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Excellence and Equity in High-Performing Education Systems

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Excellence and Equity in High-Performing Education Systems Infancia y Aprendizaje Journal for the Study of Education and Development ISSN: 0210-3702 (Print) 1578-4126 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riya20 Excellence and equity in high-performing education systems: policy lessons from Singapore and Hong Kong / Excelencia y equidad en sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento: lecciones de las políticas educativas en Singapur y Hong Kong Saravanan Gopinathan & Michael H. Lee To cite this article: Saravanan Gopinathan & Michael H. Lee (2018) Excellence and equity in high-performing education systems: policy lessons from Singapore and Hong Kong / Excelencia y equidad en sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento: lecciones de las políticas educativas en Singapur y Hong Kong, Infancia y Aprendizaje, 41:2, 203-247, DOI: 10.1080/02103702.2018.1434043 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2018.1434043 Published online: 27 Feb 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1926 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 2 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=riya20 Infancia y Aprendizaje / Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 2018 Vol. 41, No. 2, 203–247, https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2018.1434043 Excellence and equity in high-performing education systems: policy lessons from Singapore and Hong Kong / Excelencia y equidad en sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento: lecciones de las políticas educativas en Singapur y Hong Kong Saravanan Gopinathana and Michael H. Leeb aNational University of Singapore; bThe Chinese University of Hong Kong (Received 3 October 2017; accepted 10 November 2017) Abstract: In recent years, both Singapore and Hong Kong have been ranked top in international education rankings. They are widely admired as high- performing education systems (HPES) and, not surprisingly, among the best education systems in the world. The success stories of Singapore and Hong Kong education have aroused widespread attention internationally among different stakeholders, such as policymakers, researchers and practitioners, to investigate if it is possible for their policies and practices to be learned and borrowed by other countries. In this article, we stress the importance of context in understanding policy phenomena and possibilities for policy trans- fer. The Singapore and Hong Kong education systems are facing critical issues such as the economization of education, educational disparities and the paradigm shift from meritocracy to parentocracy. How well they deal with these policy issues will determine if their present international standing con- tinues into the future. This article provides a critical review of their education policies to explore how these policies can be refined and adjusted in order to cope with the challenges facing both education systems. Keywords: education excellence; educational disparities; meritocracy; parentocracy; Singapore; Hong Kong Resumen: En los últimos años, tanto Singapur como Hong Kong han obte- nido los mejores resultados en las clasificaciones internacionales que evalúan los sistemas educativos. Ambos se consideran sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento (HPES, por su nombre en inglés) y, por consiguiente, despiertan admiración como los mejores sistemas educativos del mundo. El éxito de ambos países ha suscitado gran interés internacional entre los distintos agentes, de legisladores a investigadores y docentes, que han analizado la posibilidad de dar a conocer y aplicar sus políticas educativas en otros países. En este artículo, ponemos de relieve la importancia del contexto para English version: pp. 203–222 / Versión en español: pp. 223–243 References / Referencias: pp. 243–247 Translated from English / Traducción del inglés: Mercè Rius Authors’ Address / Correspondencia con los autores: Saravanan Gopinathan, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore. E-mail: [email protected] © 2018 Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje 204 S. Gopinathan and M. H. Lee comprender estas políticas educativas y su posible transferencia a otros países. Los sistemas educativos de Singapur y de Hong Kong se enfrentan a proble- mas como la economización de la educación, la desigualdad educativa y el cambio de paradigma de la meritocracia a la parentocracia. Su capacidad de gestionar dichos problemas determinará si el prestigio internacional del que gozan en la actualidad se mantiene en el futuro. En este artículo, se presenta una visión crítica de las respectivas políticas educativas en ambos sistemas y se exploran posibles ajustes y adaptaciones para hacer frente a los desafíos a los que se enfrentan. Palabras clave: excelencia educativa; disparidades educativas; meritocracia; parentocracia; Singapur; Hong Kong Since the beginning of the new millennium, a series of education policy initiatives have been adopted in Singapore and Hong Kong. Comprehensive education reforms, which address the importance of twenty-first-century skills in the age of globalization, are being carried out with the aims of cultivating a culture of lifelong learning, educating students with creative, innovative and critical thinking skills, broadening students’ learning experiences and preparing students to be ‘future ready’ and to be global citizens (Education Commission, HKSAR Government, 2000; Goh, 1997). Curriculum, pedagogy and examinations have been restructured in order to enhance students’ autonomy in learning and to get rid of the traditional examination-oriented and teacher-driven learning culture (Gopinathan & Mardiana, 2013). The quality and social status of the teaching profession has been improved substantially with higher entry requirements, strengthened teacher education and sophisticated professional development mechanisms (O.S. Tan, 2012). Education pathways have also been diversified at the school level to better integrate national economies with the global economy and to provide more opportunities for students to receive postsecondary and tertiary education. Both governments have also endeavoured to transform Singapore and Hong Kong as education hubs. Further, apart from being educated as global citizens, schools have been consistently reminded of the importance of values and of national citizenship education for cultivating a strong sense of national identity and belonging (Gopinathan, 2015; Gopinathan & Lee, 2013; Leung, Chong, & Yuen, 2017; K. Tan, 2008; 2010). Nevertheless, there is the dilemma that while Singapore and Hong Kong students perform very well in international rankings, their top performance is ironically achieved by rather traditional methods of teaching and learning (Deng & Gopinathan, 2016). Moreover, both societies are still very much examination- oriented and strongly influenced by high-stakes public examinations, which are often used for selection purposes (Gopinathan, 2015; J. Tan, 2010; Tsang, 2011). Although there has been steady and remarkable improvement of both Singapore’s and Hong Kong’s performance in those international comparisons, high-achieving students in both cities have been found to lack confidence and interest in core subjects like mathematics, science and reading, and also have a high level of test anxiety, even among high-performing students (Davie, 2017; OECD, 2017; Zhao, 2015). Moreover, how to achieve more equitable outcomes has become another Excellence and equity in high-performing education systems / Excelencia y equidad en sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento 205 concern with widening income gaps and social class differences in both Singapore and Hong Kong; an individual’s educational achievement or success seems to be increasingly related to social class and family backgrounds. It is argued that the problem of inequitable educational opportunity would be one of the most impor- tant issues to be tackled by policymakers in both Singapore and Hong Kong (e.g., Chua & Ng, 2015; Gopinathan, 2007, 2015; Ho, 2010; Ng, 2013; J. Tan, 2010, 2014; Yuen, 2017). By reviewing and examining recent education issues and policy developments in Singapore and Hong Kong, this article argues that besides maintaining top ranks in international comparisons, it is equally important for policymakers to deal with shortcomings and drawbacks in both education systems. The following questions will be examined and discussed: What are major shortcomings facing the education systems in Singapore and Hong Kong today? How can these shortcomings be rectified with education reform policies? What policy choices do these two governments face? Apart from sustaining high performance, what education goals should Singapore and Hong Kong aim for in the face of changes and challenges arising from globalization and rapid technological development? Through this discussion, it is expected that crucial lessons could be learnt from responses of the two governments, which would be of interest and use to the global education community. Following this introductory section, there are four sections in the remainder of this article. The first section provides a brief overview of the socio-political context of education development in Singapore and Hong Kong. It is followed by the second section laying out some policy lessons learnt from education policies of Singapore and Hong Kong. The third section then examines major policy issues facing both education systems in Singapore and Hong Kong and considers how they are similar or different
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