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Column[Singapore] From a score system to an education that develops individuality / Education is changing for the age of AI
- Release date: Feb 17, 2020
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Diversified education as streaming system is abolished
Since 1984, Singapore's Ministry of Education has been selecting highly intelligent children in the third grade of primary school to participate in a three-year Gifted Education Program (GEP) for gifted children. Selected children, or about 1% of the total number of children, are transferred to the elementary schools where the special program is implemented to receive education for gifted and talented students and then to prestigious secondary schools. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of cram schools for pre-school children that target the GEP selection process.Coding classes are also attracting attention as a new form of education for elementary school students. The Ministry of Education has recommended coding programs, and they have been phased in within elementary school classes. Meanwhile, it has decided to change the existing system of sorting by written examinations, phasing out the "streaming system" over a four-year period from 2024, in which college and career paths are largely determined by scores at the time of primary school graduation. From now on, secondary schools will create academic programs for each subject, called G1, G2 and G3, and students will be able to combine programs according to their academic ability in each subject.
Early education is also changing to educate children to develop their strengths and personalities
Singapore's average academic performance is also very high, ranking first in the world in all three areas of reading, maths and science in the 2015 Programme for International Study Assessment (PISA). In the past, students have been assigned a pathway based solely on the results of national standardized exams such as the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and GCE-O level, but with the advent of the AI era, the Ministry of Education has decided to transform education to focus more on active learning, with an emphasis on improving reading, imagination and human qualities. It has also decided to abolish the streaming system based on exam results only. While there has been a demand for all-rounders to be educated to achieve high scores in all subjects, there is likely to be a greater need to develop more of the subjects and strengths that they are good at, due to the impact of educational change. Gifted and talented education, especially in developing coding, intelligence and the arts, has been in the spotlight recently and is expected to spur a boom in early education that focuses on children's individuality.
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TNC ASIA Trend Lab
TNC ASIA Trend Lab is an information organization run by TNC Inc. that researches and shares trends in Asia. It supports corporate marketing activities by finding insights from trends rooted in the lifestyles and habits of local consumers. http://tnc-trend.jp/
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