Promoting IT in childhood education: How Singapore prepares for a different future

Childhood Education, 2003 by SeokHoon, Alice Seng

In 1997, when the Ministry of Education in Singapore launched its first Masterplan for Information Technology (IT) in Education, a press release explained that the underlying philosophy of the plan was that education should continually anticipate the future needs of society and work toward fulfilling those needs. Children need to think independently and creatively, be competent and confident problem solvers, and become life-long learners. IT-based teaching and learning strategies will facilitate such development, and open possibilities for designing new curricula and methods of assessment to meet our education objectives. IT also will enhance the effectiveness of education administration, and encourage schools to communicate and collaborate with other institutions and the community at large.

Singapore's Masterplan for IT in Education lays out a very comprehensive strategy for creating an IT-based teaching and learning environment in every school. IT in education is not about chasing the latest technologies; rather it is really about tapping into new possibilities that will help reach Singapore's education goals set forth by the Ministry, including that of ability-driven education.

The Masterplan is intended to be a blueprint for IT use in all schools and to ensure access to an IT-enriched school environment for every child. The main goals are to:

* Enhance linkages between the school and the world around it: Teachers and pupils will communicate and collaborate with other institutions.

* Generate innovative processes in education: Development of new teaching and learning strategies will open new possibilities for curricula and assessment. Schools will be given autonomy to deploy IT resources flexibly. New school designs, both curricular and physical, will seek to maximize the potential of IT in education.

* Enhance creative thinking, lifelong learning, and social responsibility: IT-based learning strategies will help to develop pupils' ability to think flexibly and innovatively, to cooperate with one another, and to make sound, value-based judgments.

* Promote administrative and management excellence in the education system: IT will be used to promote greater efficiency in administration and communication, thereby supporting more effective education management.

The Masterplan covers four key dimensions:

* Curriculum and Assessment

* shift towards a better balance between acquisition of factual knowledge and mastery of concepts and skills

* encourage pupils to engage in more active and independent learning

* include assessment modes that will measure abilities in applying information, thinking, and communicating.

* Learning Resources

* acquire and stimulate development of a wide range of educational software to meet curriculum needs * facilitate use of relevant Internet resources for teaching and learning

* provide a system of convenient procurement to help schools obtain software easily and on time.

* Teacher Development

* train every teacher in the purposeful use of IT for teaching

* equip trainee teachers with core skills in teaching with IT

* form partnerships between schools and institutions of higher learning and industry.

* Physical and Technological Infrastructure

* provide a pupil-computer ratio of 2:1

* provide pupils with access to IT in all learning areas in the school

* provide a teacher-computer ratio of 2:1

* provide school-wide networks and link all schools through a wide area network, which will eventually connect to Singapore ONE (the island-wide broadband network), thus enabling high-speed delivery of multimedia service.

The 1997 Masterplan established national standards for IT use in schools. Schools were given the flexibility to determine how quickly they would meet the national standards by 2002, depending, in part, on their readiness to use IT meaningfully to meet learning objectives. Initially, all primary schools were provided with the hardware and software required to allow IT-based learning for 10 percent of the total curriculum time. Initial provisions for secondary schools and junior colleges enabled them to use IT for roughly 14 percent of curriculum time. By the year 2002, the Masterplan envisaged a pupil-computer ratio of 2:1 in every school, allowing for up to 30 percent of curriculum time to be IT-based. To provide teachers with ready and frequent access to computers, both during and after the curriculum hours, the Masterplan included a proviso to equip schools with sufficient computer notebooks for use by teachers and complemented this with a scheme to encourage teachers to purchase their own computers. In addition to a range of support facilities, each school was be to provided with an on-site, full-time technology assistant to help the school handle problems in their use of hardware and software.

About two billion Singapore dollars were committed from 1997 to 2002 to implement the Masterplan program. Those funds were designated to purchase computers, full networking of the schools, physical renovations, software and courseware, and teacher training. Another six million Singapore dollars per year was allocated to maintain and replace hardware, develop new software, and provide for ongoing training of teachers. Private companies were approached to act as hardware and content providers; many companies provided resource materials and new expertise. As a result, a major new industry in Singapore grew out of providing educational software and content.