Lee-The Prescient Educationist for Timeless-The watershed in Global Education League

 

Professor Oon-Seng Tan, Ee-Ling Low and David Hung explained the influence the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew had on the Singaporean Education system that today out-stand in the global education league. The success in education had metamorphosed the country needed in the 21st century.  The book is bifurcated into two parts, each part containing different chapters with thematic ideas.

In the prologue, the book displays Singapore during the post-colonial era, Lee’s view on education and Singapore’s Success through Education. Poverty was high with insufficient natural resources and fracturing ethnic fault-lines. Aftermath of Singapore’s independence was shattered by the task of nation-building for political and economic survival. The Founding Prime Minister had profound faith in her people and education to take Singapore to compete globally in absence of rich natural resources. The post-independence period was flooded with high poverty, unemployment, unskilled laborers with low literacy rate. So, Lee transitioned Singapore through three phases of educational Principles as mentioned below.

Lee dreamed for better Singapore through education. In 1966, Singapore’s longest serving Prime Minister, the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015), spoke to a gathering of school principals where he enlightened Singapore’s post-Independence situation;

ü  The unemployment rate was too high

ü  Unskilled population

ü  Literacy level was very low.

ü  The goal of education then was to ensure survival by creating mass education quickly in order to build a strong labor force for the country.

Singapore’s Success through Education

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lee focused on building an efficient, universal education system that would provide a skilled workforce for Singapore’s industrialization program as well as to lower unemployment. He did not remove all vestiges of the British education system but built on a very solid foundation inherited from Singapore’s colonial masters to enterprise the branded nation

Today Singapore is on top in education league because of following reasons;

ü  Retain best graduates for the teaching profession

ü  Competitive and appealing starting salaries for teachers.

ü  Generous teaching scholarships

ü  Continuous professional development,

ü  Clear and multiple career trajectories, and

ü  Singapore values teachers as professionals

ü  Meritocracy is the underlying principle of the Singapore education system.

ü  Top performing teachers are given leadership opportunities and

Why Singapore succeeded beside multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi religious society

ü  Lee was prescient enough to choose English as principal medium of instruction (lingua franca) driven by history.

ü  Lee ensured students to learn their mother tongue to develop a sense of belonging to their cultural roots and to ensure racial harmony.

ü  Talent and giftedness was no more for the elitist, it was rather counterbalanced by meritocracy.

ü  Education was based on the needs of nation.

ü  Education was aimed to educate whole child and whole person.

ü  Education’s function was shifted from “developing ‘human resources’ to developing ‘human beings

ü  His vision was “a community that feels together” and “responds together

Part 1

Education: The Man and His Ideas

To Lee, Singapore’s greatest and only resource was her people. He had no reservation in investing in education. Education was a gateway for freedom: a freedom from poverty, a freedom from injustice and a freedom from illiteracy. For him, education was an industry to develop every child to his fullest potential for work despite the need to develop holistically in intellectual discipline, attitudes, values and behaviors. To Lee education was significant in child life;

ü  To survive nation socially, politically and economically at broader perspective for infant nation.

ü  To bring people together to build a “united people of tomorrow” so that a community will feel together and respond together.

ü  To educate in developing a cultivated man and a good man, in terms of his intellectual discipline, attitudes, values and behaviors.

ü  To educate a child on basic common norms of social behavior, social values, and moral precepts which can make up the rounded Singaporeans of tomorrow.

ü  To nurture a child who never stops learning and keeps on learning.

Lee’s View on Child:

ü  He believed that every child was gifted not merely in academic matters.

ü  We can help every child to develop his or her fullest where he said; “We cannot change the genetic make-up of a child. We can help him develop to his fullest. We can increase the ease with which he absorbs knowledge, the means to communicate and other knowledge.”

ü  A child’s achievement was not limited by his or her background which he expounded with the statement; “Not every boy is equal in his endowments in either physical stamina or mental capacity or character but you want to try and get all those with the potential to blossom forth. That is your spearhead in your society; on them depends the pace of progress”.

ü  To nurture the child with leadership potential

Lee knew that Singapore would not thrive if its people were only good enough to be “clerks, peons, servants, not leaders”. He underlined the importance of grooming leaders of men not only in thought but even in action to lead and give the people the inspiration, the drive to make Singapore succeed. He was unabashed that Singapore's education system to be meritocratic in its focus on identifying and developing the very best talent regardless of their race, language, religion or socioeconomic background as all children are near to genius.

Educating a child to the fullest wasn’t enough for Lee. He even set a tone for a paradigm of learning to get the right mindset from the best of East and West. The educational journey began with a slogan to prepare  ‘a child for life’, not for ‘a life of work’ which later became more central to the mission of the Ministry of Education (MOE) as Singapore moved through the Survival-Driven, Efficiency-Driven, Ability-Driven and finally Student-Centric, Values-Driven phases of education

In the initial stages Singapore prioritized providing universal free primary education for all through Five-Year Plan (1961–1965) with an aim to provide equal opportunity for all, unity in diversity and institute “a program for training a new generation for the needs of a forward-looking, modern, industrial and technological society. By 1962, Singapore had achieved almost 100% free primary education, and by 1970, universal lower secondary education.

The Teaching Profession and Teacher Education

Teachers matter in Lee’s educational philosophy for they are a decisive force. Much of Singapore’s current success was attributed to the fundamental views Lee held about teachers and teacher education. This chapter highlights Lee’s views on teachers and how they helped to shape a system that attracts the right and best people to become teachers, develops them into effective teachers, and grows them professionally over their career so that they are able to deliver the best possible learning for every child. Singapore retained the best person in teaching profession by treating Teaching as a Calling and a Profession. To Lee, teaching was a proud and dedicated profession as it demands dedication of a very high order, for nowhere else you give most for least. Additionally in recent decades there was significant decentralisation of administrative and pedagogical authority to individual schools. Singapore invites the best talented individualism for teaching professions through following means;

i.                    Raising Teacher Status and Symbol:

Teachers were empowered with autonomy and flexibility in making decisions in classroom practice and principals with autonomy to make decisions on school management which was the driving force for teacher attrition in Singapore.

ii.                  Attracting and Recruiting the Right People;

To Lee a good pay was necessary, albeit insufficient means, in achieving the end with adequate material rewards. During the opening of Singapore Polytechnic New Campus, he reiterated that: “It is relatively easy to build better buildings and equip them with the latest facilities. It is slower and more difficult to get better trained and motivated teachers. First, they must be paid accordingly, so that gradually enough good students will go into teaching, full-time and part-time.” The government also closely tracked changes in the pay of professionals to ensure that the salaries of teachers remain competitive relative to other professions. Besides remunerations that were comparable to those for beginning lawyers, engineers, and even medical doctors in the government service, each teacher is entitled to 100 fully paid hours of professional training per year. There was also an incentive such as the Connect Plan, which provided monetary rewards for teachers who stayed in service after a certain number of years. In addition, teachers were encouraged to continue learning with the provision of paid sabbatical leave to pick up new knowledge and skills and not necessarily in an education institution.

Developing Quality Teacher Education

In the beginning teachers were trained and prepared at the Teachers’ Training College (TTC) to meet the demand for trained teachers for both full-time and part-time, a dualistic training. Even with the dual system, TTC didn’t produce enough trained teachers with an increased number of schools. Later in 1960, a single system of in-service training was introduced to replace the existing dual system of full-time and part-time training. In 1973, TTC became the Institute of Education (IE), and in 1991, the NIE was made an autonomous institution within the Nanyang Technological University. Today, NIE is a research intensive institution with a Teacher Education Model for the 21st century as shown below. NIE’s model of teacher education was strongly pivoted on a central pillar of Values (V), with Skills (S) and Knowledge (K) expected in a 21^st century teacher.

Source: https://www.nie.edu.sg/te-undergraduate/our-approach

The Academy of Singapore Teachers (AST) was established in 2010 at the Teachers’ conference by the then Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, Dr. Ng Eng Hen.  Today, it is a home for teachers to grow as professionals and educators. It allows teachers to come together to build a teacher-led culture of professional excellence, giving teachers the ownership of their own professional development. It champions the ethos of the teaching profession by fostering a culture of professional pride. Guided by the Teachers’ Vision of ‘Lead’, ‘Care’, and ‘Inspire’, it leads and inspires teachers to raise their pedagogical standards and act as a focal point for teachers to gather and learn from one another.

The Critical Importance of Schools and School Leaders

The two most formative influences in the lives of children are home and school as per Lee. He was of the view that the government could do least at home and do most in reforming schools. For that reason he considered school leaders as co-owners of the problem and key partners in the change process.

Country’s future is mirrored in the youths of today in the schools. As per Lee, school was more than buildings. It was the fraternity of school leaders and teachers. It was the natural duty of school leaders and teachers to settle for the future by making children homogeneous citizens of the future. It was for teachers to teach children and make them the homogeneous and united people of tomorrow. So school was the human laboratory to ensure united citizenry and capable leaders and teachers were the guardians of that desired future. The unfinished task was carried out by Goh Chok Tong who became the subsequent Prime Minister and revamped Singapore vision in four words; Thinking Schools, Learning Nation. The concept of Thinking Schools was central to this vision. Schools was tasked to develop future generations of thinking and committed citizens, capable of making good decisions to keep Singapore vibrant and successful in future.

Singapore investments in Education were not less than investments in economy since education was compulsory and lifelong learning for them. In 2000, Singapore parliament enacted the Compulsory Education Act. Today Singapore’s education system is on top in the global education league with an international reputation for being driven by examination results, the education philosophy has always been one in which students cannot merely be exam-smart. That was Lee’s position regarding this matter. Lee shared the importance of holistic education had on children that was beyond just examinations and academic grades.

National Identity and Values

In Lee’s mind, one of the most important functions of the Singapore education system was to;

ü  Preserve cultural roots

ü  Promote social cohesion and

ü  Promote national identity,

ü  Instill good values in the young.

All those attributes were meant to promote good values with social cohesion and national identity based on a Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) framework, introduced in 2014.

The Importance of School Leaders

The School leaders matter in Singapore. The principal is empowered to interpret policies and act on the ground with a centralized system. The Change is top-down and bottom-up as well. Lee outlined about school leadership in four ideas.

        i.            School leaders lead based on values-centered school leadership to change for the sake of the country through a student-centric education paradigm.

      ii.            Principals to understand national strategies with relative or full decentralization to interpret policies and act on the ground.

    iii.            Principals to be dedicated stewards of the nation

    iv.            Principals to be a pragmatic approach to lead change

Part II- Foundational Pillars of Singapore’s Education

English as Lingua Franca: Singapore’s Common Tongue

Singapore is the only country in the Asian region that uses English as a working language in government and administration. For Lee Kuan Yew, English was not only to survive Singapore as an independent nation but also to thrive in its industries and for people to connect with the global community for English is a dominant language. Apart from that, at home English was a neutral language to level all races in play, learn and communicate in work. It was for a greater cost to build an equitable and fair society. But that didn’t mean Lee wasn’t supportive of the vernacular languages in Singapore.

When Singapore was abruptly separated from Malaysia in 1965, no one expected it to become the successful nation it is today, leading the world in many areas, not least in international university and benchmarked assessment rankings. Country known for different languages and dialects, ethnic and cultural practices outperforms the rest.

Children learnt the language of their ethnicity also known as ‘Mother Tongue Language’ in schools where English was the medium of instruction for all. In tertiary education, English was the sole language of instruction unless the subjects studied were related to other languages. English was the language by which Singaporean children learnt subject content knowledge and skills, construct and explore tacit knowledge with one another in class, and developed creative, analytical and critical thinking as part of the school curriculum.

Economic Survival

English was the best choice, the language of international diplomacy, science and technology, and international finance and commerce after World War II. Lee had not only to create jobs and attract foreign capital, but had an equally pressing task of strengthening inter-racial relations in a country where differences existed in language, religion and shared histories, as well as in ideologies and predispositions resulting from education received through different languages. He was also acutely aware of the need to address the insecurities of the minority races. The adoption of English as a common tongue for all people in Singapore equitable society that Singapore would build.

Indeed, had Lee not chosen English for Singapore, the nation would have been left behind not only in its struggle for economic survival but, more critically, the vision of a country where every child regardless of race, language and religion has a place in the Singapore sun would have remained nothing more than political rhetoric. The choice of English as a common language for all was to be an important way forward in building a cohesive society. Giving every child an opportunity to learn his or her mother tongue language was an important and parallel component of the government’s approach to appreciating and managing linguistic diversities. It was also a political necessity: “If we had tried to suppress any language, the consequences would have been disastrous

 English-Knowing Bilingualism, Lee’s “Most Difficult Policy”

Lee was of view with bilingual philosophy in the post-independence period. For him English was a neutral language to unite multi-ethnic groups which would also aid native to learn vernacular language so as to keep attached to their roots.

In recent history Singapore’s education system has received much intentional scrutiny and admiration in due to consistent top performance in internationally benchmarked tests in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Progress in International Student Achievement (PISA) by students. The magic behind such success was Lee’s pragmatic bilingual doctrine in the education system.

Lee articulated about bilingual doctrine while addressing the Legislative Assembly in 1956; “In a free and independent Malaya in which every Chinese, every Indian, every Malay, will no longer be Chinese, Malay or Indian but Malayan, what language or languages shall they speak? What language or languages shall the Government use? What language or languages will be acceptable to the people? What are the languages or languages of an independent and democratic Malaya? They are thorny, delicate problems.”

That was sowing the seeds of Singapore’s bilingual education journey. Singapore’s bilingual language policy was designed to unit multi-ethnic society, where Singaporeans were encouraged to be bilingual in English and an official mother tongue which eventually gave rise the “English-Knowing Bilingual”. Students in Singapore converse in English and at least one other language, i.e. their ascribed ethnic mother tongue, i.e. Mandarin Chinese for the Chinese, Malay for the Malays and Tamil for the Indians. The second reason was to address economic pragmatism where Singaporeans will have access to the language of international trade and the language for educational advancement in international research and resources written in English). The third reason was to overcome deculturalism’ or replacing one’s own culture for a foreign/non-local one.

In the first phase of implementation in the survival driven phase (1979–1997) it was aimed to ensure there was a lingua franca for communication across the different ethnic groups while allowing Singaporeans to access the wealth of knowledge and resources available in English.

The next phase, in the efficiency-driven phase (1979–1997) several important language policies were introduced besides aiming to reduce school dropouts. It was only in 1987 where English was made the medium of instruction in all schools which remains even today.

There was progress in International Student Achievement (PISA) test scores compared to those who did not learn English. Singapore’s excellent educational outcomes are credited to the use of English as the medium of instruction success of Singapore as a nation is recognized for Singapore’s bilingual education policy

Science and Mathematics Education-The Needs of the Nation               

Lee visualized a country driven strongly on science-based educated workforce in a modern technology-based economy where Singapore can supply enough science-based expertise. As Swallow said, “if parents do not get their students on a pathway to completing algebra in eighth grade, then it would be difficult to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field within four years”. Singapore education was not merely for the sake of education. It was more pragmatic based on the needs of the nation

Lee was prescient enough to know about the STEM education in later periods to remain Singapore ever ahead and afloat. For him education should impart not only knowledge, but more importantly, the spirit of curiosity and inquiry which makes for innovation and enables science-based industries to grow which was made through a realistic assessment.

 Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was established in 1996 to be the “Silicon Valley of the East”. While celebrating the 10^th anniversary in 2006 and even today, MSC was not able to achieve this. Singapore, Thailand, India, China and South Korea criticized the government for not being able to facilitate easy flow of manpower where there was a big gap between the human resources supplied from the local universities.

Lee was pragmatic to study the needs of the nation and world where there was manpower planning. Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower has always worked closely with the polytechnics and universities to determine the numbers of graduates needed in the evolving economy from each programme.

Universities, Research, Innovation and Enterprise

Lee Kuan Yew was foresighted about research, education and universities with relevance to the economy or society .Research, innovation, and enterprise are integral parts of Singapore's success in educational journey. There is significant investment in Research and Development. The National Institute of Education (NIE) is the leading agency for education research in Singapore funded through the Education Research Fund (EdRF) made available by MOE to NIE. The aim of the EdRF is to develop programmes, innovations and interventions relevant to Singapore schools, MOE and NIE so as to test concepts, create products or processes that can improve the education system and to enhance teacher expertise and professionalism in key subject domains.

 Technology and Innovation

This chapter uncovers Singapore’s stories of technological innovations. Among the notable milestones of technological innovations was Singapore’s Master Plans for ICT in Education from 1997 that started by building technological structure in schools, developing engaged learning framework and the innovations for teaching and learning. Next, the Singapore water story of its technology to solve Singapore’s long standing water challenges in 2002. These milestones provide compelling evidence to mark Singapore’s successful survival as a nation and building capability among the people. These milestones are closely related to Singapore’s progress from the early industrialization of labor intensive economy to capital intensive phase of economic restructuring and newly industrialized economy and intensive phase of globalized and diversified economy. These technological innovations are authentic lessons that encompass the 21st century pedagogy and the skills of collaboration, problem solving, inquiry, thinking and ICT skills.