Prior to independence, only the children of the colonial elite were guaranteed quality education in Singapore. Even after a comprehensive system of compulsory education was created, there remained a significant achievement gap among students of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Chinese students tended to be top-performers, while Malay and Tamil students lagged behind. The series of reforms through the 1970s and 80s did a lot to reduce dropout rates and promote equity, and the recent switch to ability-based subject bands rather than tracks has quieted critics who maintain that tracking promotes disparity. Bands are much less rigid than tracks; if a student is able to perform at a higher level, they can easily move into a higher band for one or more of their classes. However, there is still a large gap between Singapore’s top-performing students and its lowest-performing students – a gap that was made apparent in the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results.

Educators hope to alleviate this gap through early diagnosis and intervention. Students are screened at the beginning of first grade for reading aptitude, and students who are considered to need extra help (approximately 12-14%) are taught in small learning support programs to ensure that they keep pace with their classmates. In these programs, teachers work with groups of six to eight students for thirty minutes a day in order to keep them up to speed with their classmates. The government funds preschools for low-income students who would otherwise not be able to attend. Students are also not hampered by previous academic performance if they show improvement. When Singapore switched from a tracking to a banding system in the 1990s, lower secondary school became much more flexible. Students can move between bands, or take courses in other bands, if necessary.

The Singapore government believes that environmental conditions, such as a single-parent household, can affect a student’s performance. To that end, the government has instituted local community councils responsible for identifying families in need and for providing aid and support in multiple forms. Each ethnic group also has a similar committee in local communities.

The Ministry of Education and the National Council of Social Services also fund special education (SPED) schools. These schools are typically structured around the type of disability they cater to, such as students with sight or hearing impairment or students with learning or developmental disabilities, and have long waiting lists for admission. Special needs education is available through the post-secondary level, where students with intellectual disabilities are prepared for the workforce through special training programs. Whenever possible, the government encourages students to join the mainstream educational system either initially or after having met certain benchmarks in special education. To help facilitate this “mainstreaming,” Special Needs Officers are placed in mainstream schools to help students with conditions such as dyslexia or high-functioning autism. The ministry also announced that in the coming years, they hope to have 10% of all primary and secondary school teachers trained in special education, in order to provide a strong support system for these students in mainstream schools. Singapore does not require students with special needs who are unable to attend a mainstream school to complete compulsory education. The Singapore government estimates the special needs population who cannot or do not attend school to be just 0.01% of the population.

Low-Performing Schools

More than 80% of the Singapore population lives in government-built, self-owned housing in communities that represent a deliberate mix of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. These communities are in turn reflected in the schools. Because of the highly heterogeneous nature of Singapore’s public schools, there is relatively little variance in school performance. However, inside schools, there is a fair amount of student variance.

Although some parents have expressed concern that neighborhood schools are inadequate compared to elite or private schools and particularly that students in the “normal” course are denied resources in these schools, the Ministry contends that in most schools, principals select the most experienced teachers to teach the “normal” courses and that these students are given access to the same resources – overseas learning trips and co-curricular activities – as students in the express and special courses. Geographic school clusters, which were introduced in the 1990s to better manage school resources, are another way that the Ministry seeks to manage school disparity. Cluster superintendents – successful former principals – are responsible for sharing resources between the schools in their clusters, and ensuring that all staff have access to the best practices and materials of the top performing schools within the cluster.

The Programme for Rebuilding and Improving Existing Schools is also seeking to address school disparity by upgrading or rebuilding all schools built before 1997. The rebuilding will outfit schools with computer labs, fitness centers, media resource libraries and expanded classrooms.