of Wong's ex-colleagues encouraged her students to write pro-PAP answers for a social studies exam so that their school wouldn't get "blacklisted"
        
        MOE wants to perpetuate certain national narratives as unquestionably true
      - teachers and students can't appreciate that for certain complex situations
        
        there's no right answer
        
        those that may disagree with us still may be completely correct
  - - - DSA
        
        mostly the rich and wealthy are able to afford to send their children for extra classes (i.e. ballet) to allow them to learn skills that they can use to enter schools via DSA
        
        top schools that needs such skilled students (eg a dancer) will then be more likely to choose them
        
        easier ticket towards top schools and success?
        
        added advantage as compared to their other peers
        
        initially intended as a non-academic admission procedure to admit students based on their talents instead of academics
      - Tuition
        
        most top tuition centres known to churn out distinction after distinction are extremely expensive (super tutors often take home thousands of dollars)
        
        benefit only those who are able to pay for these fees
        
        allow them to go ahead of their peers and close the learning gap
        
        added advantage
        
        those who are not able to afford are often stuck with cheaper tuition run by volunteer organisations (especially in the case of poor students)
        
        such classes while have good intentions are run by volunteers who sometimes are not as up to date and as skilled with the subject and its syllabus as compared to their teaching counterparts in the top centres
        
        top centres often have tutors who used to teach at high performing schools (i.e. Dave Sim of the Physics Cafe, a tuition chain, used to teach at RIJC)
        
        ST 2015: households earning more than $4,400 a month spent more than double the amount invested in private tutors by those earning below $2,200.
      - Change in mindset
        
        those who succeed believe that its because they work hard and may look down on those who failed not because they didn't work hard but due to structural factors such as socio-economic status
        
        some argue that this is contributing to the stigma against ITE students
- - - - various districts in America have adopted Singapore's approach to math: fewer topics but absolute mastery