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13466 results in Education, history, theory

Page 534 of 674

  • III - Problems Facing the Education System

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 9-12

  • Summary

    Ineffective Bilingual Policy Contributing to Low Literacy Levels

    THE principal cause for many of the problems plaguing the Ministry of Education was identified by the Goh Report as the unnatural situation in which 85 per cent of our children were taught in languages they did not speak at home. dary Three to no forma] education were able to handle fairly well situations in which English was ihe sole means of communication. Further, the great majority — more than 60 per cent of the pupils who sat for the PSLE (Primary Six) and O level examinations (Secondary Four)- had failed in one or both languages. Taking The system as a whole and tracing successive cohorts, the Report found that only 19 per cent of each primary cohort passed both languages at O level. The bilingual policy had therefore not been universally effective. Nevertheless, as noted above, the desirability of bilingual education was long recognized. To this end, a number of measures were taken. In 1966, the policy requiring mathematics and science subjects to be taught in English in Chinese primary schools was introduced. Conversely, 1969 saw the introduction of the policy of requiring the instruction of civics in English schools to be taught in the mother tongue. In 1970, the teaching of history in the mother tongue was introduced in Primary Three classes and in 1973 double weighting was given to the second language for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLEj at Primary Six.

    In assessing the success of the bilingual policy, the Report noted that surveys conducted in 1975 by the Ministry of Education on primary school pupils and by the Ministry of Defence on national servicemen suggested that literacy levels, particularly in English, were low. For example, only 11 per cent of the national servicemen with educational levels ranging from Secondary Three to no formal education were able to handle fairly well situations in which English was ihe sole means of communication. Further, the great majority — more than 60 per cent of the pupils who sat for the PSLE (Primary Six) and O level examinations (Secondary Four) - had failed in one or both languages. Taking The system as a whole and tracing successive cohorts, the Report found that only 19 per cent of each primary cohort passed both languages at O level.

  • Preface

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp ix-x

  • Summary

    The driving force … fof a country's development﹜ … lies in factors such as the education level of the population …

    Report of the Economic Committee, p. 5.

    THE role of education in nation-building and economic development is generally well understood and accepted. For a small nation such as Singapore without a lot of natural resources, the importance of investing in human resource development cannot be over-emphasized. It is not surprising, therefore, for Singapore to place such high priority on education.

    The major education reforms initiated as a result of Dr Goh Keng Swee's Report on the Ministry of Education marked an important phase in the development of Singapore's education system. As the first few cohorts of pupils affected by these reforms have now passed through the system, it is timely to present an objective and evaluative account of these reforms and their impact on educational attainment. In doing so, I hope to contribute my little bit towards a better understanding of the education system.

    I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to my former colleagues in the Ministry of Education, particularly Mr Tan Yap Kwang, Deputy Director, Monitoring & Evaluation Branch, without whose help the writing of this monograph would not have been possible. I would also like to state that while I have gained much insight during my service at the Ministry of Education, the opinions and views expressed are my own and should not be attributed to the Ministry.

    Lastly, I would like to dedicate this book to my son, Qingyao, who has only just entered the education system. It is my hope that he, too, will have a meaningful educational experience throughout his years at school.

  • VII - Refinements to the NES

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 21-24

  • Summary

    A Single National Stream

    THE Goh Report observed the continuing trend amongst parents to register their children in English schools. By 1983, more than 99 per cent of the children were registered in English schools. This prompted the announcement in December 1983 of a single national stream whereby all pupils would offer English as a first language (ELI) and either T (TL2), Malay (ML2), or Chinese (CL2) as a second language. This announcement signalled the end of the parallel systems of education which arose during the British period. A similar trend in the proportion of pupils offering English as the medium of instruction in the Monolingual course (from 37 per cent in 1980 to 91 per cent in 1984) led to a decision for the course to be offered only in English. In 1986, in response to requests from their respective communities, non-Chinese pupils whose PSLE results fell within the top 10 per cent, were allowed to offer their mother tongue, i.e., Malay or Tamil, at first language level in secondary schools. Thus, as envisaged in the Goh Report, the attainment of an education system where great prominence was attached to English came about through the desire of pragmatic parents for their children to be educated in English and not as a result of directives from the Ministry of Education.

    Streaming at P3

    Even though great care was exercised to ensure that pupils were not streamed to an inappropriate course, public feeling against streaming persisted. This was due in part to ignorance of the safeguards introduced. For example, many of those who argued against the Monolingual course were not aware that a child would be streamed to it only if he had, in addition to failing both his P2 and P3 examinations, failed an Achievement Test set by the Ministry. It was also not generally known that almost all the pupils (generally about 90 per cent) in each P3 cohort would go to the Normal and Extended courses. Table II shows the numbers and percentages of pupils streamed to the various courses during the period 1982-86.

Singapore's New Education System
  • Education Reform for National Development
  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988
  • This book gives a brief account of how social and economic changes have an impact on the Singapore education system, bearing in mind that education and national development are closely related. Besides providing a short history of education in Singapore, the book discusses how the New Education System(NES) was implemented, public response to streaming, and the impact of the NES on educational wastage and attainments.

  • VIII - Impact of the NES

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 25-32

  • Summary

    General Consideration

    WITH the refinements introduced to the NES,36 streaming according to ability gradually gained public acceptance. While casual observation of examination results readily suggests that education attainment has improved substantially since the implementation of the NES,37 it is useful to evaluate the improvements in terms of the objectives spelt out in the Goh Report.

    Effectiveness of the Bilingual Policy

    While examination results alone may not adequately measure literacy levels, in the absence of standardized tests of literacy, performance in standardized achievement tests such as the national examinations (PSLE, N, O, and A level examinations), they are the best indicators of proficiency levels in the two languages and, of course, the other school subjects.

    Prior to the implementation of the NES, more than 60 per cent of the pupils who sat the PSLE and the O level examination failed in one or both languages. Only 19 per cent of each cohort passed in both languages at O level. Under the NES, performances in the two languages at both the PSLE and O level examination have improved tremendously. For example, in 1984 which was the first year for the Extended course pupils to sit the PSLE, the overall percentage passes at the PSLE in English and the second language were 85.5 and 98.7 per cent respectively. In 1985, while the percentage pass in the second language remained high at 98.7 per cent, the percentage pass in English increased further to 90.2 per cent. That the percentage passes for both English and the second language increased to a level above 90 per cent is truly remarkable when compared to the pre-NES position.

    The improvements in the examination results for English and the second language were repeated at the O level examination. The percentage passes in the second language over the last three or four years have consistently been above 90 per cent. Performances in English improved dramatically in 1984, the first year in which pupils streamed into the Express course sat the O level examination, rising from 41.2 to 52.4 per cent. The percentage pass in English improved further to 64.8 per cent in 1985.

  • IV - New Structure for the Education System

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 13-14

  • Summary

    Introduction of Streaming

    THE Report observed that the existing “single curriculum“ 6-4-2 education system (that is, six years of primary, four years of secondary, and two years of pre-university) which required all children to cover the same syllabus within the same period and to sit for the same examinations, did not take into consideration differences in absorption capacities and rates of learning. Arguing that this system tended to favour the aboveaverage children and to penalize the below-average children and the slow learners, the Report suggested that the high failure rates at the PSLE and the O level examination could be reduced with an education system sufficiently flexible to cater for children with different abilities — in other words, by streaming them into different courses according to ability.

    Recognizing that no streaming system could be perfect, the Report recommended that the first streaming should be undertaken only after three or four years of primary schooling and that only those who fail at least two consecutive years would be streamed to the primarily Monolingual course. In addition, provision was to be made for lateral transfers between streams.

    The Report further recognized that “pupils who do not succeed in academic studies could succeed in technical or commercial training”. It was therefore important for the Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB), the polytechnics, and other training institutions to expand their capacities.

    Bilingual Education with Emphasis on English

    Considering that a basic objective of any education system must be to produce literate and numerate school-leavers, it is not surprising that the Report recommended that the first three years of primary schooling concentrate on the learning of languages and mathematics. This was to give pupils a strong foundation for learning of content, such as in Science, Mathematics, and other subjects.

    Mindful of the differences in ability of pupils, particularly in languages, the Report suggested that:

  • a. Those pupils who are ablest would be given the opportunity to do two “first languages” [ELI + CLl] and possibly a third language (like German).

  • b. The average and the above average pupils would be given the opportunity to do a “first” language and a “second” language (eg., ELI + CL2).

  • c. Those pupils who cannot cope with two languages would be better off being literate in one language than attempting to learn two languages and being literate in neither.

  • IX - Conclusion

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 33-40

  • Summary

    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.

  • VI - Public Reaction to Streaming

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 19-20

  • Summary

    THE streaming of pupils into different courses evoked strong emotional response. This was not withstanding the fact that pupils were at the time already being streamed according to ability into different classes.

    Two major arguments were advanced against streaming. First, pupils streamed to a lower course, say the Monolingual course, would have reduced access to higher education. This argument derived from an egalitarian philosophy which did not recognize differences in human ability, thereby equating “equality of opportunity” with “equality of outcome”. It had as its implicit assumption that opportunity lies in exposure to a given curriculum. Hence, the higher the curriculum made available to a particular child, the greater would be his opportunity. However, this ignored the fact that most of the pupils streamed to the lower course would have left school prematurely under a rigid education system which sought to impose a curriculum not appropriate to their needs. Greater equality of opportunity would, in fact, be accorded to these pupils if they were allowed to follow a course specially designed for them.

    Second, as errors in streaming could not be avoided entirely, a child wrongly streamed to a lower course would, in addition to becoming demoralized, suffer from the social stigma associated with the lower course. The Goh Report had, in fact, recognized that for the NES to be implemented successfully, streaming had to be as accurate as possible. The Report had therefore recommended that the first streaming be undertaken only after three or four years of primary schooling, and that intelligence tests be developed to provide the opportunity for those with potential to prove themselves. In addition, there was to be provision for lateral transfers across courses to cater for late developers and to allow errors in streaming to be remedied. Where there were reasonable doubts as to the appropriate course for a particular child, his parents should be provided with the option to decide the course his child would be streamed to.

    Hence, when the NES was implemented in the secondary schools, a fairly wide option band (about 10 per cent of those who passed the PSLE) was created. Pupils with PSLE results falling within this band could opt for either the Express course or the Normal course.

  • V - Implementation of the NES

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 15-18

  • Summary

    Primary Schools

    THE New Education System (NES] was implemented in primary schools beginning with the 1979 Primary Three (P3) cohort. As recommended by the Goh Report, all pupils would follow a common curriculum (which would place emphasis on the learning of languages and mathematics) during their first three years of formal schooling, that is, from PI to P3. Pupils would be streamed at the end of P3 on the basis of their examination performances in P2 and P3. Tb avoid additional pressure through the introduction of a new national examination, the end-of-year P3 examination (sometimes referred to as the streaming examination) would be school-based. However, in order to ensure some uniformity of standards, this examination would be constructed from item banks to be maintained by the Ministry of Education. Pupils would be streamed on the following basis:

  • 1. Those who passed P3 would be streamed to the Normal Bilingual course leading to the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in three years.

  • 2. Those who failed P3 but passed P2 would be streamed to the Extended Bilingual course leading to the PSLE in five years.

  • 3. Those who failed both P2 and P3 would be required to sit for an Achievement Test (AT)Z1 set by the Ministry of Education. If they passed the AT, they would be streamed to the Extended Bilingual course. Only those who failed the AT would be streamed to the Monolingual course leading to the Primary School Proficiency Examination (PSPE) in five years.

    • With the provision for lateral transfers across streams, primary schooling would be completed within six to eight years. The Normal and Extended courses are essentially academic courses in which pupils are prepared for the PSLE.2t The Monolingual course is a non-academic course, the objective of which is to ensure basic literacy and numeracy for the less academically inclined- and to prepare them for prevocational training at ihe institutes of the VITB,

    Secondary Schools

    The NES was implemented for the secondary schools beginning with the 1980 Primary Six (P6) cohort.

  • I - Introduction

  • Soon Teck Wong
  • Book:
    Singapore's New Education System
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    18 November 2017
    Print publication:
    01 January 1988, pp 1-2

  • Summary

    If N 1978, a study team led by Dr Goh Keng Swee (then A. Deputy Prime Minister) was appointed by the Prime Minister to study problems in the Ministry of Education, Singapore. The report submitted by the study team (often referred to as the Goh Report) analysed the weaknesses of the education system and recommended many major changes to it. These changes, particularly those related to the introduction of streaming, were controversial at the time and attracted much public debate. The education structure arising from the implementation of the Report's recommendations is usually referred to as the New Education System (NES).

    Education and national development are closely related. Indeed, for many countries as for Singapore, social and economic changes often bring about substantial changes to the education system. To provide a better understanding of the impact of social and economic changes on the Singapore education system, this monograph first presents a brief history of the development of education in Singapore up to the release of the Goh Report. Bearing in mind that it was the perceived failure of the education system to meet the rapidly changing social and economic needs of the country that prompted its review, the problems facing the education system at the time are then discussed. This is followed by a description of the new education structure based on streaming according to ability, and the rationale for it. How the NES was actually implemented is discussed in Chapter 5. Public reaction to streaming and some of the subsequent refinements to the NES are outlined. The final chapters assess the impact of the NES in terms of the objectives spelt out for it in the Goh Report, concluding with a discussion of the possible future direction of the education system.

Page 534 of 674