Singapore S New Education System

This book gives a brief account of how social and economic changes have an impact on the Singapore education system, bearing in mind that education and national development are closely related. Besides providing a short history of education in Singapore, the book discusses how the New Education System(NES) was implemented, public response to streaming, and the impact of the NES on educational wastage and attainments.

This edited book is a comprehensive resource for understanding the history as well as the current status of educational practices in Singapore. It is a one-stop reference guide to education and educational issues/concerns here. There are three sections: Part 1 provides a sectorial overview of how education has been organized in this country such as preschool, special needs, primary and secondary, and adult education divisions. In Part 2, contributors critically delve into issues and policies that are pertinent to understanding education here such as underachievement, leadership, language education, assessment, and meritocracy to question what Part 1 might have taken for granted. Part 3 contains the largest number of contributors because it offers a scholarly examination into specific subject histories. This section stands out because of the comparative rarity of its subject matter (history of Physical Education, Art, Music, Geography Education, etc.) in Singapore.

Learning from Singapore tells the inside story of the country’s journey in transforming its education system from a struggling one to one that is hailed internationally as effective and successful. It is a story not of the glory of international test results, but of the hard work and tenacity of a few generations of policy makers, practitioners and teacher trainers. Despite its success, Singapore continues to reform its education system, and is willing to deal with difficult issues and challenges of change. Citing Singapore's transformation, author Pak Tee Ng highlights how context and culture affect education policy formulation and implementation. Showing how difficult education reform can be when a system needs to negotiate between competing philosophies, significant trade-offs, or paradoxical positions, this book explores the successes and struggles of the Singapore system and examines its future direction and areas of tension. The book also explores how national education systems can be strengthened by embracing the creative tensions generated by paradoxes such as the co-existence of timely change and timeless constants, centralisation and decentralisation, meritocracy and compassion, and teaching less and learning more. Learning from Singapore brings to the world the learning from Singapore—what Singapore has learned from half a century of educational change—and encourages every education system to bring hope to and secure a future for the next generation.

Does Singapore have a world-class education system? Its top rankings in the PISA and TIMSS student achievement tests certainly suggest so. Such results and much foreign praise have given Singapore a global reputation for education excellence. Many in the education field believe Singapore provides an education model for the world. Others would disagree. Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality probes the city-state's claims to educational excellence. It questions the accuracy of the PISA and TIMSS tests and considers how well Singapore's elitist pressure-cooker education system serves the national interest. How well does this system advance the country's founding principles of meritocracy and equality of opportunity? The book also compares the scholastic performance of Singapore and Finland, another high-regarded education super-star. It shows how both countries are pawns in a global contest between the corporate-driven education reform movement and those who oppose it. The book concludes by assessing Singapore's Boston-of-the-East ambitions and its strategy to become a world education hub by attracting foreign universities, academics and students. Questions of academic freedom are considered. Th e controversial decision by Yale to establish a college with the National University of Singapore is also discussed.

The political, economic and social changes that have occurred over the past 60 years have shaped and transformed the childhood of children in Singapore. This book explores this transformation through anecdotes and memories through interviews with individuals hailing from different races and age groups, together with related archived materials from different sources. The components of childhood — birth, home, play, school, health and welfare — are revisited so as to provide useful insights about the past to young readers and at the same time serve as a nostalgic read for older readers. Written in a simple and accessible manner and filled with numerous photographs and specially commissioned cartoons, this book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in knowing about childhood as it was and is being experienced in Singapore. This book is also available in Chinese.Contents: Changing Times, Changing ChildhoodsHere Comes the Baby: Pregnancy, Birth Customs and Baby CelebrationsBringing Up Children: Childcare and Home LifeFrom Marbles to Media Gaming: Play, Pleasure and LeisureOf ABCs and 123s: How Singapore Children Studied and LearnedFrom "Koyok" to Clinic: Sixty Years of Children's HealthIn Their Best Interest: From Welfare to Well-being Readership: Readers who are interested in knowing more about how childhood was and is being experienced in Singapore.

This volume provides a multi-faceted and critical analysis of the Singapore curriculum in relation to globalization. First, it details reform initiatives established by the Singapore government to meet the challenges posed by globalization. Next, Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum presents how these reforms have been translated into programs, school subjects and operational frameworks and then examines, in turn, how well these have been implemented in schools and classrooms across the country. Through this examination, the book reveals how the initiatives, together with their curricular translation and classroom enactment, reflect on the one hand global features and tendencies and, on the other, distinct national traditions, concerns and practices. It brings to light a set of issues, problems and challenges that not only concern policymakers, educators and reformers in Singapore but also those in other countries as well. Written by curriculum scholars, policy analysts, researchers and teacher educators, Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum offers an up-to-date reference for postgraduate students, scholars and researchers in the areas of curriculum and instruction, comparative education, educational sociology, educational policy and leadership in Singapore, the Asia Pacific region and beyond. It also offers a vital contribution to the story of modern education around the globe: providing international students, scholars and researchers valuable insights into curriculum and curriculum reform for the 21st century.

The political, economic and social changes that have occurred over the past 60 years have shaped and transformed the childhood of children in Singapore. This book explores this transformation through anecdotes and memories through interviews with individuals hailing from different races and age groups, together with related archived materials from different sources. The components of childhood -- birth, home, play, school, health and welfare -- are revisited so as to provide useful insights about the past to young readers and at the same time serve as a nostalgic read for older readers.Written in a simple and accessible manner and filled with numerous photographs and specially commissioned cartoons, this book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in knowing about childhood as it was and is being experienced in Singapore.This book is also available in Chinese.