Singapore Math Observations pt. 1

Here are answers to some questions posted on the KTM blog about Singapore Maths. Opinions on this paper belong only to program attendee Tricia Salerno, a Singapore Maths Coach and the author, Cassandra Turner.

A brief overview of the Singapore educational system:

The system sounds more complicated than it probably is. Visit this page at the Ministry of Education for a nice graphic that shows student options at every level. We noticed several important differences between the US and Singaporean education systems. Perhaps the single most important difference is that the government and people of Singapore view education as an investment in their future. The country’s only natural resource is their citizens and they spend the money to create great citizens. In America, education is viewed as an expense.

Primary

There is no public kindergarten in Singapore. It may be provided as day care, through churches or the political parties. Because of this, students enter P1 with a wide variation of prior knowledge. Remediation begins in P1. Primary students begin their school days either at 7:30 or 8 am and are released around 1:00pm. They buy or return home for lunch, then come back to school for Co-Curricular Activities (CCA). These may include band, sports, tuition (tutoring), dance robotics, video or anything we might consider an “after school activity” See http://www.moe.gov.sg/ccab/ for more information. My conference partner and I got the impression that a certain number of hours in CCAs were required weekly, but it’s possible that this is a school requirement, not a national standard. Remediation is strongly encouraged for certain students and we got the sense that a teacher’s recommendation of tuition (tutoring or remediation) is always heeded.

Because all students are ELL, the emphasis in the first 3 years of primary school is on English, maths and Mother Tongue (Tamil, Mandarin or Malay). In maths, students are ability grouped (called “subject banding”) into 3 groups. Principals refer to it as HAMALA – High Ability, Middle Ability, and Low Ability. Science and social sciences are integrated, but not considered “core” subjects. Science becomes a core subject beginning in P4 (4^th grade), however, we found many examples of strong integration in the classrooms we visited (two P1 classes, one P3, two P4). Students sit for the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE) at the end of 6^th grade. This determines their placement in Secondary School. Student capacity is capped at 40 students in a regular classroom from P3 and up, 30 students for P1 & P2. A music teacher told me she had 80 in her classes.

Info on the change from streaming to subject banding from the MOE website:

SUBJECT-BASED BANDING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Key changes

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Starting from the 2008 Primary 5 cohort, primary schools will introduce Subject-based Banding to replace the current EM3 stream. Currently EM3 stream students offer the Foundation level for all subjects. With Subject-based Banding, students will be able to offer a mix of Standard or Foundation subjects depending on their aptitude in each subject. For instance, if a student is weak in English and Mathematics, he can choose to take English and Mathematics at the Foundation level while taking Mother Tongue Language and Science at the Standard level.

Students in the top 1% of ability, based on testing are offered the chance to study at a special school for the gifted.

Below is a diagram of Special Education system for Primary students (Click it to get a better image):

Secondary

Compulsory education is 6 years, so it is possible that some students do not go on with their education beyond P6. Students must submit to several interviews with parents and the principal before they are allowed to end their schooling at this point. Secondary students are placed in a track based on their PSLE. There is the Express Course, Normal Course (Academic) and the Normal Course (Technical) and from there it gets confusing. Try the link under “brief overview” above to the MOE graphic.

During our trip, we visited two secondary schools. Between the two, we observed two Sec. 1 maths classes (grade 7) and a Sec.4 (grade 10) maths class. What we found is that some things are similar the world over. We saw bored students, disruptive students and teachers giving it their all. We also saw highly engaged students, who had high expectations of themselves and their school. Although Singapore no longer ranks schools by their achievement, both schools we visited were still considered mid-tier schools.

The principal at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School told us that he still canes students for disruptive behavior in the classroom. It is still allowed in Singapore, but only the Principal may do so and he would never do it publicly, just in front of the class the student had disrupted. We didn’t hear about anyone else still caning, but were surprised to hear about it from the principal at the last school we visited. (Put that down as a topic we wished we had thought to ask about sooner.)

Students take the “O” level exams towards the end of Sec. 4. Normal (academic) students have a 5^th year before they take the test. Their score determines if they go on to Junior College (Grades 11 & 12) or a technical school. Many Secondary schools are now affiliated with Junior Colleges. Students in the Express Course can bypass the tests and go straight on to the JC. Maths students that we saw were additionally sorted by “E” maths and “A” maths. The “A” maths consists of an additional course on top of the “E” maths course and is recommended for students going on to any type of engineering or technically advanced coursework. Again, refer to the picture on the MOE website if your head is now spinning.

A bit about the teaching profession:

Teachers in Singapore are valued right below doctors & lawyers, although not paid nearly as well. A teacher just starting out begins at around $24,000 a year after mandatory savings of 7% is taken out. To become a teacher, you must first get a job from the Ministry of Education, and then go to school to get your degree or diploma. After that you may teach full-time, although you are working part time in a classroom while in school. Teachers who have difficulty are immediately given remediation as a poor teacher reflects a poor principal and no principal wants their teacher to be a failure. Teachers only teach three core subjects in the lower primary and four in P4-6. That allows them time to grade every piece of paper that a student turns in, and thoroughly at that. Even with 40 kids in a classroom, I can tell that they have a better grasp on each student as an individual than most teachers in the US.