PROBLEMS WITH EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE

EDUCATION OBSESSION IN SINGAPORE

Seah Chiang Nee wrote in The Star, “The preoccupation with the paper chase is a national trait. During recessions, the government often increased the education budget rather than reduce it. At home, families spend tens of thousands of dollars a year for special tuition or extra classes for their children. The word tuition is probably the first word a Singaporean kid hears as soon as he or she learns to walk. And as he grows up, it seldom leaves him; even undergraduates here get tuition. [Source: Seah Chiang Nee, The Star, July 30, 2011]

“It is not surprising to see long lines of parents huddling overnight outside popular tuition centres, waiting to enrol their children when the centres open. With this frenetic local preoccupation and tens of thousands of foreign children coming here to study, allocation of places has become a hot potato.

In 2001, AFP reported: “A recent survey showed parents in Singapore spent S$320 million (US$185 million) a year, or about S$1 million dollars a day, on extra tuition to boost the academic performance of their children. But another survey found that 33 percent of 9-12 year-olds considered life not worth living because of the fear of academic failure. [Source: Agence France Presse, March 2, 2001]

“A Singapore woman was recently jailed for nine months for caning and kicking her nine-year-old son when he asked for homework help on the eve of an exam. The mother was said to have been furious with her son for not paying attention in class. Reports in 2000 year of excessive punishment, including a nine-year-old caned by his mother for only getting 83 percent in a science exam, led Education Minister Teo Chee Hean to issue a public plea for parents not to belt children who do not meet exam expectations.”

Education Pressure in Singapore

Parents in Singapore pressure their children to do well on tests so they can get into the best schools. There is a lot of pressure on students and teachers to produce top scores. Preschool children bring home spelling homework and stress over trying to get into elite schools like the Henry Park Primary School. Parents take part in lotteries to get their children into top school and breakdown if they don’t succeed. Some kids carry backpacks filled up to 10 textbooks, each weighing 700 to 800 grams, Kids carry so many heavy textbooks some school introduced portable electronic devices in the pre-iPad early 2000s—with digitalized textbooks and screens they can write on—to lighten their load.

Sources of stress among Singapore iniversity undergraduateschannelnewsasia.com

In 2001, attention was focused on the issue of school stress after a 10-year-old girl committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of her apartment block because her Chinese language grades weren’t high enough. By all accounts she was a cheerful girl with top grades. A few months earlier a 12-year-old girl leapt to her death after her father found that she had doctored her grades.

Seah Chiang Nee wrote in The Star, The Singapore education system produces “enormous pressure on the children. More and more pupils, as young as kindergarten and primary classes, are seeking help from psychiatrists for study or exam blues. On Mondays, this "school refusal" illness appears for more and more pupils in the form of a tummy ache, headache, nausea, fever or dizziness, according to a research conducted by a government hospital. It is not a physical sickness. The children are so desperate to avoid school that the symptoms of these ailments appear at the start of the week. The spotlight on Singapore's high-pressure education system followed suicides earlier this year of two girls, aged 10 and 12, because they did not perform well in examinations.[Source: Seah Chiang Nee, The Star, December 2, 2001 ]

“Surveys of nine- to 12-year-olds in the city-state have found one in three say life is not worth living because of the fear of academic failure. Five percent of all pupils in Singapore are now said to suffer from "school refusal," and the Health Ministry recently brought in an Australian expert to study how Singapore's school system impacts on the health of children. Dr Jill Sewell, a child health specialist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, spent a week visiting hospitals and talking to children before making recommendations to the ministry. "These (school refusal) pains can be very real. But underlying these physical symptoms is deep anxiety," Dr Sewell said.

“In another controversial development, a secondary school caned 41 boys for skipping tests in one month recently. An enraged parent, whose son was reluctant to go to school after being caned, told the Straits Times: "I believe the school's counselling programme is a complete failure if the principal has to resort to caning." But the principal, Saminathan Gopal, stood by his decision and described the punished students as recalcitrant, and that "they were irresponsible and did not turn up for an important test." Each boy received two strokes on the buttocks and was sent for counselling later. Seventeen girls were sent for community work for skipping the tests as well. While the Education Ministry gives principals the discretion and authority to cane students, it allows only a maximum of six light strokes on the palm or buttocks, and does not allow girls to be caned.

“To critics, this use of corporate punishment instead of counselling does not augur well for efforts to promote thinking students. Not all parents condemn this strictness. One parent, whose 16-year-old son had overslept and missed five tests, said: "Missing tests is ridiculous. He should be caned, and if he misbehaves again he should be caned again."

Singapore School Streaming System Creating Arrogant Students?

Seah Chiang Nee wrote in The Star, “What began as a jealous boy-girl dating complaint has developed into a full-blown Internet debate that highlights the divisive impact of Singapore’s school ranking system. It was an innocuous message of a student from the elite Raffles Girls’ School dating a boy from an under-achieving neighbourhood school. Few people could have anticipated anything worth to comment about, but it provoked a Raffles Junior College student – RJCdude – to call on lower-ranking students to “quit trying to climb the social ladder by dating students from top schools.” The explosive discussion pitched the present, and former, students of top-ranking schools against those of neighbourhood schools, to which average or below-average students generally are streamed. They end up – at best – with a diploma rather than a university degree. [Source: Seah Chiang Nee, The Star, February 15, 2004 ^^]

“The Web debate stretched over a period of four months, attracting more than 400 postings in two chatsites. Cynic, who suggested that the couple break up, said: “It's not going to work out. She's going to be ashamed of introducing him to her friends and her family.” What about the future? he asked. “Will he be happy wallowing in her shadow when she starts earning three times more than him? Inferiority complex will soon kick in. “There also will be a great communication problem. I mean, what has a graduate from Cornell in common with Ah Beng on the streets?” ^^

“Cordonbluu wrote of the different social class and intellectual mentalities and the ability to provide. “The one weaker in academics will not be able to provide nourishment for the mind and cannot engage in intelligent discussion on politics, for example,” he said. “And the more intelligent one will probably have to lower his/her standards and eventually will degenerate to the same level.” He added this bombshell: “We are afraid of genetic dilution.” “Leave the RGS girl alone-lah! Leave her to other high-flying guys. It's good to know one's limits once in a while,” declared Get Real. One forum participant said the Raffles schoolgirl was earmarked for higher things in life, so the guy should not spoil it for her. Another “elite” student, Super-infector, said he would never go out with a girl from a neighbourhood school because of “social and intellectual disparity.” Declared another: “You guys should know your place in society.” ^^

“But underneath all the juvenile froth is something more important to the nation. It raises a crucial question about character-building of our top students. While the education system can produce excellent engineers and scientists, can the same be said of raising potential leaders who are sensitive to society’s needs? The views of some of Singapore’s “elite” students are revealing and disturbing. They lend weight to an observation by some foreigners that the new generation of Singaporeans is arrogant and self-centred.

“One is the former Chinese ambassador here, Chen Bioliu, who said Singaporeans need to shed their “arrogance” and “air of superiority” if they were to further improve relations with China. According to her, some Singaporeans, with their superiority in English, tend to look down on Chinese nationals. Her comment reflects the fears of some leaders who have been warning people they must do more to drop the “ugly Singaporean” image that some neighbouring countries have of them. ^^

“Not all the “elite” ex-students, of course, share this arrogance; in fact a few condemn the arguments. But there are enough of those who agree with RJCdude. If they are insensitive to the less capable in college, can they be depended upon to provide leadership and compassion to the needy when they become adults? ^^

“Ultimately, the question arises as to whether the ranking system is shaping an elitist mentality, breeding a class division in Singapore. Sgstvoy, who admits he came from a top school, argues that students with limited capacity, or the lower class, “exist for the service of the upper class.” To the lesser students, he advised: “Know your limits and develop your other niche abilities for I do believe an academically inept person will have other abilities that may not be valued by the current system.”

“No creativity, no analytical skill, arrogant and think too highly of themselves but yet is in fact a pathetic bunch who live in their own small little world. This is really sad,” one declared. “You guys are terribly childish,” said Jenn. “If you think you're going to make it big with that attitude, you're in for a big surprise.” In the working world, nobody cares what college you come from, only how well you perform, says another. “This thread has gotten out of control. The school ranking system has gone all wrong.” Finally, from ex-elite ExRGS: “One day when these arrogant bigots have to step out into the real world where no one knows what your old school name means, you will finally learn to grow up.” ^^

Singaporean Parents Spend Millions on Extra Education for Their Kids

In 2000, AFP reported: “Parents in Singapore spend S$320 million (US$185 million) a year, or about S$1 million dollars a day, on extra tuition to boost their kids' academic performance, a survey conducted by the Straits Times showed today. But the students said they only experienced moderate improvement in their grades, the daily reported. Covering 600 students and parents, the survey confirmed long-held perceptions of a highly competitive city-state which rewards those with top academic results. [Source: Agence France Presse, November 28, 2000]

“The survey showed that eight times out of ten, parents insisted on the extra tuition classes, with two in three parents saying the aim was to help their kids score well in exams. In 1992, when the national daily carried out a similar survey, concern that children could not cope with the subject was the top reason. The relentless drive on children to perform academically has led Singaporean Education Minister Teo Chee Hean to plead with parents to tone down the pressure. "It's not a good thing for a parent to be caning his child just because he failed his exams," the minister said over the weekend.

According to AFP in 2010: ““In a high-pressure education system where raw test results matter more than anything else, parents are sparing no costs to arm their children for future competition and ensure they qualify for the top two local universities. Private tutors can cost parents hundreds of dollars per month. They, in turn, put pressure on their children to do well in primary and secondary school exams, creating a spiral of expectations and pressure. "It becomes more and more difficult every year because children are getting better prepared for primary school by their parents, and the teachers and schools upgrade their teachings with the greater expectations," said William Toh, one of three founders of an education web portal. [Source: Agence France Presse, August 8, 2010 ]

“But things could be changing for stressed-out Singaporean kids. To himself has a daughter entering primary school next year, called reform f [Singapore’s testing system] a step in the right direction. "In fact, (stress on children) might be even higher because even if the schools are not giving exams, parents are thinking about sending them to enrichment classes so that they will be prepared," he said. Toh is not taking any chances — he is already sending his daughter to enrichment classes in preparation for primary school. “

Singapore Hit by Teacher Scandals

In 2011, Heather Tan of Associated Press wrote: “Their affair started with her giving him a copy of the mushy memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It ended with the 32-year-old female teacher in Singapore getting a jail sentence for illicit sex with her 15-year-old male student. The case, which shocked Singapore, was the latest in a string of scandals involving the city-state's educators, who in the past year have been caught embezzling college money, committing lewd behavior, peddling drugs and a couple of times having sex with students. At least 10 such cases have reached the courts this year.[Source: Heather Tan, Associated Press, November 15, 2012 ]

“The teacher-student affair was the most shocking. The mother of two cannot be identified to protect the privacy of her sex partner, who is underage. Facing up to 20 years in jail, she was sentenced on Oct. 29 to one year in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual offenses with a person under 16 years of age. In passing the sentence, District Judge Eugene Teo noted that the teacher had "no predatory pedophilic tendencies." "There are no shades of anything in a saga such as this, no justifications; only a clear line not to be crossed," Teo said.

“The court heard that the student was traumatized following a boating accident during an overseas school trip in 2011. He started confiding in the teacher, who had chaperoned the excursion. She then began wooing him with gifts, including a copy of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert that was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts. That, according to prosecutors, led to the beginning of an affair during which she took the boy to her home in December 2011 where she performed oral sex on him with his consent. She took him home again in January 2012 where they had consensual sex several times, according to prosecutors. The affair came to light after the boy's parents became suspicious and lodged a complaint.

“A day after the sentencing, a court started the trial of a former school principal accused of using S$150,000 (US$120,000) from school funds to build a house for his religious order and pay for his tennis coach. Anthony Tan Kim Hock, 65, who retired in 2009 after 25 years at the school, is facing 21 criminal charges. If convicted he faces up to 15 years in prison. Another case involved a 39-year male teacher who filmed a total of 94 upskirt videos of female students in uniform at various locations around Singapore, including at the secondary school where he taught. He was sentenced to nine months in jail last month after pleading in his defense that he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Another teacher allegedly installed three pinhole cameras in a female toilet in a school where he was teaching.

“Other cases involving wayward educators include: a former school principal caught seeking sexual services with an underage prostitute, a law professor at the prestigious National University of Singapore being accused of accepting sex in exchange for good grades, a 51-year old male private tuition teacher caught sexually abusing seven of his male students and a 55-year old former childcare teacher who helped her boyfriend sell drugs. Earlier this year, a teacher was caught sending lewd text messages to his 13 year old female student and was sentenced to 10 months in jail, while a former Chinese-language teacher was sentenced to 10 years jail and six strokes of the cane for molesting two boys and performing oral sex on a 8-year-old student.”

Teacher Scandals Spur Singaporeans to Take a Hard Look at Their Education System

In the wake of teachers being caught embezzling college money, committing lewd behavior, peddling drugs and a couple of times having sex with students, Heather Tan of Associated Press wrote: “In a country known for its orderliness and strict laws the scandals are raising questions about whether the government has ignored declining moral and social standards. More surprising is that such egregious cases have been recorded in Singapore's highly regarded educational system, where both teachers and students are conditioned from first grade to be disciplined, rule-fearing and committed to academic excellence. A student's academic future is determined at age 10 through a streaming system, which pushes over-achievers into a fast-track schooling. At age 12 they take a national test to get into top schools. [Source: Heather Tan, Associated Press, November 15, 2012 ]

"This over emphasis on results does not directly contribute to falling standards of probity in schools. Rather, what it did was to reduce the importance placed on values, character and integrity," said Eugene Tan, an assistant professor of law at the Singapore Management University. "In a sense we took our eyes off the ball when we shouldn't have. I think the matter is a lot more complex with multi-causal factors, including a general societal decline in moral standards," he said.

Gabriel Tan, an associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore, said there is a general sense of frustration among Singaporeans at the "very tight control" on society by the government. This control has long ensured that people conform to the government's vision of a good society — law-abiding, hard-working, health-conscious staid nationalists. "Recently, in the last elections, there seemed to be a sort of murmur among people saying they wanted a more open government so this (spate of scandals) actually may reflect Singapore moving in the direction where you are questioning and abusing authority," said Tan.

"As a parent, you don't see how classroom lessons and extracurricular activities are conducted," said Elaine Khoo, a 43-year old banker and mother of two. "Naturally that means you have to place your trust in the school to do what's best for your child, but what if it's at the hands of morally-questionable people masquerading as teachers?"

“The Education Ministry said it takes a "very serious view of misconduct by teachers," and violators are subject to disciplinary action. "Teachers who have misconducted themselves are a small minority of the 33,000 strong teaching force, and are not representative of the Education Service at large," it said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Two Singaporean Girls Jumps to Their Deaths Because of School Pressures

In August 2001, a 10-year-old Singaporean student jumped to her death from her fifth floor apartment at the start of term as she could not cope with her school workload, the Straits Times reported. According to AFP: “Top student Lysher Loh committed suicide on June 25, the start of the school term after the mid-year term break. Her father Loh Cher Beng said his daughter had been disappointed with her mid-year examination results and had found the workload heavy. [Source: Agence France Presse, August 22, 2001 |::|]

“Classmates also recalled Lysher joking she would kill herself if she did not do well at her mid-year examinations. Lysher had told her maid Lorna Flores two weeks before her death she did not want to be reincarnated as a human being because she never wanted to have to do homework again. |::|

In 2001, a 12-year-old girl jumped from her 12th floor bedroom after failing to win a place in the higher stream of the secondary education system. AFP reported: “The Dec 30 Straits Times reported that Simran Kaur had jumped as her father was checking her results in the Primary School Leaving Examination with her school. Simran's result meant she was on the borderline between being sent to a Normal (Academic) or a Normal (Technical) secondary school. According to the paper, she had changed her score to make it appear she had gained a place in the Express stream. The case is the latest to highlight the intense pressure on Singaporean children to do well at school. Surveys of 9-12 year-olds have found that one in three them find life not worth living because of the fear of academic failure. [Source: Agence France Presse, December 31, 2000]

Singaporean Child Genius Leaves Rigid System for Malaysia

A Singaporean child “genuis” who passed 10th grade chemistry at age seven moved to Malaysia for higher education because the Singaporean education system was too rigid, the child’s parents said. Associated Press reported: “Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, gained attention when he passed the O Level - or American 10th grade - chemistry examination in Singapore at 7. Two years later, he passed the O Level physics exam and the AS Level, or 11th grade, chemistry exam. However, his Irish father Valentine Cawley said that the Singapore government was inflexible and failed to support his son's needs to ensure his intellectual growth. [Source: AP, January 6, 2010 |~|]

“Ainan attended primary school for three years and was "bored silly," Cawley said. In an e-mailed response Singapore's Education Ministry said it had sought to work with Ainan's parents to develop him "holistically to become a successful adult." It said the ministry designed an individualized education plan to help Ainan excel. Cawley said the plan was useless because it did not allow his son to study subjects from higher grades. "What they did instead was to ensure that he was bored to death with the normal curriculum. The standard school numbed his mind and put his brain to sleep on a daily basis," he said. |~|

The ministry did not address Cawley's specific complaints that his request to have his son home-schooled was rejected and that it refused to give Ainan access to a chemistry laboratory. "They didn't want to make exception for one child," Cawley said. "We wrestled with the system for three years and found it too inflexible and unwilling to accommodate Ainan's needs. It's punishing him really and we gave up in the end." |~|

“With the help of the National Association for Gifted Children of Malaysia, Cawley and his Singaporean wife enrolled Ainan at the private-run HELP University College in Kuala Lumpur this week. Cawley said his son will be joining 18-year-olds in studying in a degree program with computer science and chemistry options, as well as adding A-level physics and math to his tally. "We chose HELP as they understood Ainan's unusual needs and were willing to do their best to help," he said. |~|

“HELP officials said they would offer Ainan a full scholarship. Cawley will also work as a psychology researcher at the college. Cawley keeps a blog on Ainan's progress titled "The boy who knew too much." He says Ainan spoke his first words after a couple of weeks of life, began crawling at four months, walking at six months and running at eight months. According to HELP officials and Cawley, Ainan can recite pi - the number starting 3.14 that gives the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter - to 518 decimal places. He also knows the periodic table by heart. But a shy Ainan didn't demonstrate his abilities or talk to reporters at the news conference. Instead, he spent the time laughing and playing with the microphone.” |~|

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings; 1993; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Smithsonian magazine; Encyclopedia.com; National Geographic; Live Science; Malaysia Tourism websites; Malaysia government websites; UNESCO; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Natural History magazine; Times of London; Library of Congress; The Conversation; The New Yorker; Time; BBC; CNN; Reuters; Associated Press; AFP; Lonely Planet Guides; Google AI; Wikipedia; The Guardian and various websites; books and other publications.

Last updated May 2026