Tomorrow Today

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] 102

Building a world-class education

system through capacity-building:

the Singapore experience

David John Hogan and Sing Kong Lee, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

n 1965, Singapore achieved independence as a postcolonial

nation state, but it was more ‘state’ than ‘nation’. In the 45 years

since, Singapore has undertaken a distinctive and remarkably

successful programme of national development, becoming not only

an economic powerhouse in the Asian region, but also an influ-

ential, prosperous, orderly, cohesive, multi-racial, global city and

nation state. In this endeavour, education has played a pivotal part.

From the beginning, the state provided a free and highly subsidised,

well-funded universal system of public education: currently, educa-

tion accounts for 3.5 per cent of Singapore’s GDP. In the same year,

secondary schools had a retention rate of 95 per cent. Between

1970 and 2004, literacy rates jumped from 68.9 per cent to 94.2 per

cent; during the same period, the percentage of university gradu-

ates in the population increased from 1.9 per cent to 12.1 per cent.

These achievements are also evident in exceptional performance

in international assessments in mathematics and science. In the

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

assessment, for example, fourth- and eighth-grade students from

Singapore consistently scored in the top place in mathematics in

1995, 1999 and 2003. In science, fourth-grade students

came seventh in 1995 and first in 2003, while eighth

grade students were first in 1995, second in 1999 and

first in 2003.

The rapid development and remarkable success of

Singapore’s educational system, and of Singapore

more broadly, in a mere 40-odd years is a remark-

able testament to the quality of its leadership and

the extraordinary commitment of the government

to nation building. There has been heavy invest-

ment in the formation of human capital – the only

major resource that Singapore possesses, other

than its strategic geographical location – includ-

ing the recruitment and training of key institutional

elites, the government’s commitment to securing a

high degree of institutional alignment within and

between sectors, and the energy, discipline, ambition

and confidence of its people. Within education, for

The National Institute of Education, Singapore, is an autonomous institute of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Image: NIE, Singapore