Why is the government paying for sociology, communications, and art degrees? Its ridiculous. Perhaps the government will only help pay for certain degrees such as engineering? Even then its a slippery slope.
Singapore has one of, if not the best education system in the world. It's a small, wealthy country that spends a great deal on ensuring social cohesion and harmony between various ethnic and religious groups that, in other southeast Asian countries tend to clash fairly frequently. Singapore was only founded in 1965 and ruled by the same family and party since then. It gives the appearance of a democracy but isn't, not like we understand the concept in western nations. It's a corporatist nation, a step down from fascism, in which the government controls the key drivers of the economy and is the main provider of social welfare, from housing to education, healthcare, infrastructure and retirement. Private companies are welcomed and thrive in a low tax, low red tape, low corruption system. Singapore is often referred to as the Switzerland of Asia. While it's difficult to compare a country of under 6 million with America, I think the analyses offer food for thought to Americans who are only familiar with the US education system with a basic understanding of the role of education and the challenges it is confronted with. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna...-meritocracy-singapore-rich-inclusive-3302586 CNA Insider ‘The rich out-train everybody else’: How to keep meritocracy a driver of opportunity in schools? Meritocracy was conceived to break unfair aristocracies, but what happens after some people gain the means to game the system? The documentary Measuring Meritocracy explores how education in Singapore can become more inclusive and remain a key leveller. The educational system was fairer at the time of Singapore’s independence, when everyone was equally poor, observers say. WATCH: Meritocracy in Singapore schools — Can it breed inequality? (46:48) CHALLENGING THE ‘NEPOTISTIC ELITE’ Meritocracy was embraced as a means of breaking aristocracies — where society was governed by a small, privileged class — that had been increasingly viewed as “unfair, incompetent, frozen, sclerotic”, said Markovits, author of the book “The Meritocracy Trap”. In Britain, reforms in the 1860s saw exams being introduced for senior jobs in the civil service, said David Goodhart, author of the book “Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century”. These jobs had previously been arranged through nepotism: Either bought or given because of relatives in high positions in the organisation, he said. “We needed exams, we needed mass higher education to challenge the old nepotistic elite.” These ideas carried over to Britain’s colonies, and in Singapore’s case, through scholarships, noted historian Donna Brunero of the National University of Singapore (NUS). The Queen’s scholarship was introduced in the 1880s and used a standardised exam to select the best and brightest within Singapore and the Straits Settlements for further studies in the United Kingdom, she cited. More and more ethnic Chinese students were awarded the Queen’s scholarship over time. “The colonial government was giving out these scholarships, obviously in order to build up a generation of local-born people who are going to be loyal to them, to the Empire,” said NUS associate professor of philosophy Loy Hui Chieh. Funding for schools, meanwhile, was uneven. Some English-medium schools in colonial Singapore were given funding, while vernacular schools were “quite often left to the communities to fund”, said Brunero. But as Singapore approached the period of self-governance in the 1950s, there began to be a “clearer articulation of what it means to have an educated populace” as well as efforts to create a minimum standard of education, she said. The Labour Front government introduced free primary education for all in 1955, said Terence Ho, an associate professor in practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The People’s Action Party government later stepped up access to and the quality of education. A vernacular school in the olden days. “By 1966, universal provision of primary education had been achieved,” said Jason Tan of the National Institute of Education (NIE). The free education benefited a generation of Singaporeans who were less well off, added Ho. HOW THE RICH GAME THE SYSTEM Decades on, there is growing public concern over some of meritocracy’s shortcomings. It is “fundamentally a very individualistic model of achievement”, said Tan, an NIE associate professor in policy, curriculum and leadership. It can breed a tendency to believe that one’s success is entirely of one’s doing — when it is often not. “The method of transmission of privilege down through the generations of a family is no longer breeding and titles. Instead, it’s training,” said Markovits. “The rich out-train everybody else. They pay much more for schools. They hire tutors.” Professor Daniel Markovits, author of the book “The Meritocracy Trap”. As a result, “when that generation competes meritocratically for places at universities, lo and behold, the richest kids who had the most expensive educations do the best”, he said. “And then they get the best jobs, and the cycle continues.” It is natural to want to do the best for one’s child, noted Robson Lee, former group chairman of two schools often perceived as elite: Hwa Chong Institution and Hwa Chong International School. But therein lies “a great deal of tension”: between satisfying individual parents’ preferences and “promoting the greater, common good”, said Tan. The race starts early. With growing evidence that quality preschool education is vital to nurture a child’s learning potential, parents who can afford to are spending thousands of dollars a month. Language acquisition at the preschool level. When it comes to primary school admission, “the arms race intensifies”, said Tan. To try to secure places at certain schools, such as those in the expensive Bukit Timah neighbourhood, some parents move house to within a kilometre of the school. Others serve as school volunteers, something their counterparts who struggle to make a living may be unable to do. “If we examine most of the admission criteria, they have nothing to do at all with the individual child’s merit, as it were, but instead have everything to do with the child’s family background,” observed Tan. Dr Jason Tan is an associate professor in policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education. What drives some parents is the belief that their children will form good networks and have better teachers or programmes at a “good school”, said Lee. “Social networks do matter for good jobs (and) progress in one’s career,” Koh agreed. Then there is streaming, which came along in 1979 and sorted pupils by their pace of learning and abilities. The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a key sorting mechanism. And it is understandable that it gets parents “a little bit uptight and worried”, said Singapore Institute of Technology associate professor and former Member of Parliament Intan Azura Mokhtar. Because it really sets the path that a child can take in his or her life later on.” Parent Daphne Shee, for instance, was “really glad” her son Evan did well enough last year to get into the secondary school of his choice. They had worked “really hard”, with Evan receiving tuition in every subject and Shee going through correction and other work with him. Although he had already gained admission through Direct School Admission for sport, their aim was for him to achieve a PSLE score that would qualify for the school too. On results day, he discovered he had made the grade. Then he got up to a little mischief at a friend’s suggestion: He pranked his mother by passing off a result slip with a poorer score as his own. “(My friend) gave me his result slip, and I was like, ‘Mummy, I got Achievement Level 16’,” he recounted. When he exclaimed that he was “just kidding” and showed her his actual score, she “shouted so loudly”. “That was a memorable moment,” Evan said with a grin. Daphne Shee with her son Evan. Some ripple effects of academic sorting, however, are no laughing matter. If done too early, there is a danger that it can be “more a reflection of parental resources than the student’s ability and effort”, said Koh. Social entrepreneur Anders Tan, for example, found academic achievement at university. But as he was growing up, his mother held two jobs, his father was “generally not around” and both parents “weren’t really involved” in his education, he recounted. “I didn’t prepare much for my PSLE, from what I remember. I did very badly and went to the Normal (Technical) stream.” And for many students, being on less academic, more technical pathways means having to contend with stigma. Tan, who enrolled at the Institute of Technical Education after his N levels, said: “I honestly felt a bit discouraged every time I wore the uniform to school.” Mr Anders Tan, 37, is the founder of social enterprise Inclus. This was because of parents who recognised the uniform, pointed at him or his schoolmates and told their children, “If you don’t study well, this is what you’re going to become.” “That’s something pretty sad to go through,” said Tan, who later graduated in information systems management from the Singapore Management University. Former teacher Rai Kannu also saw students affected by the academic stream they were put into. “I’ve had students tell me that, in certain classes, they feel like they’re treated in an inferior manner,” said the singer-songwriter. “Some of them sometimes even decide to just go with the stigma, and that affects their performance.” Other effects include the pressure felt by a broad swathe of students, and greater obsession with grades than before, said those who work with youths. WHAT CAN FOSTER MORE OPEN MERITOCRACY? Meritocracy has been one of the pillars of Singapore’s governing philosophy for decades, and even as he acknowledged its downsides, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said last year that it is “still the best way to organise our society”. “Because it encourages people to strive to make the best use of the opportunities available to them, and it preserves upward mobility,” he said. “We cannot abandon meritocracy, but I believe we can improve it and make ours a more open and compassionate meritocracy.” One of the ways the government is changing academic sorting is by rolling out full subject-based banding at secondary schools from next year. This year, more than two-thirds of secondary schools will have implemented it fully. Full subject-based banding means streaming will be removed. Students can choose to take different subject levels, known as G3, G2 and G1 (G stands for general), which are broadly mapped from today’s Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) standards respectively. An example of how students can choose different subject levels with subject-based banding. Full subject-based banding means students will have greater flexibility in studying more subjects at levels that suit their interests and aptitude, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE). In mixed form classes, they can also interact with peers with different strengths and interests, the ministry said on its website. That is an improvement on the “one-size-fits-all” format, said radio deejay Joakim Gomez. When he was at school, he was good at accounting and would have welcomed studying it in the best subject band, he mused. “When it comes to mathematics or maybe even science, I can go to the weaker subject-based banding classes, (where) I might meet someone who’s really good in English or really good in (their) mother tongue,” he imagined. Joakim Gomez is a deejay at Mediacorp radio station 987. Policymakers could also think of fostering more diversity in a segment of schools called Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, observers suggested. As students must take Higher Chinese or Chinese to be posted to SAP schools, the institutions are “racially homogeneous”, with “very few who are non-Chinese who are in the school”, noted SIT’s Intan. The schools can be “a lot more inclusive”, and one way is to allow students who do not take Chinese as their mother tongue to enrol, she proposed. “There are all these sorts of little nuances in our meritocratic system that should be reviewed from time to time (to) see whether there are ways … to make them more inclusive,” added IPS’ Koh. In a 2021 parliamentary reply, the MOE said SAP schools, which were established in 1979 at a time of declining enrolment in Chinese-medium schools, have various programmes to forge bonds with other communities. “(SAP schools) continue to be relevant as part of Singapore’s approach for every community to preserve and practise their cultures, religion and languages, while safeguarding the common space to develop a distinctive Singaporean identity,” the ministry said. Other observers felt the need for a broader definition of merit and for alternative platforms besides school for youths to build social networks. “We seem to value only one kind of intelligence, which is IQ. And we completely ignore emotional intelligence,” said Crystal Lim-Lange, chief executive of future-readiness consultancy Forest Wolf. Other forms of intelligence and contributions should also be validated, she said. A broader definition of merit could help nurture different talents. Schools are places of teaching, and that should be the focus of parents, reckoned Tjin Lee, co-founder of the Life Beyond Grades movement. “There’s been some confusion between education and social networking, and (about) elitism in that sense,” she said. “Perhaps we should better look at what alternatives there are for us to better build our network, without fixating on schools being the only way to get (our) children into (one).” For Gomez, there is a simple way to gauge any progress on this front. He sometimes gets “anonymous confessions” on Instagram from stressed students and can relate to how they feel when they are not performing well. “I just tell them … (their) grades aren’t the be-all and end-all here in Singapore,” said the theatre diploma holder. “And I hope one day when I say this phrase, nobody will scoff at me.” Watch Part 1 of Measuring Meritocracy here. Look out for our story on meritocracy at work next week.
"While it's difficult to compare a country of under 6 million with America..." No shit, but then you try anyway. I would add a country of 6 million ethnically homogeneous people as well. If singapore took in 3 million american blacks, then we can talk about how that education system is better. The other thing you don't understand is that american progressives, therefore many american universities, hate meritocrcy and achievement. They want to get rid of testing and grades so that their cults can complete their transformation into idealogical reeducation camps. They build their little self licking ice cream cone by claiming that the outcome of meritocracy proves it is racist because blacks and others cannot compete. Meritocracy harms everyone — even the winners - Vox
Agree there is a definite Caste system forming in the Colonies.Which means that globalization has really taken root. The major difference between the US and the rest of the planet is the lack of a manufacturing base. The service economy is only needed when times are good. There has been a few articles on how trades people are making more than degree holders. In Germany and other parts of Europe only the best and brightest make it to Universitad. There is also a mandatory 2 year public service requirement. Ross Perot was correct in saying there would be a giant sucking sound. Outsource it. Akuma .
Lol, you neither watched the video nor read my comment carefully. Singapore is quite diverse: Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural society, primarily comprised of citizens of Chinese, Malay, and Indian descent, with foreigners accounting for nearly 30% of the total residential population. https://www.ciee.org › about › dive.. Also, Singapore education system has been highly based on meritocracy, something they are now reconsidering if you'd watched the video. ..