However, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minster for Finance, admits that with each cohort, the opportunity of moving up the social ladder becomes more difficult, especially those from poorer families.
There are many reasons why they have difficulties catching up. For example, some of them have no access to any tuition classes. Others are simply too distracted with helping their families to survive to put in any effort in their studies.
Nevertheless, we have achieved social mobility over the years and we cannot deny that. It is still happening now, but why is it slowing down? And what can parents do about it?
Dr Irene Ng YH, an Assistant Professor at the NUS, seems to have the answer. She wrote in to the papers sharing that Singapore‘s intergenerational mobility is similar to that of the United States. The main reason, she suggests, is that countries with varied education systems tend to have low mobility. In other words, she is suggesting when there are many different types of schools, the ability of students to climb up the social ladder is hindered.
Social Mobility: What changed?
While I believe that are many factors that influence social mobility, let us explore if Dr Ng makes sense. In the past, the government had a more or less standardised curriculum. The different language medium schools became nationalised. Even the supposedly different Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools took the ‘O’ Levels.
However, in 1987, something changed: some better schools converted into independent schools. These schools enjoy autonomy in staff deployment and salaries, finance, management and curriculum, while continuing to enjoy substantial government financial support. In 2004, some of these schools started to offer the Integrated Programme (IP), 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. By 2013, 18 secondary schools / junior colleges will be offering the IP. Therefore, Singapore moved away from standardised system to a varied education system, which explains stagnating social mobility.
What’s the impact of this? Firstly, ordinary students find difficulty enrolling in elite schools as their intake is already made up of students from the IP. In other words, ‘O’ levels has less importance. Secondly, the importance of the Primary Six Leaving Examinations (PSLE) has increased drastically. This is because it is even more important to enter these schools immediately after PSLE to do their IP programmes. Thus it is imperative for students to do well in PSLE.
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