Saturday, September 03, 2011

WikiLeaks: Singapore govt does not encourage tertiary education...

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Singapore boasts a highly competitive and  well-regarded primary and secondary education system, but the number of Singaporeans completing a tertiary education is  relatively low. Only 23 percent of Singaporean students entering primary school complete a degree at a local four-year university. In other knowledge-economies such as Japan's, around 50 percent of students complete a university degree. However, according to Cheryl Chan, Assistant Director of the Planning Division at the Ministry of Education (MOE), the government does not plan to encourage more students to get a higher education. The university enrollment rate will continue to be maintained at 20-25 percent because the Singaporean labor market does not need everyone to get a four-year degree, she asserted.

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Ever thinking strategically, Singapore's leadership  will keep pushing innovation in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing Asia. To its credit, the government  appears to recognize that its own penchant for control -- however enlightened its policy choices or soft its authoritarian touch -- may be at odds with the kind of free-wheeling atmosphere it needs to achieve its economic objectives. Time will tell whether it can promote creativity, critical-thinking, and innovation in society by  loosening up on social issues and tinkering with the education system while keeping politics in quarantine. One  way or another, Singapore's flirtation with openness will provide another interesting chapter in its unique history as a social-engineering petri dish.  Full story...

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