The Singapore Educational System - Issues of Equality - Case Study Example

The Singapore Educational System: Issues Of (In) Equality Task Introduction In the current times, Singapore is on the verge ofproviding its younger generation with a strong academic background that prepares the population in thriving on the dynamic world today. According to the MOE in Singapore, they aim at fostering each individual to become confident, self-directed, contributor and concerned persons within the school and national environments (MOE Singapore, 2010). In other terms, Singapore aims at developing competencies that will be reliable in coming years providing the best. Singapore’s current education structure has considerably improved through the incorporation of policy objectives that prepare all learners in the confrontation of the societal, financial and precedential face ups that are projected in the future (Kumar, 2004). The educational structure has partly taken the social context into thought through its integration in the learning and teaching systems. The social context can be regarded to be an imperative component in the education system, in addition to the educational policies. The educators, especially those who have their first experiences with the system of competences incorporating certain values, may bear complexity. The Singapore education scheme offers equality through various ways, although the meritocratic education also fails to address certain issues mainly, the issue where scholars with dissimilar social backgrounds go through teaching in a disparate manner. According to Wong, the program has the projection of offering a reasonable edification that eases environmental and cultural mobility, as well as the encouragement of universal perceptive (Wong, 2008). The program bears emphasis on the study of languages and precedent undertakings of other cultures and peoples in an attempt to develop comprehensive cultural understanding. The teachers bear the duty of building up novel skills and values among the present students at different levels of study. The developed personality competence and skills have to be accentuated through the incorporation of values. The values, that the teachers help to develop, construct the beliefs, mind-sets and proceedings acting as an imperative framework towards the realization of the competencies that Singapore emphasizes. Educators ought to manipulate the development of societal and emotional competencies, which are considered to be the capabilities essential for the recognition and management of emotions, building up the concern and making reasonable choices (MOE Singapore, 2010). Educators bear the challenge of converting unknowledgeable persons at their young age into mature people with the ability to make knowledgeable decisions concerning various global issues. The teacher has the duty of inducing judicious thinking, communication skills and other necessary global skills that enable the younger generation to join the world of opportunities, to make things work out through the application of the learned and developed life concepts (MOE Singapore, 2010). Teachers also bear the burden of developing the hidden or lacking values in children or students to make upright persons within the society. The necessitated values to assist in the accomplishment of the competencies include: respect where persons have to recognize their self-respect, as well as the intrinsic value of other human beings. The teachers have to make young ones realize these two imperative concepts, since attaining respect is a personal subject that cannot be compared with others. The inequality occurs in the sense that people from different backgrounds observe respect at dissimilar angles. The teachers have to impart responsibility to all children despite their backgrounds and view of responsibility at a personal level. The teachers have the challenge of making the children recognize their duty towards different people and the community. The teachers also bear the challenge of imparting integrity through the maintenance of moral principles and the confidence to confront the wrong and bring the truth forward. The teachers have to bear the duty of making children compassionate and kind towards individuals and the world at large. The teachers have to develop resilience so that a child shows audacity, confidence, flexibility and inventiveness in all undertakings. The teachers have to ensure that a child appreciates harmony and cultural diversity in and around their confines (MOE Singapore, 2010). The social backgrounds offer difficulties in the integration or impartation of core values projected to aid in the realization of competencies among the learners. The teachers have to fight against the social context in an attempt to effect the realization of competencies. The teacher with the task of educating in reaction to global competences bears the challenge of rethinking customs, and identifying that achievement can only be earned, and it can never be an effortless task to earn it. The success of one person can never be the success of the other, meaning that the teachers will need to instigate success to all persons with the global perspective (Mansilla & Jackson, 2011). Teachers may find difficulties in achieving the competencies for their children given that certain section or groups of people have different abilities in terms of the academic outcomes. Certain groups within the Singaporean context such as the Chinese are found to be more informed than the remaining populace. The commencing teachers may have difficulties establishing the group of the populace with excellent abilities and those with little or no at all. Similarly, certain populace within the Singaporean context bears disparity in the ways in which they grasp different, so it poses difficulty to a teacher to determine the exact number of learners bearing the abilities to grasp the values and concepts in the best way possible. While working with persons with difficulties, teachers have to make certain that these individuals grasp the concepts well and seemly to allow them for the movement to the next phase. While it can be hard to impart certain concepts especially the practical applications, the teachers have to make certain that these individuals bear the ability to make certain practical choices on various issues. Since most of the values and competencies can only be developed, teachers face an intricate task trying to make students realize their inbound values, and make them work for present and future applications. Teachers have to fight against gender inequalities, both for the educational opportunities and the educational outcomes. It is presumed that men have an edge over women in the grasp of certain concepts of the competencies. The teachers have to make certain that all members of their class despite their gender bear similar level of competence concerning the anticipated skills on various issues. In cases where teachers may be of female gender, problems may arise concerning the salaries they earn compared to males with similar educational qualifications. The prejudice may bring about the lack of motivation hindering the delivery of the competencies and values. Teachers have the challenge of making sure that the culturally deprived individual within the society obtains special academic assistance in obtaining competencies and values (Hen, 2011). These individuals find difficulties relating to new concepts thus, the teachers have to make sure the concepts demonstrated are well grasped, to ensure understanding and eventual application. Singaporean context holds dissimilar cultural groups, there exists difficulty in recognition of the group of the populace, which may be culturally deprived. Singapore has about four ethnic groups meaning that there are four different languages (Gopinathan, Pakir, Kam & Saravanan, 1998). The four languages offer difficulty to teachers in cases where the teacher may not be knowledgeable of an additional language. The teachers have to bear an additional language for effective delivery of the competencies and values. However, in cases where teachers may be bearing an additional language, drawbacks may emerge since certain schools are usually taught using the local languages. The different languages may offer difficulty to students in understanding certain basic concepts. The promotion of multiculturalism through the introduction of bilingualism offers another challenge since someone always understands the first language better (Wong, 2008). Utilization of different languages creates prejudice in the education system since certain languages are more preferred than others (Gopinathan, Pakir, Kam & Saravanan, 1998). Therefore, utilization of certain languages offers a formidable obstacle towards the realization of competencies and values. Teachers from different backgrounds often experience difficulties relating with students bearing very different backgrounds. The teachers also face the difficulty relating with parents bearing different backgrounds, due to poor interactions. The educators have to make sure that children perform well, like the rest, although these children may have difficulties absorbing knowledge. Teachers often treat children with better absorption power with care and forget about the rest showing prejudice. The prejudice offers setbacks to teachers since other students suppose they are not satisfactory or, rather lose self-esteem. Loss of esteem means that students will be expected to achieve defectively. In respect to gender inequality, girls are bound to gain little since they are often calm and do not like creating so much attention. Therefore, girls can bear inquiries and still not ask. The matter becomes crucial since this may lead to poor performances. Teachers are required to remove the barriers in order to ensure uniform performances. Conclusion Despite many challenges faced by teachers in the realization of the values and competencies, positive results have to be achieved. The social context entrenches students into different scopes although the children have to develop the required skills. The skills have to be developed through cooperation of the children and teachers. The teachers, therefore, have the obligation of presenting the children with an unprejudiced social context that allows for knowledge acquisition. The teachers have to make sure that all individuals within the institution gain the required educational achievements despite their differences through the meritocratic system of sophistication. References Gopinathan S., Pakir A., Kam H. W., & Saravanan V. (1998). Language, Society and Education in Singapore: Issues and Trends. Retrieved January 16, 2012. From: < http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/messeas/handouts/singpore/lgsoceds.html> Hen N. E. (2011). Social Mobility — The Singapore Story: Past, Present and Future. MOE. Retrieved January 16, 2012. From: < http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/2011/03/07/fy-2011-committee-of-supply-de-1.php > Kumar, P. (2004). Lifelong learning in Singapore: where are We now? Mathematicas. Retrieved January 15, 2012. From: < http://matematicas.reduaz.mx/mat01/DES/cur/c10.pdf > Mansilla V. B. and Jackson A. (2011). Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World. Asia Society. Retrieved January 15, 2012. From: < http://asiasociety.org/files/book-globalcompetence.pdf > Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. (2010). Nurturing our Young for the Future Competencies for the 21st Century. MOE. Retrieved January 15, 2012. From: < http://www.moe.gov.sg/committee-of-supply-debate/files/nurturing-our-young.pdf > Wong, A. (2008). Education in a Multicultural Setting - The Singapore Experience. MOE. Retrieved January 16, 2012. From: < http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/2000/sp24112000.htm > Read More