Speeches
Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at the Israeli Presidential Conference 2008 on Thursday, 15 May 2008, at the International Convention Centre, Jerusalem
Distinguished Panellists,
Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
The Role of Education in meeting Future Opportunities and Challenges: Perspectives from a Small Multicultural Country
It gives me great pleasure and honour to be invited to speak at today’s panel session.
The quest to deliver high quality education is ubiquitous. It would be fair to say that this expectation could even be considered a universal right. All citizens expect it for their children, and incumbents or would-be Governments dutifully respond by promising this in almost all election campaigns in every country.
But matched against these laudable aspirations of citizens and deep resolve by Governments, are mixed results on the quality of education. Standards vary and even in developed countries with thriving economies, where resources ought not to be the limitation, some school systems have been judged to be disappointing. What explains these mixed outcomes? What ails failing school systems? Is it a case of unrealistic expectations, inadequate resources, wrong systems, emphases, poor teaching, or all of the above? Why do some education systems perform better than others? Indeed, even within the same country, why do some schools outperform others, given similar student characteristics and social circumstances?
We would all like answers to these serious questions that challenge and engage us all. In every country, at every dinner conversation, few topics arouse emotions and opinions more than education. One could even question if there are fixed answers. Singapore does not have the answers. But I will share how Singapore has evolved its education system over the past 25 years or so to meet our educational needs - what we have achieved and where we have some way to go in our quest to help each child go as far as he or she can.
A Quality Education System
First, the facts to allow some comparisons with Israel: We are a geographically small compact city with a total land area of about 700 square km, or 270 square miles - this is about 30 times smaller than Israel which has a land area of over 7,800 square miles. Despite our size, we have a population of 4.6 million people. This makes Singapore the second-most densely populated independent country in the world, after Monaco. Compulsory education starts at age 6, and we have 530, 000 students from age 6 to 18 in our schools. We have 354 schools, a teaching force of about 29,000 teachers, and we spend 3.3% of our GDP or US$5.8 billion on education, of which US$5.4 million is spent on recurrent cost. Our pupil-teacher ratios are relatively large by international comparisons - about 21 pupils per teacher for Grades 1 to 6, and 19 pupils per teacher for Grades 7 to 101. School fees are highly subsidised by the government with parents co-paying very low sums - US$8 monthly for primary education, and up to US$15 monthly for secondary education. This follows our philosophy that parents must be responsible for their children’s education, and therefore should be required to pay a token amount of school fees. Financial help is provided to the poor to ensure that no child is denied an education because he cannot afford it.
Let me begin by stating where we are now, by giving objective outcome data. These are not comprehensive measures of a good education, but I have used them because they are quantitative and allow international comparisons. Students in Singapore do well in Maths and Science. Our 10 and 14 year-old students lead the World, at least, when tested and measured by the 2003 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)2. What is comforting to me as Minister of Education is that the performance of our weakest students - those at the last quartile - is still above the international average.
Participation in education is high - 98.4% complete at least 10 years of education while 93% progress further to higher levels of education. Graduates from our educational institutions are highly employable. Over 93% of students who graduate from our Universities and Polytechnics are employed within 6 months of graduation, earning a starting salary of about US$2000 and US$1400 respectively. But again what is comforting, is that even the students who graduate from our vocational institutes are highly employable - 93% of students who graduate from our Institute of Technical Education (ITE) are employed within 6 months of graduation, with an average starting salary of US$1000.
A simple conclusion from these data, is that when assessed through a “utilitarian perspective” of participation and completion of pre-employment education and subsequent employability, Singapore has done well.
A World-Class Education Service
What explains these achievements? McKinsey recently published a report on the differences between top-performing school systems and others3, and cited the following factors as reasons for Singapore’s success: getting the right people to become teachers; developing these people into effective instructors; and putting in place systems and targeted support so that every child can benefit from excellent instruction.
Certainly, the high standard of education in Singapore would not be possible without a quality and committed teaching service. Our teachers are recruited from the top 30% of their cohort. They have a strong sense of professionalism and camaraderie, and a passion for teaching.
To achieve this, Singapore had to gradually ramp up the quantity and quality of our education service. First, competitive salaries are offered. Professional development opportunities are provided to equip teachers with the skills to do well in class. A corps of para-educators is also deployed to schools to support teachers in their essential non-teaching duties. These para-educators4 are important partners in delivering quality education in our schools.
Developing a National School System
The Mckinsey report described what we have, but not how or why we evolved our educational system. Earlier on, I had alluded to the utilitarian approach to educational outcomes. It was intentional. Singapore undertook major educational reforms to meet the over-riding need to make ourselves relevant to the World. We had independence thrust upon us in 1965, when we separated from Malaysia. The withdrawal of British and other troops in 1971 was another economic setback as the jobs which they created accounted for 15% of our GDP then. We had to make major adjustments.
With no natural resources except our people, and no hinterland to support import substitution and domestic consumption, we chose a path of globalisation. Our economic strategy was to attract MNCs to invest in Singapore to develop from scratch an export driven economy. We wanted to impart market relevant skills to our citizens. The focus on Maths and Science, on top of literacy, was driven top-down. We crossed a major political hurdle by making English the language of instruction and commerce in Singapore. We amalgamated the different language schools - set up by the various communities in Singapore, and offering different curriculum. This gave birth to our national education system, which remains till today.
What this means is that all our schools follow a national curriculum. A national school admission system is also in place, where students are posted to different schools and courses based on their performance. To make plain, we believe in streaming by academic ability so that students can learn and be taught at a different pace that will allow them to achieve their maximum potential. There is a focus on results, and a healthy competition among students and schools to work hard and be the best. Good teaching and learning pedagogies are emphasised in all schools as well. To support this, we have devised a system to rotate school leaders so that good practices are spread across all schools.
There continues to be a strong focus on Mathematics and Science for all students. To date, close to 95% of our students offer both Maths and Science up to secondary level or age 16. We believe that this firm foundation in Maths and Science will equip students with the basic knowledge and analytical skills to move Singapore up the value-chain, and retain our competitive advantage in a globalised knowledge-based economy. Together with an increasing emphasis on research in our local universities and polytechnics, it will also help to groom Singapore’s future thought leaders in Science and Technology, who will lead Singapore to become the research centre in the region.
I do not want to leave the wrong impression that our education system is entirely based on this narrow utilitarian approach. Even as we shaped our system to respond to the harsh economic realities at our founding, we were careful to address other goals of education. To ensure that our citizens retained their cultural roots, we instituted a bilingual policy and all students had to study their Mother tongue - Chinese, Malay, Indian or other languages. Character development is also emphasised in all schools, and students from 13 to 18 years of age are required to participate in co-curricular activities which help to hone cooperative skills, resilience, and confidence.
Over the years, as we progressed economically and socially as a nation, we have expanded opportunities within the national school system. Diverse subjects are provided in the national curriculum. Specialised schools in the Arts, Sports, Mathematics, Science and Technology, are also set up to cater to the varying interests of our young.
A Forward-Looking Curriculum
We are continually improving the curriculum so that it remains forward-looking. In today’s contexts, this means greater emphasis on critical thinking skills; greater ability to collaborate and communicate across different languages and cultures; and greater ease in leveraging technologies to value-add and enhance work capabilities.
Apart from Maths and Science, Singapore has also invested significant efforts to inculcate a global mindset in our young, by providing opportunities for global exposure, including interacting with schools in other countries and learning more foreign languages, such as French, Japanese and German. Just recently, we introduced two new foreign languages - Bahasa Indonesia and Arabic - in our schools. These will prepare students with the skills and cultural knowledge to engage Singapore’s region and beyond.
The use of ICT - info-communication technology - into the curriculum and school experience is pervasive. Computer labs are provided in every school. Our teachers are taught to leverage ICT to enhance their teaching, and engage students. We have 6 schools, which we call our Future Schools, that are at the forefront of exploring ICT in education. These schools have gone ahead to use tablet PCs and palm pilots, for example, to allow students to interact and interface with different people and information sources, in real-time, to transit seamlessly in and out of the real and virtual worlds.
Conclusion
To conclude, history and geography dictated that education would, and will continue to be critical for Singapore to develop its human resource. To ensure Singapore’s survival and create a brighter future, we need to help every Singaporean find his or her talent, and take them as far as possible. We need to prepare our people to be equipped for the global workforce. We also need to meld a diverse people into one Singaporean nation - diverse in heritage, language, religion and culture, but united in their commitment to Singapore and its future.
The work in Singapore’s education system is not completed yet. It will never be done as we will need to continually adapt to global trends and changes, and make sure that every Singaporean is equipped with the right skills, mindset and values to face the future.
Footnotes:
- Based on the OECD Indicators 2006, the pupil-teacher ratios in Israel is 16.9 for primary education, and 13.0 for secondary education. ↩
- The next TIMSS was conducted in 2007. The draft report will be out in Jun 2008. ↩
- How the world’s best performing schools systems come out on top, by McKinsey & Company. ↩
- Examples include: Vice-Principal (Administration), Full-time School Counsellors, Co-curricular Programme Executives, Special Needs Officers, and Education Associates. ↩