The success of the Singapore Education System Research Paper

The success of the Singapore Education System - Research Paper Example The lack of other natural resources left human resource as the only asset available for Singapore to achieve modern economy ambitions. These, therefore, left education as the only option for building both the economy and the nation through the delivery of human capital engine and in the creation of a sense of Singaporean identity. Nation building and the exploitation of the human resource was faced with a challenge of racial integration that sprouted as a result of the British colonial policies on education, language, and citizenship. In order to meet the needs, Singapore put a lot of focus in the education sector. According to the prime minister, the purpose of education at early days was to â€Å"provide a good man and a useful citizen†.This made the first phase of education which was dubbed â€Å"survival-driven† created in an attempt to expand the primary education and support the development of a literate and technically trained workforce. Schools that existed were merged into a single Singaporean education system, and a bilingual policy introduced so that children could learn their language as well as English. The expansion became so rampant that by early 1970, ’s universal primary and secondary education was attained, and a national system of public education established although the quality was not high. After the success of the first phase, the second phase of education based on shifting from the labor-intensive economy to capital and the skill-intensive economic country was formed.