The Education System in Singap

A detailed Summary of The Education System in Singap

In 1959, after Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew brought Singapore to independence; he realized that for the country to prosper, level of education had to be increased; therefore the government improved the education system of Singapore. The new system required at least 12 years of education (6 years of primary school, 4 years of secondary school and two years of high school). This system increased the level of education among Singaporeans. Followed by the increased in the level of education, the country experienced prosperity and trade expansion. Unfortunately, this resulted in a more intensive education system, which is unhealthy for the student. Singapore's unhealthy education system does not only refer to the normal physical stress, it also refers to the mental pressure that one has to withstand as a citizen, student and a child. The unnatural amount of pressure from the society and parents creates negative impacts on students, and hence influences the country as a whole.

The intensive education system is comprised of 10 to as many as 45 hours per week for an average student. In addition to that, the student must attend curriculum classes for 8 to 12 hours per week (e.g. piano,

The negative physical aspects of Singapore indirectly resulted in the second major cause of the pressuring education system in Singapore, parents' high expectations for their children. During the 60's, due to the sudden huge flock of immigrants, the population increased at an uncontrollable rate. As the country had just began her development then, there was no way that she could support so many people at that time; therefore there was a period (70's to 80's) when the one-child policy was introduced by the government to control the population growth. In addition to that, as the government decided to make Singapore an urbanized country, most farms were eliminated at that time and thus too many children would imply an increased cost of living for a family. The increased education levels in women further enhanced the government's one-child policy; hence there are only one, at the most two children in each family now. The lack of children in a family has resulted in parents pinning all hopes on their child (children). Due to the high expectations, parents often put a lot of pressure on their child (children) hoping that he/she (they) can survive in the pessimistic society, which has lesser and lesser room for the future generations to develop.

Every action creates an effect. The decision that government made is no exception. With the considerations of the current growing economy and the future prosperity of the country, the government not only does nothing to prevent the pressuring education system from getting worse, they put more pressure on schools as well as students for higher academic achievements. Some of the students who could not follow up with the syllabus and pace of the school system tend to plagiarize assignments and homework given by teachers, and cheat during tests and exams so as to pass or to obtain better results. There is nothing wrong with students who want to achieve but cheating or copying others' work is not the right way to show improvements. Students learn nothing in the process of cheating or plagiarism, in fact this action defeat the whole education purpose.

computer, drawing, private and school tuition, etc.) for extra skill. To make things worse, these kind of extra curriculums begin at a younger and younger age, e.g. 3 - 4 years old, for children in Singapore. Compared with countries like Australia, United States, England, etc, the leisure time for a child in Singapore is definitely lesser than a child in these countries, which greatly affects the normal growth cycle for the child.

Due to the above reason, jobs in Singapore are always in demand and the requirements for them increased significantly every year. Most students in Singapore understand that as the country goes

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Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English