Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality

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.
About the Author: Rodney King has had extensive experience of Singapore, having lived, worked and done business there over a 15-year period. He has drawn on this experience to write four books on Singapore. The first was Your Guide to Investment Trading, with Special Attention to Singapore and Malaysia, initially published in 1996, with a second edition in 1998. His next book was The Singapore Miracle, Myth and Reality (2006 and 2008). This book critically examined Singapore's many nation-building myths and its supposed economic miracle, which had received little rigorous scrutiny by many authorities on this widely acclaimed city-state. The book paid particular attention to the oft-repeated claim that Singapore has a super efficient cutting-edge economy. King's third book on Singapore was Harry Lee Kuan Yew, A Pictorial Account of His Life and Times (2009). This book was a collection of satirical cartoons about Lee, and, on occasion, his son and the current prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. King believed that such a book had been long overdue. For decades Lee had managed to stifle any attempts by cartoonists to lampoon either him or his government. Predictably no bookshop in Singapore dared sell this book, though several were brave enough to sell The Singapore Miracle. His latest book, Singapore's Education System, Myth and Reality, forensically scrutinises Singapore's claims to have a world class education system which other countries should emulate. King contends that this reputation for educational excellence is heavily reliant on flawed education performance rankings and the ignorant hype of foreign educationists and commentators. King, an Australian, comes from Perth, Western Australia and currently resides there. His first book was Armed Revolution (1990), a study of 42 revolutions since the 16th Century.