Education
All Articles(22 articles)
Education30 Sept 2026
The Hidden Curriculum of Work: The Role of Parents in Shaping Work-Ready Young Adults
My twin 6-year-old girls are transiting to primary school next year, and I have been feeling jittery about their level of readiness. While one of them can read fluently, her sister is still lacking fluency and needs more practice. I have spent hours deliberating between sending her for reading classes or working on it with her myself...
Aishah Mohd Said
10 min read
Education30 Jun 2025
The Quiet Power of Privilege in Singapore's Education System
Introduction The phrase “every school is a good school,” popularised by former Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during his term as the Minister for Education, was meant to reassure Singaporeans...
Wani Wardina
8 min read
Education27 Jan 2025
Preschool and Parental Partnership in the New Era
I recall an occasion when I brought my children out to play in the heavy rain with their raincoats and jumping in muddy puddles with my spouse. It is a simple activity that my children enjoy, but I...
Fadilah Adnan
9 min read
Education27 Jan 2025
The JC-ITE Dichotomy: How Educational Hierarchies Perpetuate the Divide Within
Singapore’s education system has undergone significant transformations over the years, aiming to provide equal opportunities for all students. In 2024, our secondary schools were introduced to the...
Sherlita Almeyra Sherhan
15 min read
Education24 Jul 2024
Education Reforms over the Past Few Decades: How Best Can Parents Respond?
Singapore’s education landscape has indisputably changed over the past few decades. These changes have been felt at all levels of schooling, and have encompassed not only revisions to subject syllabi...
Assoc Prof Jason Tan
11 min read
Education18 Jan 2023
Staying Sane in an Insane World: Performance and Academics
When I first heard the term ‘PhD factory’, it took me a few seconds to realise what it meant and was immediately privy to the precarity of academia. A Doctor of Philosophy or PhD degree connotes a certain level of prestige. It is the pinnacle of learning. You might make friends for life, and friends who challenge your way of thinking. You get to meet and work with professors whose interests align with yours. Securing an opportunity to do a PhD is not easy. No doubt, academia is an elite industry.
Syed Imad Alatas
9 min read
Education14 Jan 2022
Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Have They Meant for Education in Singapore?
In July 2021, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued a joint press release calling for the reopening of schools across the world.
Assoc Prof Jason Tan
7 min read
Education15 Apr 2020
Graduates of Institutes of Higher Learning: Surviving the Future
Amid news of the threat posed by COVID-19 to an already ailing global economy plagued by the US-China trade war and deglobalisation, the announcements made by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat when he delivered the Budget 2020 speech on February 18 brought a ray of hope to workers as the outlook for jobs in the near future looked bleak. Mr Heng reiterated the government’s promise that, regardless of one’s starting point, as long as one is willing to learn, the government will support one’s pursuit of lifelong learning and employability.
Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim
10 min read
Education15 Oct 2019
What is the Foundation of Singapore's Education Policy?
The Report on the Ministry of Education 1978 or the Goh report, endorsed by parliament on 30 March 1979, was the first to propose an explicit form of ability-based streaming. It is underpinned by the ‘fundamental belief’ that ability grouping is responsive to learners’ diverse capacities and would better fulfil their ‘inherent potential’ (Ng, 2008, n.p.). The education system externalises at the level of this belief. That is, this central belief system creates the conditions of life, to which we structure our lives around.
Dr Nadira Talib
8 min read
Education15 Apr 2019
Welcoming Subject-based Banding in Singapore's Secondary School: Reform or Re-formation of Our Superstructure?
There was a momentous, if not overdue, education policy announcement in the first week of March 2019. In five years’ time, secondary school students in Singapore will no longer be streamed into Express, Normal Academic (N (A)) or Normal Technical (N (T)) streams. Beginning 2024, there will instead be full subject-based banding (SBB) and students will take up subjects at higher or lower levels based on their strengths.
Dr Mardiana Abu Bakar
11 min read