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EDUCATION
Notable educational policies in SG, and other admirable ones
…
EDUCATION
- Notable educational policies in SG, and other admirable ones
- As well as developing countries' educational system which have different priorities
Functions
- Develop skills: critical thinking, social skills
- Impart knowledge: to make good decisions
- Good citizenry, national unity and identity
- Building character, resilience to adversity, ethics
- Discern right from wrong
- Prepare students for working world, employment
- Fosters human capital for credible labour force
- For life long employability; but also fulfil hopes and aspirations, and these 2 should not be at odds
- Driving force of social mobility; to transition between social strata
- One of the most promising chances of upward social mobility into a better social class and attaining a higher social status, regardless of current social standing in the overall structure of society
- However, must be recognised that the stratification of social classes, and wealth inequality, directly affects the child's educational opportunities and hence the chances for upward social mobility
Universal Social Leveler
- Promotes social mobility allowing underprivileged w/ poor backgrounds to succeed
- Inhibits intergenerational poverty
- Escape the poverty cycle, which is fueled by illiteracy and lack of opportunities
- Edn imbues indiv. with necessary skills, and hence ability to qualify and strive for better jobs
- In a largely meritocratic world, values are placed on certain skills and qlfcations
- By providing these, edn raises the Nability of the indiv and prospects of advancement in wkforce and society
- e.g. Shanti Bhavan Children's Project: a roaring success for low-caste villagers in rural India; sponsor edn and shelter for those suffering from generational poverty; has proven that edn is effective in helping despite backgrnds
- Has proven effective in getting students to college and beyond, giving $$ back to family n community
- Secure jobs at world class companies like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs (banks), earning more in 1 mth than their parents in a lifetime
- Stark contrast exemplifies the immense ability of edn to enable indivds to break out of poverty cycle and their social status that they have been chained to
- Due to budget constraints, they only admit ~15 students, however this case study demonstrates the potential that edn holds, and further drives the imptance of qly and accessible edn
Character Devpt
- Edn systems arnd the world emphasise the need for holistic edn; focusing on character devpt and achievement
- e.g. 2014: Edn Secretary Nicky Morgan announced multi-million $ push to improve char. edn in England
- Rising trend in US, Singapore e.g. CCE, Civic and Moral edn
- Impt in 21C skills: global awareness, collaboration and comm skills
- Increasingly soft-skills and not knowledge-based
- Hence must develop character, build traits like resilience, ethics, discerning right from wrong
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Platforms for Learning
- School vs Internet vs Home
Exclusivity
- learning online is not exclusive; special types of schools is
Does it meet the purpose of Education?
- Role of the teacher: parent, teacher, internet
- Ability to serve all purposes of education?
Learning environment
- Conducive or one with many distractions?
- e.g. Internet has a lot of distractions. Homeschooling?
Quality of Info
- Amount, accessibility, coverage in depth and breadth, response time and reliability
- e.g. Internet = "info. superhighway", additional 7.3 mil.
- But reliability and breadth of info. may be compromised
SAP (Special Assistance Programme), IP, Ivy League Schools
Justification
- SG depends strongly on human capital; there is incentive to maximise the learning potential of more acad. inclined students; inevitably brings a divide
Original purpose of these schools:
- In line with bilingualism policy; to take Chi and EL as first language
- Better amenities to further develop students' potentials (IP)
- SAP: To develop students with high competency in Chi and EL, and preserve schools with strong Chi heritage and culture
No longer necessary
- Founded in 80s with original purpose
- However, this purpose has been fulfilled by Higher Mother Tongue curriculum that can be opted by students w greater proficiency
- More of a bane than a boon to a multiracial society like SG
- The exclusion of non-Chi is inherent in this programme, leading to a lack of diversity in students
- May lack keen awareness of interracial, interfaith sensitivity and respect that is best learnt through personal friendships forged
- May bring warped perspectives on interracial issues into working lives and leadership positions assumed in the future
- Do away with the system to enlarge the SGean common space
Racism and Elitism
- Exclusion of Malays, Indians and Eurasians (Malay and Tamil are official languages)
- Endanger social fabric of nation; SG supposed to be a multi-racial society
- Creates a bigger divide between intellects and those not inclined academically
- Explicitly accept high-performing students of the cohort as they likely can "handle the rigour of A lvl curriculum"
Educational Policies
- Encompasses policy-making, laws, rules
- Involves pedagogy and learning, assessment, educational infrastructure, use of tech
Goals and objectives
- Economic (full N, EG)
- Intangible learning outcomes; discerning right from wrong, moral integrity and moral courage
- Development goals; environmental consciousness, culturally vibrant society, social mobility
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Inefficiencies
Policies themselves are discriminatory
- AA Act in US, allow blacks and Hispanics to enter w/ lower SAT scores due to historical disadvan etc.
- However, has perpetuated ineq. against other grps e.g. Asian Americans
- Also some who argue that historical disadvan. is not a gd reason to grant them current-day privileges
- Princeton study: Asian Americans have to score ~140 pts higher on SAT than whites to have equal chance of ad. to top uni
Cracks in the Policies
- most ctys recognised impnce of edn; e.g. SG's Comp. Edn Act and US "Every Student Succeeds" Act
- 2009: Indian parliament passed bill to provide universal, free and compulsory education for children 6-14
- However, e.g. India: rising no. of children receiving edn w/ the govt's push in setting up more schs in rural areas
- But girls, esp poverty-stricken, are still made to stay home, while those from lower castes like Dalits, and tribal comms, still denied edn due to deep rooted prejudices
- These policies hence fail to account for those who fall thru the crack
- Goes to show that without addressing deep-seated prejudices, full equality can nvr be fully realised
Value of Competition
Trends:
- Facing growing criticism (SG, Korea) to do away w/ particularly stressful comp. on edn system;
- High-stakes stand. testing, reliance on tuition industry, and emphasis on desk-based learning
Drives student achievement
- Challenges students to work harder and helps them be excited abt academic content
- Used as a pedagogical tool to increase stud motivation and participation
- e.g. Game-based learning use comp. exercises to increase engagement
- By ascribing scores based on relative performance, students are pit against each other, raising the bar as they must out-compete each other to get a good grade
- Just like how the spirit of sport lies in competition and strive for accomplishment, compt in edn serves the same purpose of goal-setting, desire to succeed
BUT can backfire
- overly compt may cause poorer performance across the board; not all thrive in high-stress, high-stakes testing env.
- Other ways to spur achievement w/o running this risk? Encouragement and interaction w chers?
Quality check to ensure school standards
- Competitive, standardised testing checks tht qly learning is taking place in edn. institutions
- By subjecting studs of diff schs to same tests and ass. rubrics, results of the test are tools of comparing the learning that is going on in schs
- e.g. in the past: SG schs ranked according to tests like PSLE, O lvl
- e.g. US give annual high-stakes exams that determine if sch shud undergo reforms, if students can promote/graduate, and whether chers can receive tenures
- Holds educators and sch districts accountable
Consider
- LDCs vs DCs, booming priv. schs industry cause chers to mark generously on standardised tests, defeats the purpose
Consider other forms of tracking standards:
- Finland: no annual stand tests, but they monitor progress thru low-stake assessments thruout the yr, designed and timed by cher however they want
- "a culture of trust,” where teachers are given flexibility and autonomy, and this allows tracking in recurrent, non-aggressive bursts in low-stress and casual env.
- and despite lack of practice, Finnish students excel in standardised tests, e.g. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), consistently ranking near top for Math Sci Reading (test taken by dozens of ctys)
Utilitarian purpose: sorting into career paths
- Traditional function of edn: preparation for wkforce
- Competitive system allows identification of the best performers
- Edn institutions are not immune to forces of DD and SS
- Competition ensures the strongest students are admitted to the best schs/streams (SATs in USA)
- Best performers are stretched t their potential and in schs that are most equipped to devp them
- In paternalistic societies, top students are channelled to professns that require higher acad. achievement
- SG: med sch, straight As and interview
- Bc high-skilled profns require highly qlfied ppl
- Ensures tight qly control, tip-top performance of econ. and wkrforce
Discourages exploratory, joyful learning
- Comp. leads to some choosing subjs they are not int in, for fear of scoring badly
- e.g. SG: ~17000 students (1992) to ~3000 (2013) taking Lit for Os, many citing reasons like lack of relevance, diff. in scoring due to subjective nature of grading and assessing
- Extrinsic motiv, like that of doing well in exam, is not as sustaining as intrinsic motiv to learn, such as pursuing their interests
- Lifelong learning requires an innate draw towards that subj, not just a desire to outdo others and use it as a stepping stone to career
- e.g. exploratory learning approaches increasingly embraced by preschools, Montessori. Reggio Emilia approach
- But these effects may be washed away upon entering higher lvl edn that is embroiled in comp!
Competition runs counter to excelling and learning
- Overly comp landscape = students unduly pressured to excel
- South Korea: suicide leading cause of death in teens; relentless focus on edn and exams have been blamed for this
- In a 2-year enquiry led by Cambridge, study revealed rewards for good grades have negative impact; praising effort>success
- Those who believe their intell. is fixed are less likely to make an effort to learn, while those who believe their intelligence will grow will try harder
- Found that "offering rewards on a competitive basis" affected pupils' perception of their classmates; shy students became increasingly subdued, and sometimes "reduced to passive scribes of a dominant student's ideas"
- Compt. seems to be the opp. of a leveler; elevating students who succeed in the compn and trapping/labelling those who do not in an academic slump
- e.g.s of nations acknowledging this and rxting:
- SG abolished exams for P1 from 2013 onwards, stopped the ranking of schs (every sch is a gd sch)
- Korea: curfew to stop students from studying in cram sch past 10pm
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Equality
(ref. to Universal Social Leveler)
- In an increasingly unequal world, the ability of edn to fight inequality has come into qn
- Does it further entrench inequality or narrow the gaps in society?
Correcting Misinformation: Self-awareness of rights
- Education and literacy open doors to self-awareness and comprehension of one one's rights or lack thereof, and empowers one to fight for them
- First step to equality is recognising inequality, esp. the ones who are being mistreated
- Underprivileged cnot fight for their rights if they dk tht they deserve better, or lack info on how to do so
- Thru edn, one grasps concepts of rights and discerns social injustices thru comparison w situations in other societies
- So that they can recognise their mistreatment, explore their options and make informed and calculated choices to better their circumstances
- w/o info, these ppl may be placed in a situation in which their mistreatment is validated, bc they don't know any better, discouraging people from challenging the inequality they face
- e.g. Malala Yusofzai, vociferous advocate for education for girls in Pakistan, sees education as a means out of oppression and the road to self-empowerment,as it equips them to think by broadening their horizons and gives them a voice to improve their lot in life
- e.g. TWC2 hands out brochures and conduct talks informing FDWs of their rights and how they can approach them for help
- e.g. NY Times expose the exploitation of nail salon wkrs in 2015 (e.g. paying below min wage or no wage at all), NY governor declared every nail salon in NY must post a manicurists' bill of rights in clear sight of customers and employees, to ensure everyone is aware of their rights and entitlements and employers cannot cheat them
- Hence raises awareness of both the needy and the powerful (ref to the privileged have the power to bring change)
Unequal access to edn
- In the 1st place, there is unequal access to edn
- Access to qly edn is the luxury of the privileged
- This reserves the benefits of edn for those who can afford it, reinforcing the divide betwn rich and poor
- e.g. ctys like Niger in Western Africa, child marriages spell the end of formal edn; bc her new role of wife comes w the expectation that they will take care of the home, children and extended family
- Lack of qlfications to find jobs, making them dependent on husband and family, and hence susceptible to abuse
- e.g. Inaccessibility of qly edn in China (urban and rural), further reinforced by Hukou, the family registration system which limits rural migrants' access to urban servies like edn
- Causes rural children to be limited to lower qly schs in ctyside unless parents have financial resources to donate illicit sums to gain access to urban schs
- Despite China's renowned edn system, the gap betwn students born to urban and rural parents means that the gaokao, touted as merit-based system of assessment and an equaliser, is perpetuating inequality
- Hence, edn's main audience is the privileged, and has limited effect in addressing ineq and perhaps even exacerbates it
The privileged have the power to bring change
- Precisely bc the main audience is the privileged
- that edn has great power to challenge inequ.
- Bc the privileged have the most power to maintain or challenge the existing social, physical and political infrastructures that proliferate ineq.
- Edn hence can raise awareness of the plight of less fortunate and also instill in the privileged audiences, the ethical values and beliefs necessary to galvanise them into action
- e.g. 2015 survey by Higher Edn Research Inst: unprecedented lvls of interest in political engagement and student activism among college students, which underscores the youth vote's potential to reshape the electoral landscape
- Also that more students are identifying as liberals, seek to become comm. ldrs and want to influence politic. structure
- In practice: Milo Yiannopoulos, an alt-right pol. commentator, who advocates outing students who are illegal immigrants to get rid of them, was scheduled to give a speech at UC Berkeley, students protested until it was cancelled
- Though raises qns of where the line is, it shows that students are highly motivated to take action for the benefit of their less fortunate schoolmates
- The privileged, and the majority, i.e. those w the loudest voices, have the greatest power to bring change (strength in numbers)
Unequal access not due to the system
- Geographical constraints
- Geog. impedes a function of edn which is accessibility
- e.g. China: colossal coastal-inland disparity; these provinces innately have v diff terrain, climate and nat resources
- Diff for central govt to provide inland w an edn equiv. to what children receive in coastal provinces
- e.g. Tibet, has mountainous terrains that make it diff for students to even make their way to sku, in comp. coastal regns have far more accessible edn and more rigorous, like Shanghai n Guangd.
- which have edu. achievements envied by the rest of the wrld
- Geog comes in the way of edn's function to provide chances to ll
- This is not inherent in the system but rather inevitable constraint
- Perpetuates ineq. by further condemning those who live in impoverished areas that happen to be impeded by geog
- Geog determines their destiny
- Social status
- e.g. India, much like many other devp ctys, edn is privatised, making it diff for Dalits to attend or even afford edn
- Also reinforces notion that Dalits are chained to their class identities and are undeserving of an edn
- Shapes mindsets and strengthen stereotypes
Inherent flaws in the System
- The system itself is complicit in spreading prejudice
- Bc the policymakers, the ppl who man and design it, and even teachers, have their own biases
- Education is therefore a platform for passing on society’s biases and amplifying their impacts
- Which is profound bc it allows these to proliferate to the next generation
- And they are complicit bc the policymakers let this go on
Policymakers
- e.g. Gaokao in China, regional/geog discrimination as each uni sets a fixed ad. quota from each province with more admissions for their home province, and since unis are unevenly distributed, provinces with less unis per capia like Jiangxi will receive fewer admis. quotas overall, as compared to Beijing
- Due to biases of uni admin. who offer more spots to their home province, limiting the chances of students from rural provinces
- e.g. Historically, racial seg. betwn black and white schs in US, black schs teach students to be subservient and they are 2nd class citizens
- Confirms prejudice and concretises it into reality for students
- Reproduces social prejudice as a part of its edn, teaches students that this is the status quo, creating a microcosm of society by normalising inequality
Rules and Regulations
- e.g. many school rules and norms are built w a particular type of student in mind; well-to-do, male, and of the majority race in cty, and are unfamiliar with culturally diverse student home norms
- Which end up penalising students for failing to adhere to a norm that runs counter to what they are used to
- Places an unfair burden on students from minority groups to adapt to sch procedures that are inappropriate/insufficient for their specific needs
- Stymies learning and devp and student motivation
- e.g. recently black students at Windsor House Acad. in South Africa, facing detention and suspension by admistrators who claim their braids violate sch dress code
- Braided hair is common and an expression of culture in black comm.
- Undue and culturally insensitive policing of students alienate them and disrupts their learning, contributing to achievement gaps
Educators
- Biases that show in mannerisms and instructions
- Doubly harmful:
- Educators' attitudes towards stud. have been shown to have sig. impact on stud attainment
- Educators occupy a position of authority and recognition that lends legitimacy to their prejudices, encouraging biases to spread to next generation
- e.g. study of biomed researches published in Nature (UK scientific journal), women had to do 2.5x the work of male counterparts to receive the same peer review score for post-doc fellowships
- Sci faculty more likely to hire men as lab mgrs when male and female candidates offered same credentials
Inextricable link to Socio-economic status
Exception: ref. Finland
- Due to unabashed meritocratic nature of most DCs where those with great acad. achievements have higher job prospects and QOL
In LDCs
- ref. to China's Hukou, rampant donation to schools for enrollment
In DCs
- ref. to SG as a tuition nation, generation of tutees
- Edn appears to prov equal opportunities for all, yet a good econ. background heightens individuals ability to "succeed" in edn
- Salient in SG, where edn is heavily supplemented by a booming tuition industry
- Given that it's a private industry, it comes at a hefty cost; 2016 ST article discussed prevalence of tuition in SG and cited one family that spends >$1000 on tuition alone
- 70% of SG students have tuition
- Tuition provides additional sport to weaker students and avenues to accelerate learning for stronger students; which disadvantages students unable to afford it, when the majority of popn relies heavily on tuition to excel
- Wealthy are able to afford additional guidance that the poor cannot
Can entrench already deep-seated economic inequality in society.
- e.g. Korea: rich fams send children to cram sch, poor fams left to languish in the dust
Countries
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Finland
- No mandated standardized tests in Finland, except one exam at the end of last yr of high sch to qlfy for uni
- No rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland's schools are publicly funded
Emphasis on Pedagogical excellence
- Chers are highly trained, esteemed and educated
- Entrance exams for chers are highly comp. and diff
- Pool of highly intelligent, talented and motivated indivds.
- Also well paid due to its prestige
- Also emphasis on child devpt. and pedagogic research
- Research findings of devp. and learning psychology are greatly applied in teaching
- Hence teaching is v efficient
- And ensures high qly edn for all public schs, and no need for elite schs
- And due to this prestige and respect for chers, there is a strong culture of "trust"; parents trust schs to provide the best edn and schs trust the chers to give them free rein in their lesson structures
Equal Schools
- Truly, all schools are good schools
- In theory, all Finnish ele. and jnr high schs are equal and provide same lvl of edn for all students
- And hence emphasis is on good results w large masses, rather than e.g. US or SG where "faster" students are given separate paths, resulting in big gap betwn v skilled and low skilled
- Due to lack of elite schs, the nation will aspire towards v good public edn, and hence willingness in paying high taxes
- Criticised for "top indivds" not being able to devp
- But that is not the imperative of the Finnish govt
Free qly edn
- Free until college, and no elite schools
- Charging for comp. edn is illegal
- Possible due to high tax rates, top 5 in the world
- Econ. standing has lil bearing on ed. success, bc the system itself is divorced from econ. status
- Focus on ed. qly and hence prevents econ. inequality from seeping into edn