Country report: The teaching of philosophy in Singapore schools

• Main Authors: BURIK, Steven, HAMMERTON, Matthew, PATRA, Sovan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Singapore; education; philosophy; Asian Studies; Education; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3281; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4549/viewcontent/Burik__Hammerton____Patra___Singapore_Country_Report.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools in Singapore are administered by the Ministry of Education (MOE). English is the main language of instruction, although there are also compulsory “mother tongue” classes taught in either Malay, Mandarin, or Tamil. The public education system begins with six years of compulsory primary schooling. Based on their performance in the standardised Primary School Leaving Examination, students are then streamed into either four years (“Express” stream) or five years (“Normal” stream) of secondary education. Secondary schools offer a standardised curriculum that culminates with the “GCE-O Level” examination, which is jointly administered by MOE and Cambridge Assessments. After completing their O-Levels, most students will either enter a junior college or start a diploma course at a polytechnic. Junior Colleges provide an additional two years of pre-university education based on a standard curriculum that culminates with the “GCE-A Level” examination, which is also jointly administered by MOE and Cambridge Assessments. Performance in this exam is one of the key factors considered in university admissions (although, for students who do not go to junior college, there are alternative pathways to university). One exception to this general model is that, since 2004, selected schools have combined secondary education and junior college into a single six-year “Integrated Programme” (IP). Students in the IP skip the GCE-O Level and instead work towards achieving either the GCEA Level or the IB at the end of their secondary schooling. Institutions offering the IP have a significantly higher level of autonomy in both the curriculum/subjects they offer and the forms of assessment they employ.