Singapore tops the worldwide tables in Science, Math, Reading and Collaborative Problem Solving. From the PISA report, it seems the gap is widening too. Save the Children ranks Singapore No 1 in the world for looking after children’s needs, which includes education. While I can find nothing definitive on whether the same phenomenon as you reference below exists in Singapore, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that it is not.
I can understand and fully believe that IQ’s are falling in the UK. It is noticeable in industry that new hires are not as bright as there were before. I prefer to the use the term “Dumb and Numb” for the UK. Not only have education standards fallen, they have been compounded by dumber teachers teaching pupils. Also and perhaps just as important is the numbness in young people in the UK towards anything outside of their perceived universe. The liberal left is creating new generations of emotionally driven people, who find it hard to rationalize other’s opinions. These folk, particularly the young, live in an echo chamber of opinion fed by a flowing stream of half news propaganda from the media, politicians and the elite. It has become GB – The Great Brainwashed. There are a few who escape the net (met one in Singapore recently), but they are few and far between. On the subject of education, Singapore schoolchildren in state schools are examined at O- & A-Level (Cambridge Board). Private schools often offer IB as well. Institutes offer NTEC courses instead of A-Levels. https://www.ite.edu.sg/wps/portal/fts.ft.courses/. Polytechnics offer applied courses instead of A-Levels. All these pre-U courses offer avenues into 5 Universities - the academic NUS or technology NTU or the business SMU or the social science SUSS or the technology & design SUTD.
Whatever level a child can reach, there is an opportunity available. Everything is based on merit. Virtually all children are bilingual and many are trilingual. Not many kids get left behind. There are pressures to succeed and some kids struggle to deal with that, but most kids get through with a good chance of fulfilling their potential.
Blogger: I was at grammar school with this gentleman in the 60s. From the humblest of beginnings, he became a worldwide expert in his field - AND a Singaporean citizen - the latter because he wanted to be part of a properly functioning society.
I have learned so much from our communications and occasional meetings over the years.
Singapore bases itself on social reality rather than pie-in-the-sky leftist thought. There few societies more successful and with better welfare. What is more - it is probably more democratic than we are.
It is a mixed-race society which has got it right.
Sadly, evangelism is unwelcome but is not selectively discouraged as in the UK.
