Overview of Education in Singapore

The Singaporean education system is generally centralized, enabling ease of policy implementation and management of quality assurance across the education system. While the bulk of schools offering primary education through to pre-university and vocational education and training are nested within this centralized system under the regulatory control of the Ministry of Education, increased regulation of the early childhood education sector and private education sector are only being implemented in the past couple of decades to improve educational quality. At the same time, the Singapore government recognizes the need for decentralization to allow schools to adapt and innovate to the evolving educational needs of the contemporary era. Consequently, the educational reform process remains carefully calibrated to prevent slippage in educational quality. The educational reform process also supports the continual effort at nation-building in both interdependent economic and social spheres. Within the last two decades, the emphasis on lifelong learning to help school leavers acquire the requisite future-ready skills and social inclusion to mitigate disparities in access to quality education is testament to the Singapore government’s never-ending effort at building the small island state nation.