The Singapore education system went through different phases and continues to be fine tuned and to evolve to adapt to changing times, environment and needs.
SURVIVAL-DRIVEN PHASE (1959 - 1978)
In its early days, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that the purpose of education was to 'produce a good man and a useful citizen'. At that time, most of the population were illiterate and unskilled. Only the affluent were educated.
In the survival phase, the focus was on enrolment and ensuring that every child goes to school.
This resulted in the rapid construction of schools and the doubling of the teaching force from from 10,500 in 1959 to over 19,000 by 1968.
At the end of this phase there was near universal primary education.
However, the quality of education was not high. Almost 30% of primary school children did not progress to secondary school. English proficiency was also low and education wastage high (failing to achieve expected standards and leaving school prematurely).
Out of every 1000 pupils who entered primary one, only 35% eventually obtained 3 or more 'O' level passes.
EFFICIENCY-DRIVEN PHASE (1976 - 1996)
In this phase, the education system moved away from the one-size-fits-all system to a system that creates multiple pathways for students in order to reduce the dropout rate, and to enable a more effective deliverance of classroom teaching where teachers were able to focus on teaching students of similar abilities.
This followed from the Goh Keng Swee Report on education which recommended that students be streamed into different tracks based on their aptitude.
CDIS (Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore) was created in 1980 to develop a suite of supporting teaching materials that could be used off-the-shelf by less-experienced and less-skilled teachers.
Workshops were also held to explain to teachers how to use the materials effectively.
This second phase also saw the establishment of independent (1988) and autonomous (1994) schools.
By 1995, the Singapore education system had become one of the top performing systems in the world.
ABILITY-BASED ASPIRATION-DRIVEN PHASE (1997 - present)
This focuses on enabling every child to attain to his or her maximum potential.
The growth of the global knowledge economy required a paradigm shift in Singapore's education system towards a focus on innovation, creativity and research.
In 1997 a new educational vision called "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" was launched. (See then PM Goh Chok Tong's speech here: http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR)
As Mr Goh Chok Tong said in his speech in 1997, learning will not end in the school or the university.
Quote:
"We have to prepare ourselves for a bracing future - a future of intense competition and shifting competitive advantages, a future where technologies and concepts are replaced at an increasing pace, and a future of changing values.
Education and training are central to how nations will fare in this future. Strong nations and strong communities will distinguish themselves from the rest by how well their people learn and adapt to change. Learning will not end in the school or even in the university. Much of the knowledge learnt by the young will be obsolete some years after they complete their formal education. In some professions, like Information Technology, obsolescence occurs even faster. The task of education must therefore be to provide the young with the core knowledge and core skills, and the habits of learning, that enable them to learn continuously throughout their lives. We have to equip them for a future that we cannot really predict."
Thinking Schools, Learning Nation encompassed a wide range of initiatives over a number of years that were designed to tailor education to the abilities and interests of students, to provide more flexibility and choice for students and to transform the structures of education.
A broader array of subject matter courses was created for students and a portfolio of different types of schools specialising in arts, mathematics and science and sports were created.
"We need a mountain range of excellence, not just one peak, to inspire all our young to find their passions and climb as far as they can." - Tharman Shanmugaratnam, then Education Minister
Learning will not end in the school or even in the university.
Next? SkillsFuture.
The system continues to evolve.
References:
http://bit.ly/1L1rewo
http://bit.ly/1K5PeRm
http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR
http://on.fb.me/1FtXJS5
No comments:
Post a Comment