In his capacity as the general secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, John Boyle has praised the educational system of Singapore as it shines on the international stage in Pisa rankings. He attributes the country’s success to the high standard of teacher training and school infrastructure in Singapore (“I delved into Singapore’s commendable world-leading educational system. What I discovered”, Education, Opinion, May 13th). However, this account neglects to view certain essential factors.
Firstly, Singapore is not the sole nation leading the charts. Ever since China began featuring in Pisa, its performance has surpassed that of Singapore. China did not participate in Pisa in 2022 due to Covid-19 pandemic disruptions, leaving Singapore to triumph. However, when both have been entrants, China has consistently emerged as the frontrunner. Other exceptional education systems include those of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. A shared characteristic across these systems is the intensely competitive race for accelerated learning routes. This race begins in preschool, leading to intense educational regimes, significant homework workload, and a widespread reliance on supplementary private tuition throughout their schooling years.
Secondly, there exist some adverse outcomes tied to Singapore’s education system. Of particular note is a prevalent issue of myopia, with approximately 80 percent of children who have undergone twelve years of schooling experiencing the condition. Alarmingly, around 20 percent from this group suffer from severe, or high myopia, potentially at risk of uncorrectable visual impairment or blindness with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Similar myopia trends can be observed in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, where despite lower standards of educational resources and teacher training compared to Singapore, the problem persists.
Thirdly, the drawbacks are widespread, bearing in mind that every region that scores highly in Pisa has attempted to overhaul their schooling systems. Universal worries centre on student stress and psychological wellbeing, along with their ability to bounce back. Instead of promoting bravery to venture, it is fear of not succeeding that prevails, posing significant concerns and adverse effects, particularly for those who do not perform as well. Over the past quarter-century, Singapore has sought to restructure its education system to put a greater accent on more comprehensive learning objectives. However, the cultural dedication to education among parents seems to have remained constant. Meanwhile, China has initiated a top-to-bottom campaign to transform their system, easing early educational stress and aiming to eliminate the supplementary private tutoring industry. However, this move is also meeting strong resistance from parents. Both nations have adopted national strategies to prevent short-sightedness.
A meaningful and insightful study conducted by Jerrim, which analysed the Pisa performance of students of East Asian descent in Australia, highlighted that these students performed comparably to their Chinese counterparts, irrespective of the significantly varying education systems under which they were schooled. This implies that the cultural significance attached to academic achievement, which is prevalent in Chinese communities worldwide and deeply entrenched in Chinese history, has more bearing on their achievement than the peculiarities of the schooling system. This indicates that merely replicating the facilities and the status and training of teachers in Singapore does not ensure improved results. If Western countries were able to assimilate East Asian educational attitudes, there would likely be a surge in short-sightedness.
This is not to refute the argument for greater investment in education, increased recognition of the invaluable work of educators, or superior teacher training – as education holds the key to our future. However, it does challenge the idea that we should look to East Asia and Singapore for successful education models, as it is arguably impossible to reproduce their profound cultural dedication to education. Moreover, considering the complications that have arisen, we shouldn’t aspire to do so. Instead, we should turn our attention to Western countries like Finland and Estonia, which fare better in Pisa. Although their performance may not be as remarkable as those in East Asia, they are culturally more fitting. – Yours sincerely,
Professor IAN MORGAN,
Research School of Biology,
Australian National University,
Canberra,
Australia.