According to David Hogan, Senior Research Scientist at NIE and interviewed for this report, the degree of institutional
alignment in Singapore is very unusual in global terms. Singapore is a “tightly coupled” system in which the key
leaders of the ministry, NIE, and the schools share responsibility and accountability. Its remarkable strength is that no
policy is announced without a plan for building the capacity to meet it. And while there is variation in performance
within schools, there is relatively little variation between schools. By contrast, more loosely-coupled systems
have a much harder time bringing about reform initiatives and are often typified by an endless parade of new,
sometimes conflicting policies, without building the capacity to meet them. The teacher preparation programmes
in universities are also often not aligned with the reform policies. Consequently, practitioners become cynical and
wait for successive reform waves to pass. There are usually also large discrepancies between schools in the extent
to which reforms are carried out.