Economic-Based Education Reform in Singapore
An examination of the case of Singapore illustrates one way a country can make significant
educational investments that pay off economically. In Singapore, education decision making
is centralized at the Ministry of Education. The high quality of Singapore’s education system
is evidenced by the fact that their students scored at the top of all countries in both mathematics and science in both the 4th and 8th grades in the 2003 Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study, or “TIMSS”, an international assessment of student achievement (Mullis, et al., 2004a, 2004b), as they have performed consistently well in mathematics over the past decade. UNDP (2005) figures indicate that the adult literacy rate is
96.6% for males and 88.6% for females. Singapore’s education policy is strongly linked to the development of human capital (Ashton, Green, Sung, & James, 2002). Officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry chair the Economic Development Board, a cross-ministry agency that sets directions for policies in other relevant ministries, including education. From the beginning of Singapore’s modern economic development, the government tasked the education system to supply targeted clusters with skills necessary for their labor force. Anticipated skill needs were translated into production goals for secondary, polytechnic, and university institutions. As the initial, low-wage, export-based strategy achieved full employment and the development policy shifted toward high-value-added production, the government upgraded its education requirements. Secondary schools were to produce higher levels of skills in science, mathematics, and language; tertiary institutions were to produce more engineers and scientists. High-stakes tests were used to assure that the most able students had access to the higher levels of education. To upgrade the current labor force, a tax was imposed on low wage jobs; the resulting funds were put into skill upgrading, and these funds could be returned to those corporations that participated in training programs. Unions also participated in the skills upgrading effort. The most recent shift to a knowledge economy development strategy has resulted in yet another set of economic development-driven changes in Singapore’s education system. Indeed, part of the current economic plan includes the development of Singapore as a regional educational hub that would contribute directly to economic growth.
In coordination with shifts in the economic development plan toward a knowledge-based economy, the Education Ministry instituted a number of reforms under the title “Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn: Towards Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2000). An important component of the reform was to create a better balance in the curriculum between the acquisition of factual knowledge and the mastery and applications of concepts, and the development of individual curiosity, creativity, and enterprise. Thus the curriculum was broadened beyond a set of cores skills and values to
include information skills, thinking skills and creativity, communication skills, knowledge application skills, self-management skills, and character development. To develop these skills
and attitudes, cross-discipline project work was introduced into the classrooms. Assessment
was revised to measure students’ skills in analyzing and applying information, thinking, and
communicating. The plan also strengthened the connections between the school, the home,
and the community, as part of a larger social development plan that encouraged a more active
participation of citizens in community life.
ICT has been an important component of Singapore’s education reform. In 1997, Singapore initiated a 5-year ICT plan, called “Master Plan for IT in Education,” to incorporate technology into the school system (Mui, Kan, & Chun, 2004). This $US1.2 billion project provided a national blueprint for the use of ICT in all schools and aimed to create an ICT-enriched school environment for every child. This first master plan focused primarily on installing computers and high bandwidth Internet access in schools and classrooms and training teachers on the use of computers. In 2002 the Ministry launched its Master Plan 2, in coordination with “Thinking Schools: Learning Nation” reforms. The new master plan adopted a more systemic, holistic approach in which all the key components of the system— ICT, curriculum, assessment, instruction, professional development, and school culture— were integrated. Changes in one area were to be matched to changes in others within the Education Ministry. For example, the curriculum was reduced by 10 to 30% to allow for the integration of technology in the subject areas and university admission required the submission of an electronic portfolio of student work, in addition to exam scores.
Societal Transformation and Education Reform in Finland
The case of Finland provides a contrasting approach to the use of education in support of development, one focused on broad-based, decentralized decision making and collaborative
knowledge creation. Finland has approximately 65,000 teachers and 900,000 primary and secondary students (UNESCO, 2004). According to UNDP (2005) figures, the government
spends 6.4% of its GDP on education, about 12.7% of all government expenditures. Finnish
students scored second to (but not statistically different from) students in Hong Kong, among
40 countries participating in the mathematics portion of the Program for International Student
Assessment, or PISA (OECD, 2004c). (Singapore did not participate in the recent PISA nor did Finland participate in the recent TIMSS.) The country scored first among nations on the science and reading portions of this test of 15-year-olds. Finland also scored first in a special
assessment of students’ problem solving skills that measured students’ ability to analyze problem situations, apply knowledge to solve problems, and evaluate, justify and communicate results (OECD, 2004d).
The Government of Finland places a very high importance on education, viewing it and research and development as the foundation for economic growth and maintenance of the
welfare society (Ministry of Education, 1999, 2004). In contrast with Singapore’s centralized
structure, the school system in Finland is highly decentralized and decision-making is distributed across sectors. Each school writes its own curriculum based on very general guidelines from the National Board of Education and developed through discussions among
teachers and parents. As a result, school curricula may be quite diverse across the country. Schools and teachers are also given the authority to select teaching materials that correspond
to the curriculum. Businesses work closely with schools. Nearly one third of secondary students are enrolled in vocational education. Vocational education is conducted in collaboration with local businesses through apprenticeships and on-the-job training and with
business leaders who participate in school decision making. Students in the general upper secondary program can also choose to participate in work-related study. The purpose of Finnish higher education is to support research and development. And the aging of the Finnish population has increased the importance of adult education and lifelong learning is a
priority in education policies and action plans.
The Ministry attributes the country’s excellent performance on PISA to free, high quality education across the country, high quality teachers with a high degree of autonomy,
development-oriented assessment that gives students feedback on their progress, and a socio-constructivist approach to learning that treats students as autonomous learners who are guided
to develop their study skills and plan their life career. The Ministry conceptualizes learning as
an individual and community process of knowledge creation, a skills- and goal-oriented process that includes independent and collective problem solving.
The education policy is coordinated with the national vision of an information society. As part of this the Finnish Information Society Program, the Ministry of Education developed the Information Strategy for Research and Education (Ministry of Education, Finland, 1995,
1999, 2004; Kankaanranta & Linnakylä, 2004). Like Singapore’s master plan, Finland’s Information Strategy also integrates ICT with other components of the system but the focus is
much more on supporting knowledge production and use. Among the goals of this policy are
the following:
• Assuring the development of information products and services;
• Assuring that all students have information society skills and are able to access, use,
and provide information society services;
• Developing learning-centered instructional approaches that focus on collaboration,
individual styles of learning, learning difficulties, alternative ways of learning, and
multidisciplinary approaches to learning;
• Moving from “once-and-for-all” training to lifelong learning;
• Ensuring that teachers achieve a high level of professional skills;
• Building education and research networks into an open, global network;
• Increasing Finnish language content on the Web.
The Information Society Program has helped schools purchase computers, link them to the Internet, promote the introduction of ICT as a tool for teaching and learning, and carry out in-service training for teachers. The program’s aim is for all schools to be connected to
networks and for all teachers to use ICT-based tools in their teaching. The purpose of the inservice training program is to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to reform the pedagogical practices in their schools, especially with regard to collaborative teaching and learning, networking, and teamwork. The pr