Forum Letter Replies
May 5, 2010
Timely to Consider Liberal Arts Education in Singapore
We refer to the commentary, “Keeping an open mind on liberal arts” (29/4)
Your article did not provide full quotes from an interview with Minister for Education Dr Ng Eng Hen with the ST on April 14th on liberal arts education here.
Dr Ng supported the idea as timely. But as this type of education was untested here, he proposed that the best way forward to achieve this was to set it up with a world class partner. Further, such a model of small groups of students with highly trained faculty and residential living would be costly. It would be hard to justify spending large public subsidies unless students were also willing to pay substantially higher tuition fees for this type of education.
Ms Tan Gee Keow
Director, Higher Education
Ministry of Education
Director, Higher Education
Ministry of Education