"Learning from Singapore: The Power of Paradoxes" by Ng Pak Tee

Date
Thursday, 09 February 2017

New book, Learning from Singapore: The Power of Paradoxes, by Ng Pak Tee is now available from Routledge. Learning from Singapore is a book in the Routledge Leading Change Series, edited by Andy Hargreaves and Ng Pak Tee.

Learning from Singapore tells of Singapore’s education journey from a struggling system to one that is hailed internationally as effective and successful, which came through hard work and tenacity of many education policymakers, practitioners and teacher educators. Although it is deemed successful, Singapore continues to seek improvement, constantly re-evaluating itself and dealing with difficult issues and challenges of change. The book explores the successes and struggles, and the future direction and areas of tension in the Singapore education system. The book also explains that in Singapore, education is an investment rather than expenditure; and that education is the human enterprise of paying it forward.

Readers will find intriguing how the Singapore education system is strengthened by embracing the creative tensions generated by four paradoxes: timely change and timeless constants, centralisation and decentralisation, meritocracy and compassion, and teaching less and learning more. Readers will also find interesting the four dreams of the system: every school, a good school; every student, an engaged learner; every teacher, a caring educator; and every parent, a supportive partner.

Learning from Singapore shares with the world the learning from Singapore – the lessons Singapore has learned from its educational change – and ends with a note of exhortation for every education system to bring hope to the next generation and secure a future for them.

Ng Pak Tee is a member of the Global Education Innovation (GEI) Lab. For more information about the Lab, click here.