School days in Singapore: Young children's experiences and opportunities during a typical school day

Childhood Education, Fall 2002 by Sharpe, Pamela

The 2002 International Focus Issue of Childhood Education focused on children's school experiences around the world. Guest Editors Susan A. Miller and Jillian Rodd located too many excellent articles to include in one issue. Therefore, we will publish additional articles on that theme, here and in future issues.

What are the children's views, feelings, and opinions about their daily lives . . . what makes them happy, sad, angry, or frightened?

Singapore is a small island state in Southeast Asia. Since it gained its independence in 1965, the government has pursued a system of meritocracy that, over the years, has resulted in a highly competitive education system. Competition and extrinsic rewards for achievement in school factor strongly in the minds of many parents. They are anxious for their children to succeed in school and take great pains to ensure that their goals are achieved (Sharpe, 2000). Added to this stress is the struggle by working parents, especially mothers, to balance career and family (Khong, 2001). What, however, are the children, especially in the early years, thinking and feeling?

This author investigated children's views, feelings, and opinions about their daily lives, asking them to describe what makes them happy, sad, angry, or frightened. In addition, they were asked to provide information about the things they do best, their leisure time, their friends, their teachers, and their aspirations. Their answers made it clear that while the majority of the children generally are happy at school with their friends and proud of their schools, they do have to endure certain unpleasantness. Given their parents' expectations for high academic achievement, children's feelings and opinions may be neglected, both at home and at school.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Singapore has few natural resources-in fact, people may be considered its only natural resource, and so there is considerable investment in human capital. The government has viewed the education system as crucial to building the nation, particularly in terms of meeting economic needs and securing inter-ethnic harmony (Gopinathan, 2001). Over the years since Singapore gained independence, the nation's aims for education have changed from an initial concern with economic survival and the need to provide basic education for all citizens, to a highly competitive system that, through a rigorous streaming and testing procedure, selects and prepares pupils for vocational, polytechnic, and university level education. It is a system in which outcomes and examination qualifications are stressed and highly valued at all levels, with pupils being tested regularly from the age of 7.

Although the education system achieved international acclaim in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (Harris & Fernandes, 1997), it is currently being overhauled once again, this time in the name of globalization and the knowledge-based economy. Ministry of Education officials speak of the need to shift from what they describe as an "efficiency-- driven" system to an "ability-driven" system. As in other countries (for example, the United States and Britain), the intention is to broaden the notion of talent and to make special provisions for it, by encouraging, for example, schools to develop expertise in niche curriculum areas.

Growing numbers of parents recognize the importance of their children being educated to someday thrive in a knowledge-based economy, and are anxious to pass on their own educational advantages to their children (Chiew, 1996). Middle class parents, in particular, have expended considerable effort in providing their children with early exposure to the values, tastes, knowledge, and skills offered by schools (Sharpe, 1997). The importance of such home support for children's learning and success in school is welldocumented (Quah, 1999; Sharpe, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997). The nature of this parental support in terms of children's early numeracy development was the focus of a more recent study (Sharpe, 2000), which revealed the extent to which parents supported children's learning at home. The findings appear to be in line with those of Crystal and Stevenson (1991), who note the seriousness with which Asian mothers, compared with American mothers, view their children's progress in mathematics. Furthermore, these Singaporean parents expected their children to learn mathematical concepts immediately, and they were unforgiving when their children did not meet those expectations. The parents remained anxious about their children's mathematical progress throughout primary school.

In this regard, another study investigated parents' views and opinions about their children's adjustment to primary school (Sharpe & Gan, 2000). Given the competitive nature of the school system, their comments revealed their anxieties about their children's progress and their own roles in this process. Some of the parents' comments are summarized below:

* Some children have an unfair advantage when they have parents who can help them at home or who can afford to pay for home tuition