20 March 2019

While Singaporeans have largely welcomed the latest move to scrap streaming and improve social mixing in Singapore’s schools, some have voiced concerns that the Integrated Programme (IP) schools have been spared these changes.

There are 17 IP schools, including Raffles Institution and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). The IP schools, as well as a handful of other MOE schools such as Crescent Girls’ School and Anglican High School, take in only Express stream students.

National Institute of Education lecturer Jason Tan said parents believe that the peer influence in IP schools will benefit their children. By contrast, these parents may also believe that Normal stream students are a bad influence on their own child’s behaviour and motivation.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar, who sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, said that ideally, all schools should be fully integrated and do not make distinctions among students of different abilities.

A secondary school teacher, who declined to be named, said: “A lot of parents have concerns about peer influence, but they have never thought that their children must be taught to mix with the right people in any environment they are in.”

09 March 2019

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has said in Parliament that without streaming in the past, Singapore’s social stratification would have been worse.

In the early years of Singapore’s independence in the 1970s, a third of every cohort dropped out of school. Today, the figure is less than 1 per cent. This is due to the system of streaming, Mr Ong asserted.

Streaming was introduced from the 1980s to arrest the high school attrition rate, and the Normal (Technical) stream was introduced in 1994. Singapore had to move away from a one-size-fits-all education system because if students could not catch up with their lessons, they would lose interest and drop out of school.

“We are now ready to take a further, major move,” said Mr Ong. This includes the roll-out of full subject-based banding starting next year, and then the end of streaming in 2024.

Mr Ong said he was confident that the new system will benefit many students.

“The school system will become far more flexible than today, so that we can customise learning to the student, to give them time to blossom at different points in their lives, while anchoring the belief that we can grow and get better,” said Mr Ong.

23 February 2019

The Ministry of Education has unveiled a set of guidelines to help parents work in collaboration with schools and assist students in taking ownership of their own learning.

Parents are encouraged to provide a conducive home environment for learning, and also to respect the teachers’ time by contacting them only during school hours.

The MOE said that these guidelines were created in consultation with schools and parents over the past year.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim said: “There are things beyond academic grades. There are self-management skills, taking ownership, responsibility.”

To get pupils to play an active role in communication, Mdm Zuraida, an educator who has been in the industry for 16 years, said she makes sure to leave clear instructions on the board so that the students have sufficient time to pen them down for their parents’ reading pleasure.

20 February 2019

Nanyang Technological University Provost Ling San has announced that the university has expanded the Co-operative Education track where students will complete three mandatory internships within their four years of undergraduate studies.

This track combines classroom-based education and practical work experience. This year, the track will be available to students studying mathematical sciences, chemistry and biological chemistry, physics and applied physics.

Prof Ling said that practical work experience in addition to good grades has become paramount in ensuring that students stay ahead of the curve.

NTU also announced that it will introduce a new leadership programme that will be open to all undergraduates starting this August. The programme will encompass multiple levels of training so as to enable students to discover and develop their leadership skills and potential.

31 January 2019

More than 300 business undergraduates at the Singapore Management University wrote an essay for a capstone class in their final year, where they were permitted to choose any topic, including introspecting about their life in and beyond SMU.

They confirm the positive role that SMU (and other universities) plays in social mobility in Singapore. Students mentioned that the opportunities provided by SMU enhanced their preparation for work, attractiveness to employers and eventual climb up the income ladder.

A few contributors expressed reservations about meritocracy. Most accept the national and dominant family narrative — that success comes from doing well academically and working hard. A few question the societal and familial definition of success in purely material terms.

There is a keen sense of the opportunity cost of this success. Meritocracy does take a toll on family relationships. As some students see it, their parents work extremely hard and long hours, demanding and expecting in return only outstanding academic performance. To them, it seems that every resource, nearly every interpersonal interaction, is to ensure the material success of the next generation.

In many ways, undergraduates in Singapore exemplify the pragmatic bent of our society. On their part, young graduates — even as they struggle with achievement, success and stress in our hyper-competitive society — will find their own ways of making their own good sense of life as it unfolds for them.