Meritocracy, Equity, and Early Childhood Education in Singapore: Policies, Progress, and Future Challenges

In recent years, societal, academic, and political attention across developed countries has increasingly turned onto the field of early childhood education as a critical leveler of social mobility. That this is the case is not surprising. For decades now, the international research community has unequivocally pointed to the gains – cognitive, social, and developmental – that a quality early childhood education provides for young children, indeed, especially for those from disadvantaged families. This chapter discusses the Singapore state’s policies and curricula in this area and considers the extent to which they provide for a more level playing field. It begins by introducing the societal context of Singapore and how the national ideology of meritocracy establishes sui generis expectations around equity and fairness. This chapter then moves on to outline the state’s key efforts in the area of preschool education, demonstrating how these embody a clear commitment by the state towards helping children from disadvantaged families. Finally, the remainder of the chapter draws upon insights from the sociology of curriculum to consider how existing efforts could go further by having the preschool curriculum take greater account of the needs and experiences of children from disadvantaged families – specifically, by adopting a focus on a set of pre-academic skills and by emphasizing the development of curricula that are more culturally relevant to the home and family backgrounds of these students.