Does Singapore have a world-class education system? Its top rankings in the PISA and TIMSS student achievement tests certainly suggest so. Such results and much foreign praise have given Singapore a global reputation for education excellence. Many in the education field believe Singapore provides an education model for the world. Others would disagree. Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality probes the city-state's claims to educational excellence. It questions the accuracy of the PISA and TIMSS tests and considers how well Singapore's elitist pressure-cooker education system serves the national interest. How well does this system advance the country's founding principles of meritocracy and equality of opportunity? The book also compares the scholastic performance of Singapore and Finland, another high-regarded education super-star. It shows how both countries are pawns in a global contest between the corporate-driven education reform movement and those who oppose it. The book concludes by assessing Singapore's Boston-of-the-East ambitions and its strategy to become a world education hub by attracting foreign universities, academics and students. Questions of academic freedom are considered. Th e controversial decision by Yale to establish a college with the National University of Singapore is also discussed.

A critique of Singapore's claims to having a world-class education system.

This is the second edition of the highly successful book first published in 1989. However, it has been extensively revised in content and updated: Eight out of 14 chapters are new including chapters such as The Constitutional Framework of Powers, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and The Singapore Legal System and International Law; and the law on all subjects has been updated.

Singapore under the ruling People’s Action Party government has been categorized as a developmental state which has utilized education as an instrument of its economic policies and nation-building agenda. However, contrary to accepted assumptions, the use of education by the state to promote economic growth did not begin with the coming to power of the People’s Action Party in 1959. In Singapore, the colonial state had been using education to meet the demands of its colonial economy well before the rise of the post-independence developmental state. Education, Industrialization and the End of Empire in Singapore examines how the state’s use of education as an instrument of economic policy had its origins in the colonial economy and intensified during the process of decolonization. By covering this process the history of vocational and technical education and its relationship with the economy is traced from the colonial era through to decolonization and into the early postcolonial period.

Not much has been written about the private education sector in Singapore despite the fact that the sector houses about 300 private education institutions (PEIs) and enrolls about 150,000 students. Private Education in Singapore: Contemporary Issues and Challenges is an exciting book that aims to fill a gap in the literature. In the book, the author offers an extensive discussion on (i) the key elements of the sector — types and features of the PEIs, (ii) the regulatory framework for private education, (iii) students' aspiration and the impact of the ASPIRE report on PEIs, and (iv) the provision of external degree programme through transnational partnership. The book also tackles the hotly debated discussion in relation to academic quality and standard of PEI courses. The author identifies the reasons — some of them have more characteristics of a myth — and suggests a number of ways to overcome the issues and challenges.

"The Singapore miracle has been sold as a great success story to the world. Singapore has been promoted as a highly competitive, cutting edge economy where efficiency reigns. The city state is ranked as one of the world's most competitive, economically free and transparent countries and a world-class business venue." "Singapore is also seen as a developed and wealthy society that has delivered a secure and affluent lifestyle for its citizens equal to anything in the West. The island's per capita income matches that of most Western countries and its housing, health and retirement schemes are widely praised." "Such claims are rigorously scrutinised by this book: how much are they myth and how much reality? Do they give Singapore the right to see itself as a role model for developing countries? Or is the Singapore model severely flawed? Could Singapore become another Japan? The Singapore Miracle, Myth and Reality considers all these questions." --Back cover.