23 January 2020

Students at the Institute of Technical Education will be getting more opportunities to go beyond an ITE certification as well as attain a diploma.

ITE students now have the chance to engage in the polytechnic route, as well as the opportunity to pursue the work-study diploma programme.

Under the work-study diploma programme, which typically lasts between two and a half to three years, about 70 per cent of curriculum time is conducted at the workplace, and the rest at ITE.

By the year 2025, there should be about 40 work-study diplomas offered, collectively taking in about 1,000 students a year.

ITE chief executive Low Khah Gek recently laid out ITE’s sixth strategic road map, or five-year plan. The previous road map, laid out in 2015 and which coincided with the launch of the national SkillsFuture movement, marked a shift from a technical skills-based education to one that centres more on a student’s career. This year’s plan aims to expand on the previous one, but it will also focus on enabling career mobility and adapting to changes in the industry.

22 December 2019

In Singapore’s schools, mid-year examinations at some levels are being scrapped this year as part of the strategy to de-emphasize academic results, move away from the narrow focus on grades, and help students discover the joy of learning.

By next year, more 90 per cent of secondary schools would have done away with mid-year exams for some levels.

MOE had said cutting these exams will allow more space for students to adjust during the “key transition” years, where they have to study new subjects and deal with higher content rigour.

These new policy changes will also free up about three weeks of curriculum time every two years for teachers to possibly explore more creative ways of applied and inquiry-based learning.

09 October 2019

Singapore households spent S$1.4 billion on tuition, based on the Household Expenditure Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics from October 2017 to September 2018.

The growth of the tuition industry in Singapore is fuelled primarily by two factors: Increasing average real incomes of households and the desire for parents to see their children keep up with the competition.

The fact that anyone can be a freelance tutor in Singapore implies that we have a spectrum of tutors, differing in terms of quality.

There is a need to educate students and their parents so that they will be empowered to select their tutors effectively.

In selecting tutors, students should ask:

(i) Does this tutor have a proven track record?

(ii) Does he / she possess the necessary qualifications to teach the subject?

(iii) Has my appreciation of the subject increased since I started receiving coaching from him/her?

Choosing tutors based on these considerations rather than a focus on the tuition fees will enable students to select tutors who will more effectively help them.

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.