LIMITED DECENTRALIZATION IN THE SINGAPORE EDUCATION SYSTEM
This chapter focuses on decentralization initiatives that have taken place in the Singapore education system over the past two decades. These include the encouragement of greater school autonomy through the independent schools scheme, the autonomous schoo
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1.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter focuses on decentralization initiatives that have taken place in the Singapore education system over the past two decades. These include the encouragement of greater school autonomy through the independent schools scheme, the autonomous schools scheme, and school clusters. Another initiative has been the promotion of aggressive inter-school competition through the annual publication of school ranking league tables and the institution of school quality awards. This sort of competition is supposed to promote diversity and choice and to improve overall educational standards. The chapter begins by discussing the goals of the various initiatives and proceeds to analyze their impact. The Singapore case exemplifies the tensions between moves to decentralize authority and control to schools, on the one hand, and government decisions that reassert the centrality of government authority and control. It appears that schools are being awarded autonomy to decide how best to attain state-determined outcomes for the entire education system. Given the heavy emphasis placed on the school system’s contributions toward improving national economic competitiveness and fostering social cohesion, the Singapore government is far from willing to allow schools full and complete autonomy. 2.
INCREASED AUTONOMY FOR SCHOOLS
During the British colonial administration of Singapore from 1819 to 1959, educational provision was left predominantly in the hands of enterprising individuals, missionary bodies, or private organizations, with occasional government grants. Schools operated in one of four languages—English, Malay, Chinese, or Tamil—and differed in terms of curricula, management, and overall goals. Interest in educational matters among the various colonial governors varied according to individual temperament and according to the strength of beliefs held by the incumbent Director of Education. Political considerations also influenced official policy. For example, in the wake of anti-Japanese activities by students from Chinese-medium schools, the Registration of Schools Ordinance of 1920 called for the registration of schools, teachers, and managers, and attempted to regulate the conduct of schools. It also outlawed all schools that promoted ideas considered to conflict with the interests of the government. The government began offering financial aid to community-run 59 Christopher Bjork (ed.), Educational Decentralization, 59–70. C 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.
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EDUCATIONAL DECENTRALIZATION
Chinese-medium schools in 1923. In return, the schools had to submit themselves to official inspections. The first attempt to design educational policies that related to clearly defined goals came in the form of the Ten Years Program, which was adopted in 1947. Two of the general principles underlying the policy were the need for education to foster the capacity for self-government and for education to inculcate civic loyalty and responsibility. The Program also outlined plans to provide universal fre
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