WHILE it is tempting to argue that the improvements in educational attainment following the implementation of the NES are entirely due to streaming, it would be simplistic to do so. The NES merely provided the system by which education could be made more effective. For the system to work, commitment, dedication, and professionalism are required of principals and teachers. In addition, it would have been impossible to implement the NES without appropriate curricula for the new courses being developed. Had the Ministry of Education implemented the NES without obtaining at the same time the commitment and dedication of the professionals, and without developing the necessary curricula and teaching materials, the NES wouid have met with little success.

It should be stressed that concomitant with the implementation of the NES was the expansion of the tertiary institutions as well as the various training institutions to cater to the educational and training needs of pupils leaving the school system at all levels. The provision of a wide range of educational and training opportunities outside the school system together with the provision of the range of differentiated curricula called for by the NES required tremendous additional resources. That these resources were made readily available could be seen from the rapid increase in public expenditure on education which rose from about $550 million in the financial year 1979/80 to about $1.8 billion in the financial year 1985/86. The high priority accorded to education emphasized the importance of education as an instrument for national development.

With the successful implementation of the NES, the Singapore education system has reached a new phase in its development. The Singapore education system, like the education system of any nation in a process of rapid development, had to cater to the demands of each stage of development. Thus, in resolving the problem of providing access to education to all children in the initial stage, the “double session” system of using one school building for two sets of pupils was introduced. The need to promote national cohesiveness in the mid-1950s gave birth to the 1957 Education Ordinance to enable the government to gain control over all schools, particularly the Chinese schools. The high education wastage experienced in the 1970s prompted the Goh Report which gave birth to the New Education System.