Ministry officials reported that schools are allowed to buy teaching materials for the English
Programme to suit their own needs, in line with the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by each
school. Schools are provided with a list of possible materials, but thereafter it is up to them which
to choose.
In practice schools vary in their approach to materials. The primary school had bought books on
maths and science from Singapore or locally, whereas the secondary school had embarked on an
ambitious and impressive programme of developing its own materials in book form, updated every
year, consisting of texts and images taken from various other sources