Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction 3
Reference Point 17
Author Credits 18
3
4
Introduction
Today, Singapore’s education system is touted as one of the best in the world, a far cry from the
sporadic village schools that used to occupy the island some 200 years ago. Singapore’s education
policy and system underwent numerous changes and reforms as it interweaves with the political
history of Singapore.
This bibliography aims to provide a list of books and electronic resources available at the Lee Kong
Chian Reference Library that trace the development of Singapore’s education policy and system
from the time the country was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles to the present.
Part I covers the period 1820s to 1965, the year Singapore gained its independence. Singapore’s
education system changes as it politically changes from being part of British Malaya, the Straits
Settlements and a self-governing colony to a newly independent nation.
Part II covers 1965 to the present. As a new nation, education played an important role in shaping
the economy of the resource scarce nation. As the nation matured and developed, the education
system was refined for the better. Today, Singapore is fast becoming the educational hub of Asia.
5
6
Part I: Singapore: Education 1820s to 1965
Raffles founded the Singapore Institution in 1823 with the aim "to educate the sons of the higher order
of natives and others, to afford the means of instruction in the native languages to such of the
Company's servants and others they may desire it, to collect the scattered literature and tradition of
the country..."
This has laid the corner stone of the ‘British educational policy’ in Singapore. Gopinathan (1997,
p.593) points out that Singapore’s colonial educational history is characterized by ‘benign neglect, ad
hoc policy making and indifference to consequences’. The educational goal then is not for social
progress, but to make the social structure more efficient.
Malay education, funded by the British government, was encouraged and provided for free. English
was not taught in the village schools as the British deemed early training in the child’s mother tongue
as an absolute necessity. The objective of Malay education was to make them better fisherman and
better peasant than their forefathers.
With the exception of Malay education, Chinese and Indian schools were largely left to their own
devices. The Chinese schools were entirely funded by private enterprises. The Chinese community
was largely responsible for setting up their own schools. The teachers, nearly all China-born, taught
using textbooks imported from China. The students in these Chinese schools were very emotionally
attached to the political happenings in China. The rise of Chinese nationalism at the close of 1900
forced the British government to re-examine their educational policy in vernacular schools. Tamil
language was taught in the Indian vernacular schools. Most Indian schools were small private
schools. Similar to the Malay and the Chinese schools, the Indian schools are all primary grade.
Last of all, English schools opened to all children on fee-paying basis. English schools were
supported by private enterprise but assisted by the government. English is the medium of instruction.
Many of these publicly funded government institutions and aided schools started by the Christian
missions were free from government control until 1919.
In 1920, the British government implemented the Registration of School Ordinance which
subsequently underwent several amendments and revisions. It was revised into the Education
Ordinance, 1957.
The aftermath of the Pacific War in 1945 had instilled a sense of belonging and patriotism among the
local people and brought new directions for the education policy in Singapore. After the war, the
British government declared the new policy of providing free primary education to all races.
In 1959, the People’s Action Party came into power and introduced the Five Year Plan. The plan
includes equal treatment of four streams of education, Malay was recognised as the National
language and emphasis was given to Science and Technical education.
In 1965, Singapore declared independence and the Government pursued a tripartite system of
academic, vocational and technical schools to support the country’s basic economic policies. The
young nation recognised its educational objective was to inculcate patriotism and national identity
among the young students so as to achieve a ‘multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society’.
7
Books
To help you begin your research on this topic, here are some recommended works that are available
at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. For contact details and locations of the libraries, please visit
http://www.nlb.gov.sg.
8
independent Singapore, charts the new directions in the education system,
which eventually laid the foundation for the social structure of the nation.
Title: Sunset of the empire in Malaya: a New Zealander's life in the Colonial
Author: Education Service.
Publisher: Taylor, T. K.
Call number: London; New York: Radcliffe Press, 2006
Description: RSEA 373.12012092 TAY
In this memoir, Taylor describes his experiences in Malayan schools, from a
Senior Master in English to his appointment as the Chief Education Officer
for Selangor. The book outlines the role of education as the colony rebuilt
after World War II and transit towards independence.
9
Title: Social engineering in Singapore: educational policies and social
Author: change, 1819-1972.
Publisher: Wilson, Harold E.
Call number: Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1978
Description: RSING 379.5957 WIL
Examines the social impacts of the educational policies implemented in
Singapore from 1819 to 1972. It focuses on the period 1918 to 1959, during
which the education policies underwent drastic changes and transformations
under four different administrations, namely; the colonial rule, Japanese
Military Administration, post-war colonial rule and the early years of self-
government.
Databases
JSTOR
JSTOR provides online access to archived contents of important scholarly journals, mainly in the
humanities and social sciences. Researchers are able to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of
back issues of journals as they were originally printed. Existing titles are updated and new titles are
added on an ongoing basis.
10
census of the federation of Malaya, this article aims to present the trend
in the expansion and distribution of formal education in Malaya.
11
Microfilms
Microfilm collections are located at Level 11 of Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.
Title: Policies and politics in Chinese schools in the Straits Settlements and
Author: the Federated Malay States, 1786-1941
Publisher: Lee, Ah Chai.
Call number: Singapore: University of Singapore Library, 1968
Description: Call Number: MFM NL 14318
This Master’s thesis of Lee Ah Chai (also known as Lee Ting Hui), relied
heavily upon both Chinese and English resources to outline how political
events affected the Chinese education in British Malaya.
12
Title: First education triennial survey: covering the years 1955-7 inclusive.
Author: Singapore
Publisher: Singapore: Printed at the Govt. Print. Office, 1959
Call number: MFM NL9547
Description: The first two parts of this publication sketches the historical retrospective of
Singapore educational scene in the 1950s and briefly outlines the education
system at that time. The last part examines in details the changes in
legislation, administrative, finance of schools and the development of
primary, secondary education and vocational training during the period
1955-57.
13
Part II: Singapore Education from 1965 to present
Prior to 1965, Singapore had heavily depended on trade with Malaysia to survive. Upon
independence, she was left to fend for herself. The new government of Singapore had to foster
social unity and build a new national identity to unite all citizens regardless of race and religion. It
also has to face the task of having to transform the country’s economy from entrepot trade to an
export oriented economy, as well as to build up an education system to suit the young nation’s
needs.
Education was used as a social engineering tool to transform this resource poor island into a
regional economic power. To create workers who have the relevant industrial skills to operate
machines, technical education was introduced in the 1960s whereby all male lower secondary
students had to take up technical subjects. To create a common national identity, the bilingual policy
was adopted which made English as the first language and mother tongue as the second in 1966.
The Institute of Education was set up in 1973 to train teachers in their profession.
From 1978, the education system had to be modified due to massive changes within Singapore’s
economy. The old system had become inefficient with low levels of literacy and gaps between
labour market needs and school leavers skills. To reduce the number of school dropouts, streaming
was introduced in 1978 to support the learning abilities of different children. The results were higher
number of students who went for further education which produced the right workers for Singapore’s
manufacturing industry.
With increasing globalization and the opening up of China and India, Singapore could no longer
compete effectively in the low cost-manufacturing sector. In 1997, new education initiatives were
introduced to transform Singapore into a knowledge-based society that can contribute more to the
services industry in Singapore. Some of the initiatives include Thinking Schools, Learning Nation
(TSLN), IT Masterplan and National Education (NE).
TSLN was introduced to encourage creative thinking, more varied curriculum and improvement to
teachers’ education. The IT Masterplan aimed to use information technology as an education tool to
expose students to new information sources anywhere and anytime. Lastly, NE was implemented in
schools to develop a sense of common purpose and destiny in all students as citizens of Singapore.
NE was given great emphasis by incorporating it into various teaching subjects like English, History,
Sciences and Maths.
In 1999, old schools were selected for upgrading under the “Programme for Rebuilding and
IMproving Existing schools” (PRIME). A total of 290 schools have to be upgraded at an estimated
cost of $4.46 billion over a period of seven years, from 1999 to 2005. To draw the public’s interests
into the educational process, "Stakeholders in Education" was initiated by “Community and Parents
in Support of Schools” (COMPASS) to spell out the important roles various stakeholders play by
helping our children learn, grow and reach their fullest potential. The stakeholders include family
members, school alumni, teachers, principals and non-teaching staffs within schools.
It was announced in 2007 that the Special and Express Courses would be merged into the “Express
Course” starting from the Secondary One students in 2008. This is due to the Integrated Program
which has attracted a lot of Special stream students and the distinction between Special and
Express is made redundant. From January 2010, students will have a further pathway to choose
from, when MOE’s new School of Science and Technology, Singapore (SST) takes in its first batch
of students. The SST will be established as a Specialised Independent School, complementing the
NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, the Singapore Sports School and the School of the
Arts in adding further diversity to our education landscape.
14
The education landscape is very dynamic and ever changing. It also reflects on how the
government has adopted education as a social engineering tool to align with other sectors like the
economy, national defence and community support. Enhanced human capital skills are seen as
crucial to Singapore’s economy leading to new educational changes and bigger investments into
educational resources and infrastructures. Surely, within the next few years, bolder education
initiatives will be put in place to transform Singapore into a world city with a vibrant economy and a
highly educated population.
15
Books
To help you begin your research on this topic, here are some recommended works that are available
at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. For contact details and locations of the libraries, please visit
http://www.nlb.gov.sg.
Title: Language policies and language education: The impact in East Asian
countries in the next decade
Author: Ho, W. K. & Wong. , Y, L. (Eds.)
Publisher: Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2004
Call number: RSING 306.4495 LAN
Description: This book discuss about the language policies and education in East Asian
countries with a chapter covering Singapore. The chapter on Singapore
talks about the language education system which emphasized on
bilingualism
16
Title: Shaping tomorrow today
Author: Ministry of Education.
Publisher: Singapore: Ministry of Education, 2003
Call number: RSING q370.95957 SIN
Description: This publication covers the policies and initiatives that are implemented in
2003 by MOE. Some of the topics covered include BlueSky initiative to
prepare our young for future challenges, creating centers of excellence and
project work at the ‘A’ levels.
17
Title: Teach less, learn more (TLLM) school-based curriculum innovation:
research reports
Author: Tan, O.S.
Publisher: Singapore: Curriculum Policy and Pedagogy Unit, Curriculum Planning and
Development Division, Ministry of Education [and] Educational Research,
2007
Call number: RSING 371.102095957 TEA
Description: A collection of research papers that focus on the impact of the Teach Less,
Learn More (TLLM) policy on the implementation of school-based
curriculum. It contains the teaching experiences of selected primary and
secondary school teachers in Singapore as they go about conducting their
own lessons under TLLM.
18
Reference and Information Services
The Lee Kong Chian Reference Library provides advisory services for research assignments,
business ventures and personal interests. Our reference librarians can provide answers to queries,
suggest useful search strategies and guide you to relevant and useful resources available at the
Library. Researchers from academic to business fields may also make an appointment with qualified
reference librarians specializing in the subject area to help clarify and locate what you need.
Reference Point
In addition to the on-site reference and information services, Reference Point also satisfies your
reference needs from the comfort of your home or office. You can email, SMS, fax or call Reference
Point whenever you have an enquiry.
Email: ref@nlb.gov.sg
SMS: +65 9178 7792
Fax: +65 6332 3248
Telephone: +65 6332 3255
19
Editors
Chow Wun Han, Senior Manager
Contributors
Ong Hui Pheng, Reference Librarian
Jason Chang, Reference Librarian
20