n the second phase of the development of the Singaporean economic system, the government was seeking to shift its competitive advantage in the global labor market from being the low cost of its labor to the quality of its labor, so that it could compete for businesses that would not just locate in Singapore, but locate work in Singapore that would pay well. So the focus of education policy shifted from basic literacy to quality and to the retention of students in school. The focus of policy became how to get all students to global education standards. In this phase of the development of the education system, streaming was introduced at the end of the fourth grade, based on the performance of the students in their native languages, so that their teachers could pitch their instruction to the level of mastery of the students. At this time, however, after these second phase reforms had been implemented, the lowest track students in the streaming system were performing above the average performance of students in the industrialized nations, a remarkable achievement. The Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore was established to support the development of the different streams with high-quality and consistent educational materials. Much of this curriculum development was done with an eye to Singapore’s economic development needs.