Thursday, February 2, 2012

Grace C. Lapinig: Educational System in Singapore

Apart from enjoying a status of famous shopping and tourism destination, Singapore is also emerging as a place for pursuing higher education. The pro-high technology policy of the government has invited billion of dollars of foreign investment in the fields of biotechnology, IT and research. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is responsible for controlling the development and administration of the schools and various government-funded educational institutions. In case of private schools, the MOE plays a crucial supervisory and advisory role. Education mainly revolves around the interests of the students. The teaching and pedagogical system follows a flexible approach that helps the students in developing their potentials and aptitudes.

The ministry of education is the premier authoritative institute that is responsible for ensuring that students in Singapore receive world-class education. The government on an average allots 20% of its annual budget towards development of educational institutes in the state, which is managed and appropriated by the ministry. Both the state and private educational institutes are allowed certain amount of autonomy in designing their curriculum, tuition fees and admission policies to remain qualified to government’s aids and assistance. The state has made it a criminal offense for parents who fail to enroll their children to schools at the right age. The main medium of education has been English although Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil are also taught.

Singapore has placed an essential emphasis on education. This can be seen from the fact that education spending forms at least 20% of the budget of Singapore. Primary education has become compulsory for all the citizens of Singapore and if parents fail to enroll their children into school, it is considered a criminal offence.

English has been adopted as a first language and is the primary medium of instruction in most institutions. At school level however, Singapore follows the bilingual system of education with English being complemented by a mother tongue language. This system has proved to be extremely fruitful for the overall development of a student's abilities. This has managed to cross the ethnic and languages based borders amongst the citizens, and connect Singapore to the rest of the world.


References:
http://www.sgbox.com/singaporeeducation.html
http://www.focussingapore.com/education-singapore/
http://www.uniguru.co.in/studyabroad/Singapore/top-best-university/education-system-in-Singapore.html

No comments:

Post a Comment