Education in Singapore

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Education in Singapore
Mustafa Ergün
Singapores Vision An Intelligent Island
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Singapore, an independent City-State

• Total land area260 sq. miles (680 sq. km)
• Population 4.48 million
• Main LanguageEnglish
• Literacy Rate 95 in 2005
• with Secondary or Higher Qualifications 61.6
  (among resident non-students aged 15 yrs over)

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Features of Spore Education System

• The bilingual policy - ENGLISH and Mother Tongue
• 6 years Primary 4 /5 years Secondary 2 years
  Pre-University
• Adaptive education system
• Post-school institutions - Institute of Technical
  Education, Polytechnics, Universities

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Kindergartens in Singapore provide up to three
years of pre-school for children ages three to
six. The three years are commonly called Nursery,
Kindergarten 1 (K1) and Kindergarten 2 (K2),
respectively.
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Bilingualism, or mother tongue policy, is a
cornerstone of the 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. The
bilingual policy was first adopted in 1966.13
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 is
also intended to facilitate Singapore's
integration into the world economy.
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http//www.sgbox.com/singaporeuseducation.html
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6 years of primary education Primary School
Leaving Examination (PSLE) 4 to 5 years of
secondary education Government-aided schools
Specialized (Vocational) schools Specialized
independent schools Privately-funded schools 3
courses available Special/Express, Normal
(Academic), Normal (Technical) GCE O Level
exams 2 to 3 years of post-secondary
education Junior Colleges (JC) Centralized
Institutes (CI) Institutes of Technical Education
(ITE) Polytechnic
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Singapore Education Landscape

• All students follow a broad-based mainstream
  curriculum which is based on the British system.
  Some schools offer gifted education.
• Students study six (6) years at Primary level and
  four (4) or five (5) years at the Secondary
  level.
• After GCE O level (secondary school), most
  students go either to Junior Colleges for A-level
  studies, Polytechnics for Diploma courses,
  Private schools or the Institute of Technical
  Education.
• After GCE A level or graduation from
  Polytechnics, students will proceed to tertiary
  education e.g. universities in Singapore or
  overseas universities.

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Primary education, normally starting at age six,
is a four-year foundation stage (Primary 1 to 4)
and a two-year orientation stage (Primary 5 to
6). Primary education is compulsory and free,
though there is a fee of up to SGD 13 monthly per
student to help cover miscellaneous
costs. Orientation stage Pupils were divided at
Primary 5 to the EM1, EM2 and EM3 (English and
Mother Tongue at 1st, 2nd and 3rd language
respectively) streams. At the end of Primary 6,
the national Primary School Leaving Examination
(PSLE) is held.
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Based on results of the PSLE, students are placed
in different secondary education tracks or
streams "Special", "Express", "Normal
(Academic)", or "Normal (Technical)" "Special"
and Express are four-year courses leading up to a
Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of
Education Ordinary-level (O-level) exam. Normal
is a four-year course leading up to a
Normal-level (N-level) exam, with the possibility
of a fifth year followed by an O-level. Normal is
split into Normal (Academic) and Normal
(Technical). In Normal (Technical), students take
subjects of a more technical nature, such as
Design and Technology, while in Normal (Academic)
students are prepared to take the O-level exam
and normally take subjects such as Principles of
Accounting.
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"Co-Curricular Activities" (CCA) are compulsory
at the secondary level, where all pupils must
participate in at least one core activity, and
participation is graded together with other
achievements throughout the four years in a
scoring system known as LEAPS ("Leadership,
Enrichment, Achievement, Participation,
Service"). There are many co-curricular
activities offered at the secondary level, and
each student is judged based in these areas.
The Integrated Programme, also known as the
"Through-Train Programme, is a scheme which
allows the most able secondary students in
Singapore to bypass "O" levels and take "A"
levels, International Baccalaureate or an
equivalent examination directly at the age of 18
after six years of secondary education.
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Admission to post-secondary institutions Upon
completion of the 4- or 5-year secondary school
education, students (excluding Integrated
Programme students) will participate in the
annual Singaporean GCE 'O' Level, the results of
which determine which pre-universities or
post-secondary institutions they may apply for.
Pre-university centres include junior colleges
for a two-year course leading up to GCE 'A'
Level, or the Millennia Institute for a
three-year course leading up to GCE 'A' Level.
Students who wishes to pursue for a
professional-centred diploma education go on
instead to post-secondary institutions such as
the polytechnics and the Institute of Technical
Education (ITE).
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The pre-university centres of Singapore are
designed for upper-stream students (roughly the
top 20-25 of the cohort) who wish to pursue a
university degree after two to three years of
pre-university education, rather than stopping
after polytechnic post-secondary
education. There are currently 18 Junior
Colleges (JCs) and a Centralised Institute (CI),
the Millennia Institute (MI, established 2004),
with the National Junior College (NJC,
established 1969) being the oldest and Innova
Junior College (IJC, established 2005) the newest.
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Singapore currently has two fully-fledged public
universities (National University of Singapore
Nanyang Technological University), and two
fully-fledged private universities (SMU
UniSIM). However, UniSIM accepts only adult
learners in general, so A-level students may
apply only to SMU, NUS, NTU, several foreign
university offshore campuses, and more than ten
other private tertiary institutions offering
undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. A third
university, Singapore Management University
(SMU), opened in 2000 focusing on business and
management courses.
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• In Singapore, English is the first language
  learned by half the children by the time they
  reach preschool age and becomes the primary
  medium of instruction by the time they reach
  primary school. English is the language of
  instruction for most subjects, especially
  mathematics and the natural sciences.
• Due to its large expatriate community, Singapore
  is host to many international schools, one of
  which, the Singapore American School has one of
  the largest intakes of international students in
  the world.
• Approximately 5,000 Singapore students studying
  in the U.S.
• Approximately 80,000 foreign students studying in
  Singapore

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U.S. Universities In Singapore
University of Chicago Graduate School of
Business University of Nevada Las
Vegas University of Hawaii at Manoa Cornell
University School of Hotel Administration George
Washington University Stanford University Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania And more
..
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Government budget for education at 19.3 of
total budget Ratio of teaching staffs to student
(Primary) 21.4 pupils (2009) Ratio of teaching
staffs to student (Secondary) 17.9 pupils (2009)
Enrolment ratio, aged 6-20 years 87.4 (2004)
,Literacy rate (aged 15 years and above) 94.6
(2004) Mean years of schooling (aged 25 years
and above) 8.8 years (2004)
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