Exploring the fairness of Singapore's primary school admissions: an analysis using Rawlsian justice theory

• Main Author: Pereira, Megan Melvyn
• Other Authors: Lim Chong Ming
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165437
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

How do institutional systems and their agents ensure justice in education? Without doubt, education possesses immense instrumental value, yet educational inequalities and inequities have been long standing issues that have not been the easiest to alleviate. Some children have a wider range of educational opportunities at the expense of lowering other children’s expectations of a fair equality of opportunity. While justice and efficiency are two odd ends, I believe that this does not permit institutions to neglect the promotion of systems that ensure all citizens have fair access to social primary goods like education. In this applied philosophy paper, I will be examining the prevalence of educational injustices found in Singapore’s primary school admissions system through the lens of Rawlsian justice. When children are segregated into schools, it is undoubtedly a distributive question. Therefore, we need to gain a deeper insight into the justice of Singapore’s primary school admissions system in delivering fair educational placements to all children. How do we determine if the current primary school admissions system has taken on the most just course of action? With respect to Rawls’ second principle of justice, I argue that Singapore’s primary school admissions system is pro tanto unjustified.