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Study in Singapore- Education policies and Financial assistance
Posted Date: 21 Nov 2007 Resource Type: Articles/Knowledge Sharing Category: Education
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Posted By: valenteena Member Level: Gold
Rating:  Points: 5
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Education policies
Meritocracy
Meritocracy is a central political concept in Singapore and a fundamental principle in the education system[citation needed] which aims to identify and groom bright young students for positions of leadership. The system places a great emphasis on academic performance in grading students and granting their admission to special programmes and universities, though this has raised concerns of breeding elitism. Academic grades are considered as objective measures of the students' ability and effort, irrespective of their social backgroundHaving good academic credentials is seen as the most important factor for the students' career prospects in the local job market, and their future economic status.
Curricula are therefore closely tied to examinable topics, and the competitiveness of the system led to a proliferation of ten year series, which are compilation books of past examination papers that students use to prepare for examinations.
Bilingualism (Mother Tongue)
Bilingualism, or mother tongue policy, is a cornerstone of Singapore education system. While English is the first language and the medium of instruction in schools, most students are required to take a "Mother Tongue" subject, which could be one of the three official languages: Chinese, Malay or Tamil. A non-Tamil Indian may choose to offer Tamil or a non-official language such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu. This Mother Tongue is a compulsory examinable subject at the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and the GCE "N", "O" and "A" level examinations. Students are required to achieve a certain level of proficiency in their mother tongue as a pre-requisite for admission to local universities. Students returning from overseas may be exempted from this policy.
The bilingual policy was first adopted in 1966. One of its primary objectives is to promote English as the common (and neutral) language among the diverse ethnic groups in Singapore. The designation of English as the first language also serves to expedite Singapore's integration into the world economy.
In recognition of the linguistic and cultural pluralism in the country, another stated objective of the bilingual policy is to educate students with their "mother tongues" so that they can learn about their culture, identify with their ethnic roots, and to preserve the culture traits and Asian values. Within the Chinese population, Mandarin is promoted as a common language in favour of other Chinese dialects, to better integrate the community. In 1979, the Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched to further advance this goal.
Financial assistance
The education policies in Singapore ensure that no child is left behind in education even if they do not have the financial capabilities to attend schools. As such, school fees in public schools are heavily subsidized such that students pay as low as $13 for fees. Even with such low fees, there are many possible assistance schemes from either the government, or welfare organisations to help students cope with finances during their studies. Some of these are listed below.
Financial Assistance Scheme
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) is a MOE programme to provide financial assistance for education to low income families with monthly household income of less than S$1,500 or S$1,800 depending on the number of children in the household.
Students eligible for FAS receive full waiver of miscellaneous fees and partial subsidy on national examination fees. They may also enjoy full or partial fee subsidy if they are in Independent Schools. In 2005, there were 15,000 recipients of FAS; MOE is expecting this number to increase to 33,500 following an enhancement of the FAS in 2006.
Edusave Merit Bursary
Each year, the Edusave Merit Bursary (EMB) is given out to about 40,000 students, who are from lower-middle and low-income families and have good academic performance in their schools.
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Responses
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| Author: kthangamani 21 Nov 2007 | Member Level: Silver Points : 1 | Hi,
It is very informative.
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