Singapore youth excel in science and math.

Courtesy Contact Singapore

Under the current education master plan, IT training receives renewed emphasis.

Courtesy Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

No matter where you go these days, from coffee shops to Cabinet offices, the conversation will almost unfailingly touch upon a recurring theme – Singapore’s need to emphasize student creativity in its system of education.

After years relying on a manufacture-based economy, policy leaders now see the need for more “out-of-the-box thinking” to spawn new products and create new jobs. This means moving from efficiency-driven to ability-driven education and training. As Economic Development Board Chairman, Teo Ming Kian points out, “Singapore’s people are its only natural resource.”

One notable achievement has been development in Singapore of new approaches to teaching math and science that have proven remarkably successful for improving test scores. The size of the new curriculum is reduced so that there is more time available for original thinking.

U.S. educators have noted with interest the success of Singapore’s math and science programs. In September 2002, Singapore’s Education Minister, Rear Admiral Teo Chee Hean, met in Washington, D.C. with Secretary of Education Dr. Roderick Paige to formalize their first government-to-government memorandum of understanding (MOU) in education.

The MOU is expected to strengthen existing exchanges and collaborative programs between Singapore and the U.S. and will include provisions for the U.S. to study Singapore’s leaner, more focused math and science textbooks, techniques used to teach math, and teacher training.

From this exchange, Singapore hopes to develop better approaches to the teaching of science as well. Singaporean education officials are keen on increasing student involvement and adopting a more investigative approach to problem solving that is used in American schools.

Singapore has been a leader in the math and science fields. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science study (1999), Singaporean students are ranked first worldwide in math achievement. Between 1995 and 1999, Singaporean students rose to second in the world from seventh in science achievement.

At the same time that these new avenues are being explored, there is renewed emphasis on other traditional fields of education, such as language study, that will help Singaporeans achieve success in the global economy.

English is the first language in schools. In addition, students in Singapore are required to reach a high proficiency in a second language, most often their native tongues of Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil. Languages are a major feature of the curriculum as the economy is so deeply dependent on global trade and investment.

Casting an eye toward the growing Chinese market, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced in his National Day Speech in early August the expansion of opportunities for students to study the Chinese language. “Our bilingual policy has given us an advantage which we should not lose,” he says.

Over the years, the education system has been especially criticized in two areas: the system’s traditional over-emphasis on rote learning and the countrywide practice of early student ranking.

Because the system has relied so heavily on the memorization of information, critics feel students are not adequately prepared to adapt their knowledge to real life situations, are not committed to life-long learning and are not encouraged to be more creative.

The practice of ranking students from an early age has been criticized because it is feared that isolates poor performers and writes off too quickly an individual’s ability to do well. Jack Neo’s 1999 film, I Not Stupid, satirizes Singapore’s highly structured education system through the eyes of three young children and their families in pursuit of academic excellence in a highly competitive society.

Despite problems, Singapore’s education system produces an exceptionally high number of scholars and a well-educated citizenry. More than 60 percent of all students go beyond high school and 21percent go on to universities. The school dropout rate is a mere 2.8 percent, down from 13 percent in 1978.

Yet the country’s leaders are far from content to sit on their laurels when they see future economic success increasingly dependent on highly skilled workers able to compete in a global knowledge-based economy. What the country needs now, they say, are not simply people who do well on tests but artists, entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, researchers, and innovators.

The Ministry of Education has already taken steps to address this issue. One has been to reduce mandatory curriculum content loads. The idea is to allow students and teachers more freedom to pursue creative projects. Teachers are now coached to allow students to question methods and participate more actively in the learning process.

Students now have more opportunities to visit art galleries, attend live performances and invite artists into the classroom. More attention is being paid to the importance of play, independent thinking and breaking the mould to encourage more creative thinking. “Innovation requires a climate change,” says Education Ministry curriculum director Chan Jee Kun.

Choo Thiam Siew, CEO of the National Arts Council, has embraced the changes in Singapore’s educational philosophy. Under his leadership, the Council has launched a wide range of programs, performances, exhibitions, scholarships and competitions aimed at developing and nurturing creativity in young people. The Council provides subsidies of up to 90 percent to provide space in over 30 buildings for practice, studio and administrative activities. Under a program called the Arts Housing Scheme young artists are encouraged to pursue and develop their creative impulses.

Infusing technology into the core curriculum is receiving increasing emphasis as well.

In the 2001-2002 Global Competitiveness Report, Singapore was ranked second in the world, after Finland, in the ease of access students are granted to the Internet.

In the government’s first Education Master Plan, set to end this year, teacher training received considerable emphasis. In every school, teachers were expected to receive 30-50 hours of training, far exceeding international standards.

In the revised Master Plan (MP2), training has a renewed emphasis. But more focus has been shifted towards “getting pupils to use IT for active learning … to stimulating pupils to think and experiment, independently and creatively.” IT will be incorporated into “planning, design and delivery of the curriculum itself.”

As a sign of the success ahead, the Ministry of Education’s web site already attracts the second highest number of visitors among all e-government sites. Its popularity is attributed partly to the posting on the site of national curriculum for teachers, parents, and students to view.

Every year Singapore sends thousands of secondary school graduates to top-ranking universities in the United States and around the world. The time that they’ve spent in Singapore’s exceptional education system often lead them into highly competitive degree programs and careers as prominent mathematicians, biologists, chemists, physicists, and doctors.

In an effort to offer students high quality options for their higher education without having to leave the country, the government is reaching out to international tertiary institutions to establish places of learning in Singapore.

“Singapore recognizes the strengths of the American tertiary sector, and is working to develop linkages with leading American colleges,” says Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States, Chan Heng Chee.

Already, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school of business are among more than seven universities that have established satellite campuses in Singapore.

Beth Bader, Managing Director, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Asia Campus says, “When we decided to establish a campus in Asia, we did, in the early stages, consider a number of cities throughout the Asia Pacific region. Singapore is a major business center for the region, with an international, cosmopolitan population. Generous assistance from the Singapore Economic Development Board made the location we chose for our campus in Singapore feasible.”