This article was downloaded by: [Corporacion CINCEL]

On: 30 November 2012, At: 07:55

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of Moral Education
Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjme20
Civics and Moral Education in
Singapore: lessons for citizenship
education?
Joy Chew Oon Ai
a
a
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Version of record first published: 07 Jul 2006.
To cite this article: Joy Chew Oon Ai (1998): Civics and Moral Education in Singapore: lessons
for citizenship education?, Journal of Moral Education, 27:4, 505-524
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305724980270405
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-
conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any
representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The
accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently
verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions,
claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused
arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this
material.
Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1998 505
Civics and Moral Education in
Singapore: lessons for citizenship
education?
JOY CHEW OON AI
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
ABSTRACT Civics and Moral Education was implemented as a new moral education
programme in Singapore schools in 1992. This paper argues that the underlying theme is that
of citizenship training and that new measures are under way to strengthen the capacity of the
school system to transmit national values for economic and political socialisation. The motives
and motivation for retaining a formal moral education programme have remained strong. A
discussion of the structure and content of key modules in Civics and Moral Education shows
how curriculum writers have attempted to integrate separate strands of civics and moral
education from earlier programmes and present them in a less divisive manner. The paper also
assesses the impact of the written civics and moral education programme on teachers and pupils,
and the way in which strategies have been used by curriculum agencies to overcome possible
obstacles at the curriculum implementation phase.
Few governments have pursued the case for a compulsory civics and moral edu-
cation programme in the school system with as much tenacity and vigour as that of
Singapore. Since 1959 there has been active experimentation with a growing
number of curriculum packages designed to address educational policy makers'
concern with the need for citizenship training. The national school system was a
natural choice for locating a formal values education programme and one slanted
towards nation building.
Historically, there was an earlier subject called Ethics in 1959. It was replaced
by Civics in 1963 at the secondary school level. An attempt was made to design an
interdisciplinary programme for values education in primary schools in 1973 called
Education for Living. By the late 1970s, there was much dissatisfaction with what
was regarded by policy makers as a weak attempt at creating an effective moral
education programme. This gave rise to a major review of the state of moral
education in 1978. It resulted in a strong recommendation to revamp and begin
fresh work on a new programme. The Good Citizen Project Team began work in
1980. It produced, in the Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages, pupils' textbooks
and workbooks, and the teachers' guide, Good Citizen. At the same time, the Moral
Education Programme for Singapore Schools (MEPSS) Project Team worked on an
0305-7240/98/040505-20 1998 The Norham Foundation
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

506 J. Chew Oon At
alternative set of materials for Being and Becoming. It was designed, initially, for
secondary and primary levels in English and Chinese.
As though the initiatives for introducing the two new packages were not
enough, Religious Knowledge and Confucian Ethics were offered as compulsory and
examinable subjects for upper secondary pupils in 1984 to complement the other
moral education programmes. Then, quite unexpectedly, at the end of 1990 the
government announced that it had decided to scrap Religious Knowledge and
Confucian Ethics as compulsory subjects. The choice was either to revert to the
previous syllabus or rewrite a new civics and moral education syllabus. A decision
was made in favour of the latter. By 1995 a new series, Civics and Moral Education,
was ready for full implementation in schools.
The refocusing on citizenship training became clearer still when, in 1995, the
Prime Minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong, announced the need for "National Education"
at all levels of schooling. The momentum increased in July, 1996 when principals
were required to attend a seminar on the introduction of a supposedly new
programme in schools "to teach students about the country's constraints and what
is needed for the country to continue to succeed" (The Straits Times, 10 July 1996,
p. 25).
This cursory introduction to Singapore's ongoing experience of formulating and
implementing a civics and moral education programme for schools confirms that the
subject is fraught with controversies, challenges and constraints. Singapore offers
some valuable lessons about the possibilities and limits of developing a national
curriculum on civics and moral education. The interest of England's Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority in including "lessons in morality, good citizenship and
obeying the law" in the national curriculum has been shared by many other
countries in Asia and the West (Cummings et al, 1988). Varying models of
formal civics and moral education programmes exist. It can be argued, however, that
there are broadly similar issues that policy makers have to address, a major one being
the extent of participation of key stakeholders on the form and substance of the
subject.
As can be expected in a multiethnic, multilingual and multifaith society such as
Singapore [1], there have been lively debates and discussions about the nature of
civics and moral education. Debate proved to be particularly vociferous and spirited
when the government decided to introduce Religious Knowledge and Confucian
Ethics in the mid-1980s. To put it mildly, it created great unease among Chinese,
Malay, Indian and Eurasian Singaporeans at the official attempt to institutionalise
ethnic, cultural and religious differences through a compulsory Religious Knowledge
and Confucian Ethics component. A subsequent policy reversal in 1990 shows how
controversial it was.
The recent move towards National Education signals a renewed attempt by
policy makers to reinforce citizenship training as another facet of values education.
It can be interpreted as a strategy to legitimise, via the education system, the political
leadership's renewed emphasis that Singaporeans must meet new economic chal-
lenges head-on in a highly competitive and integrated global environment. Thus the
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 507
agenda for civics and moral education is threefold, cultural, political and economic,
a point discussed by Tan (1994) in his analysis of moral education in Singapore.
This paper will show that citizenship training has remained the main thrust of
Singapore's efforts to develop values education in schools. It discusses the motives
and motivation for a formal curriculum in citizenship training. This is followed by
an examination of the structure and content of the written Civics and Moral
Education (CME) programme currently used in schools. The role of the Ministry of
Education (MOE) and other key participants in the design, development and
implementation of CME will also be discussed. Of interest, too, is an assessment of
the probable impact of the taught values curriculum on pupils and teachers. In
Singapore's case, curricular experimentation in this subject has gone on long enough
for some evidence of its impact to be available. From the perspective of curriculum
development and delivery at the school level, lessons can be drawn about its viability
and limits as a subject. Moreover, given Singapore's centrally controlled education
system, and one that is harnessed to national economic priorities, it should be
possible to assess pupils' and teachers' perceptions on the relevance of CME to
school learning.
Motives and Motivation for Civics and Moral Education
Multiple Motives
There is no question about the motives for including a formal moral education
component in the school curriculum. From its inception, moral education has been
motivated by political leaders' belief that just as an English-medium education
system had to be created to ensure the country's economic development, civic and
moral values could be transmitted through the vehicle of learning the mother-tongue
at school. The composition of Singapore's multiethnic population is important to
note. With a predominant Chinese population of 77.6%, 14.2% Malays, 7. 1%
Indians and 1.1% Singaporeans of other ethnic backgrounds (1992 figures quoted
by Gopinathan, 1995), political leaders were convinced of the wisdom of a multira-
cial ideology with parity of treatment for the four key languages in the education
system. The choice of English as an official language was politically and economi-
cally expedient. It is a neutral medium and was most appropriate for the goal of
industrialisation in the early 1960s. Teaching a second language (the mother-
tongues: Chinese, Malay and Tamil) [2] was thought to allow for cultural continuity
and values transmission. Writing in response to the 1978 Ministry of Education
Report, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the then Prime Minister, stated his rationale for a
bilingual education policy from the first primary level to pre-university education. In
his own words:
The greatest value in the teaching and learning of Chinese is in the
transmission of the norms of social or moral behaviour. This means
principally Confucianist beliefs and ideas, of man, society and state. This
is painlessly taught through stories, the myths and mythology of their
culture ... It would be a tragedy if we were to miss this and concentrate on
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

508 J. Chew Oon Ai
second language proficiency nearly equal to the first language ... No child
should leave school after 9 years without having the "software" of his
culture programmed into his subconscious (Singapore: Report of the
Ministry of Education, 1978, p. v).
In keeping with the official view of how values could be preserved through
schooling, formal moral education lessons have been taught in the pupils' mother-
tongue at the primary school since 1981. This resulted in a more distinctive role for
the primary teachers who specialise in teaching the three official mother-tongues.
They became responsible for mediating the official moral education programmes.
The English-medium primary teachers would concentrate on English, maths, sci-
ence, social studies, physical education, health education, art and music. Such a
language-based division of work continued into the 1990s. However, with the
introduction of new syllabuses for social studies and history around 1985, other
subjects have been used since as the vehicle for teaching values in the classroom, as
will be elaborated later.
At the secondary and post-secondary school levels, CME is not taught solely in
the pupil's mother-tongue. English is used largely as the medium of instruction for
CME. There are two possible explanations for this. One was the non-availability of
the required number of mother-tongue teachers at secondary school level to teach
civics and moral education, since mother-tongue languages are taught as a subject,
not a medium of instruction for other subjects. Another logistical consideration was
the impracticality of having to prepare curriculum materials in English and the three
mother-tongues. Judging by the rapid production rate of the two Curriculum
Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS) teams [3] that worked to meet tight
delivery deadlines of new materials by 1983 for both secondary and primary schools,
it would have been unrealistic to expect them to prepare simultaneously a 10-year
series in four languages. At the secondary level it was therefore thought that English
could serve as a common medium of instruction for values education.
How English could measure up to the belief held by some political leaders that
"Asian" values are better inculcated through the use of pupils' mother-tongue
languages was not openly debated. It was clearly a matter of expediency. The sheer
immensity of the task and tight scheduling given for materials development made it
necessary for the mother-tongue requirement to be compromised at the secondary
level. Thus born out of practical difficulties, the teaching of moral and civic values
in primary and secondary schools differed in terms of teacher deployment.
As a result, specialist subject teachers in secondary schools also became in-
volved in teaching moral and civic values. With the introduction of Religious
Knowledge and Confucian Ethics in 1984 up to 1991, many subject specialist
teachers found themselves having to experiment with implementing one of the
Religious Knowledge electives (Islamic Religious Knowledge, Buddhist Studies,
Hindu Studies, Sikh Studies, Bible Knowledge and Confucian Ethics). From the
point of view of learning to teach values in an explicit way, it will be noted that
Singapore teachers have had considerable experience in using and mediating the
new curriculum materials over the years. Such prior involvement in values education
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 509
through the teaching of Religious Knowledge and Confucian Ethics during the
1980s will undoubtedly influence school leaders' and teachers' perceptions of the
significance of National Education, a new component introduced in 1997.
Maintaining Motivation
The motivation for retaining a compulsory civics and moral education subject in the
school system remains very strong today. This is confirmed by the decision taken by
the MOE in 1991 to design an assessment format for monitoring pupils' level of
interest in learning values through CME. The then Curriculum Planning Division
(CPD) provided more comprehensive guidelines on the use of project work and
class tests for the CME syllabus. For the first time since 1992, CME teachers are
now required to plan assessment activities that are graded at each year level.
Teachers follow a letter grading system (Grade A, B, C, D and F) for pupils' written
work. Grades are awarded based on effort in carrying out a variety of project work
and individual performance in class tests. Project work constitutes 60% of the
overall marks. The remaining 40% come from class tests on the factual content of
the subject syllabus. [4]
Secondary school pupils often work in groups of five to seven to prepare CME
group projects on topics of their choice. An example is the theme of "fostering
cultural and religious appreciation". Groups could be asked to gather comparative
observational data about marriage ceremonies among the different ethnic groups in
Singapore. It could take the form of videoing, observing and interviewing key
participants of marriage ceremonies. The products of group work are written up and
presented at appropriate lesson periods for peers and the CME teacher to review.
Besides assessing pupils' learning through group project work, teachers require
individual written assignments for CME. Pupils develop their own scrapbook of
resource materials and write personal reflections on thematic topics and class
activities.
Other measures are taken to ensure that CME is treated seriously by teachers
and pupils in the school programme. School heads are held personally accountable
to the MOE for the way CME is implemented in each school. They are required to
appoint a CME co-ordinator to attend to the allocation of resources and assigning
personnel for the subject. Sometimes, vice principals are tasked by principals to help
monitor the teaching of CME and adjudicate between teachers and reluctant pupils
if the latter are tardy in submitting their written work. Such mechanisms to ensure
that CME is accorded due attention in the school curriculum suggest that the MOE
is only too aware that CME could be marginalised in an education system that
practises meritocracy and school ranking as the bases for streaming pupils into
different curriculum tracks[5] at the secondary and post-secondary level.
Structure and Content of Civics and Moral Education
The CDIS team that prepared the CME materials used an instructional design for
unit planning that was adapted from the 4MAT system, "a teaching for learning
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

510 J. ChewOonAi
TABLE I. Modules and themes of civics and moral education programme
Module Theme
Unity in diversity To foster cultural and religious appreciation
Belonging together To promote community spirit
The growing me To cultivate strength of character and to
maximise one's potential
Loving my family To affirm family life
Building bonds To nurture interpersonal relationships
Becoming a better citizen To develop commitment to nation building
model developed by Dr Bernice McCarthy" (Singapore: CDIS, 1993a). Each unit
of the module consists of four steps, beginning with the Stimulus Activity (Finding
Meaning in My Experience), next, Concept Development and Formulation (Think-
ing Things Through), then Practice and Application (Putting Words into Action),
and lastly, Further Discovery (Making It Part of Me). Teachers' guides and pupils'
workbooks are written for each year level. They form pan of an integrated multime-
dia package of print and non-print materials such as audio tapes, Educational
Television (ETV) programmes and overhead transparency masters. Between 1991
and 1995, the then Curriculum Planning Division (CPD) and the CDIS mounted
in-service training for over 1300 secondary teachers and CME coordinators. Princi-
pals were also briefed on new syllabus and curriculum materials.
Political and Economic Socialisation
A closer examination of the syllabus and curricular materials of the earlier and more
recent civics and moral education packages shows that curriculum developers were
guided by a number of instructional objectives apart from the transmission of
cultural values and norms. These are clearly depicted by the six module titles that
make up the CME series (see Table I). It can be inferred that, since 1981, the
substantive treatment of the content of CME has focused increasingly on citizenship
training. There continues to be a strong emphasis on the element of political and
economic socialisation. Some textual references will illustrate this interpretation.
A good example is the module on Becoming a Better Citizen, with its related
theme of "developing commitment to nation building" which is a major component.
Taking the written curriculum at the Year 9 level (for 15-year-old pupils) as an
example, about one-third of the total of 60 lesson periods allocated for the subject
is recommended by CDIS for these units: "the concept of citizenship";
"responsibilities of citizens"; "responsibilities of citizens towards laws" and
"responsibilities of living in a democracy". The theme is revisited at Year 10 under
these unit headings: "issues of national concern"; "total defence and national
campaigns" and "responding to global issues" (Singapore: CDIS, 1993a).
That citizenship training is a dominant thrust can be seen in the content of a
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 511
sample of units written for the Year 10 module, Becoming a Better Citizen [6]. Unit
One deals with "issues of national concern". The teachers' guide contains facts and
information on the topic, complete with cue questions that teachers could use to
teach and facilitate class discussions of key questions. In fact, a content analysis of
the teachers' guide reveals the political and economic values explicated in the pupils'
workbooks.
The provision of detailed lesson planning notes and the step-by-step presen-
tation of each lesson unit is quite remarkable in the teachers' guides. This could be
seen as a measure taken by CDIS to compensate for any possible lack of face-to-face
in-service training on the actual substance of each CME module. Thus, teachers
who rely on the pupils' workbooks and teachers' guide should be able to implement
the lesson units so long as they can sustain pupils' interest and motivation to
participate in structured individual and group activities.
A lead article entitled "Looking Backan overview of the major difficulties
faced by Singapore" forms the basis of the first stimulus activity of the unit, Issues
of National Concern. The article summarises the threats to Singapore as a young
nation from 1965 to the 1980s. It is written using reference materials originating
from two government ministries (the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of
Information and the Arts) and two leading economists, one of whom was a senior
cabinet minister until his retirement from politics in the late 1980s. The intention of
the stimulus material is clear: to emphasise the challenges of nation building and the
achievements of the People's Action Party (PAP) government. This is national
education at its purest with facts given on how physical constraints (Singapore's small
size and lack of natural resources) and economic crises faced during the last three
decades (the British military withdrawal in the 1960s, the oil crisis in the 1970s and
the economic recession in the mid-1980s) were overcome as a result of "good
political leadership" (Singapore: CDIS, 1993b, pp. 60-62).
This is followed by a transparency-viewing exercise consisting of six overhead
transparencies that teachers can use to build on pupils' understanding of the issues
of national concern. The transparencies give a visual listing of the concrete aspects
of Singapore's achievements, such as the country's "successful public housing
programme, high standard of health and medical care, provision of quality edu-
cation; efficient mass transport system; world class communication system, and
good landscaping". As the next activity, pupils are asked to think about what would
be needed by the country to sustain further progress. The CDIS teachers' guide
provides a note in this regard:
NOTE: Some factors that pupils are likely to point out for Singapore to
achieve further progress may include having a large and hardworking
population which can live and work harmoniously together, having more
job opportunities, having a good government and being able to defend
ourselves. Thus, in general, we have to depend on a sizeable population, a
harmonious society, economic growth, total security and good political
leadership. These are issues that can affect the future progress of our
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

512 J.ChewOonAi
country and therefore they are of concern to our nation (Singapore: CDIS,
1993b, p. 62).
A reader familiar with the social, economic and political context of Singapore
will recognise that national issues referred to in the CME texts are the very ones
raised by government leaders in their regular pronouncements of national policies.
These are regularly conveyed in the country's mass media. What is also discernable
is the way in which the CME unit writers have sought to give voice to a very clear
message about the instrumental basis for achieving economic growth, racial and
religious harmony, population growth and having "strong and capable" political
leadership. Often, too, key points are summarised for the teachers' benefit. Two
examples with reference to the country's economic growth and political leadership
will suffice:
(iii) Economic Growth: Our strong economy has enabled us to enjoy a high
standard of living. In order for us to continue to have this good life, we need
to sustain economic growth. This implies that we have to continue to be
productive and keep our production costs low so that we can continue to
sell our goods and services. The more we can sell the more jobs will be
available to us, which will then lead to increases in our nation's income
(author's emphasis).
(v) Political Leadership: One of the contributing factors to Singapore's
success is our strong and capable leadership. The national policies intro-
duced have been conducive to economic growth and they have ensured
political and social stability. Such stability has attracted many foreign
investments which have spurred the growth of our economy. We need to
continue to have capable, honest and committed leaders who have the interest of
the people at heart. We also need leaders with foresight to sustain and continue
Singapore's success into the 90's and beyond. (Singapore: CDI S, 1993b, p. 63)
(author's emphasis)
The concept of "this good life" reappears in the next unit entitled "Total defence
and national campaignsbe a part of them". In fact it becomes the title for an
audio-tape: "The Good Lifeis it Forever?" (Singapore: CDIS, 1993b, p. 70).
Teachers are prompted on how a guided imagery exercise can achieve its impact, by
making sure that "the pupils are quiet and seated comfortably" and "... closing their
eyes will help them to concentrate on listening to the tape", which is about certain
scenes of the good life as it is described by the narrator. Such details in the written
CME texts could only have come about through very deliberate lesson planning
work by the curriculum writers.
How the good life is seen to be directly linked to economic growth and whether
an overly materialistic view of the good life forms an adequate foundation for a
young citizen's national commitment are not raised as debatable issues in the
prototype lessons. It would appear that the curriculum writers had assumed that
these are national goals that pupils could be persuaded to regard as being worthwhile
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 513
in themselves. Whether classroom teachers implementing such lesson units are in
total agreement with this view might be worth investigating by other researchers.
Thus, by means of the CME materials delivered as part of the official curricu-
lum, upper secondary pupils could be systematically inducted into an ideological
viewpoint of Singapore society that is strongly underpinned by a dominant economic
rationality and pragmatism. In the same vein, the theme of a strong and capable
political leadership is attributed to the Singapore government's success in attracting
and securing international investment funds and the transfer of new technology. The
desirable qualities of strong leadership are highlighted: "capable, honest leaders with
foresight to sustain and continue Singapore's success into the 90's and beyond". By
working through an exercise "discussing" issues of national concern in groups of five
to seven, pupils will have rehearsed the rationale for national policies in a highly
convergent way.
It will be important to examine how such a tendency to teach for convergent
thinking about national economic and political issues may run counter to the
government's current concern that schools be nurturing a new mindset among the
younger generation citizens. "Creativity" and "critical thinking" have become the
new buzzwords in official circles. The Prime Minister's announcement in June 1997
of his government's adoption of the "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" formula
"to enable Singapore to compete and stay ahead in the 21 st century" signals a major
shift in both the process and organisation of the education system in Singapore (Goh
Chok Tong, 1997).
Appreciating Cultural Diversity
The Unity in Diversity module is an attempt to design a component on world
religions for Singapore schools. Such an elective was to have been tried out in the
mid-1980s under the proposed course title "Study of World Religions" when
Religious Knowledge was introduced in 1984, but it never took off as an elective
subject. It might have been too premature then. Recall that the CPD and the CDIS
were already having to develop the syllabi and preparatory materials for five other
electives including Confucian Ethics. Eight years later, in 1992, the MOE had had
more lead time and a stint of experimenting with Religious Knowledge electives. It
could now incorporate world religions as a module in the newly packaged CME
programme. More importantly, it would have to be integrated into the objective of
citizenship training for life in multiethnic society.
The Year 9 syllabus for CME includes a module on Unity in Diversity which
lends itself to the teaching of facts and information about the cultural and religious
practices of the main ethnic communities in Singapore. Examples of units that
develop the theme of fostering cultural and religious appreciation are: "the concept
of celebration"; "festivals, major systems of beliefs in Singapore"; and "expressions
of basic beliefs in our daily lives". The specific instructional objective for the unit on
major systems of beliefs is to introduce pupils to the six major religions practised in
Singapore: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Taoism. The
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

514 J.ChewOonAi
rationale for learning about other systems of beliefs besides the pupil's own religious
affiliation is stated in functionalist terms in the teachers' guide:
NOTE
It is necessary to be familiar with other cultures and religions in our multi-
cultural and multi-religious situation in order to foster harmonious relation-
ships.
Religion is so much a part of a believer's life that it influences his attitudes
and conduct. For example, a person may abstain from certain food and dress
in a certain manner because of his religious beliefs. Thus knowing about the
beliefs and related practices of others will help us to understand others better.
We also need to appreciate that others have the right to uphold different
beliefs (Singapore: CDIS, 1992, p. 42).
To summarise, the CME programme may be seen as a concerted effort to pull
together a number of strands of civics and moral education, some of which were
packaged separately in the 1980s. It encompasses core values identified in the early
1990s by the government as part of its official search for "national values" (Quah,
1990). What is striking about CME is its very eclectic nature. Elements such as
Religious Knowledge and Confucian Ethics that could no longer be sustained as
elective subjects in earlier years are now incorporated, but in a potentially less
divisive manner. English is used as the main instructional medium although Chinese
can be used in certain schools [7]. Throughout the six modules, the objective is
citizenship training, not moral education. Whether the units are on marriage,
responsible parenthood, civil defence, national campaigns or responding to global
issues, the thrust of the written curriculum is to impart the knowledge, skills and
attitudes considered as pertinent for good citizenship in Singapore.
Key Participants in Civics and Moral Education
Many Players, Many Stakeholders
In his analysis of the introduction and exit of Religious Knowledge in Singapore,
Gopinathan (1995) makes a useful distinction between the "cultural curriculum"
and the "non-cultural curriculum". The former, in the case of Singapore, encom-
passes history, social studies, civics and moral education. In his view, these subjects
are intended to contribute to "the enhancement of social cohesion, political identity
and loyalty to the state" (Gopinathan, 1995, pp. 15-16). In the first decade of the
implementation of the New Education System that began in 1980 (Singapore:
MOE, 1978) the MOE introduced a compulsory moral education component.
Eventually, the explicit teaching of values became embedded in a number of subjects
at primary and secondary schools.
As can be expected, there are many players in the processes of planning and
implementing civics and moral education in Singapore schools. Primary among
them are government leaders, MOE policy makers, teams of curriculum planners
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 515
and writers, principals, teachers and teacher trainers. All have been directly involved
at one stage or another.
The gestation period taken to flesh out the bare bones of curriculum policies
resulting in the syllabus guidelines and teaching packages was much longer, from
1981 to 1995. The extent of consultation cannot be said to be true of other subjects
with the exception of social studies [8] and the lower secondary history syllabus for
Social and Economic History of Modern Singapore (Singapore: CDIS, 1984/5).
Recalling that the written curricula for these subjects were introduced to schools at
around 1985 when Religious Knowledge and Confucian Ethics made their first
appearance, it is not surprising that all these subjects should share a common
orientation on values.
Other than the political leaders who have taken a deep interest in framing the
scope of the "cultural curriculum", the CPD and CDIS divisions of the MOE are
mainly responsible for determining the final form and substance of such subjects.
Project teams for the writing of new curriculum packages are formed by the CPD in
consultation with senior professionals at the MOE [9]. There exists an involved
process of step-by-step consultation at different levels of the educational hierarchy,
the highest being the ministerial committee meeting (Lim & Gopinathan, 1990,
p. 77).
In the design and re-conceptualisation of CME after 1991, the CDIS project
team worked in tandem with the CPD. The latter's main responsibilities were to
prepare the syllabus and time-frames for materials development, school level im-
plementation and monitoring of the use of curriculum materials. The CPD was also
responsible for vetting the drafts of curriculum material. It included the inputs of
curriculum consultants and specialists from outside the school system at critical
stages of the vetting process. For example, in preparing the units on the major
religions and belief systems, representatives from religious organisations in Singa-
pore were invited to sit on committees to check the drafts of texts for factual
accuracy and interpretation (Singapore: CDIS, 1992, Acknowledgements, p. iii)
[10].
For all intents and purposes, efforts at scrutinising curriculum content were
undertaken with considerable care and seriousness. The writer recalls an interview
with a senior team member of the unit on world religions who said that her team
were on tenterhooks while they awaited the "verdict" of the religious specialists on
their depiction of different religious tenets and practices in Singapore. An earlier
innovation with Confucian Ethics in the mid-1980s received as much if not greater
attention from Cabinet level, as that elective was commissioned by a senior govern-
ment leader. Not surprisingly, the final text underwent vetting at that level.
How much influence do Singapore curriculum writers have in determining the
actual content of the materials disseminated as school texts? A very likely answer is
that they have considerable influence over what is included as the substantive
content even if some of these are omitted at the vetting stage. The previous section
of this paper showed examples of curriculum writers' selection of materials taken
from keynote speeches on government policies, or a paraphrase of current social,
political and economic issues addressed by government spokesmen in the mass
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

516 J. ChewOonAi
media. Once encoded in the workbooks for pupils and the teachers' guides, they will
be mediated by the classroom teachers and pupils.
In the absence of adequate empirical data about how much influence policy
makers have over the curriculum writers' interpretation of government policies, it is
reasonable to assume that curriculum writers would see it in their professional
interest to present curriculum content within the official ideological framework.
Thus political leaders' concerns and priorities, and the perceptions of curriculum
team members of how these are best represented in official textbooks, become the
stuff of much of the official curriculum.
National Education for the 21st Century
The evolution of Singapore's civics and moral education programme is far from
complete. A renewed emphasis on National Education, as announced at the Teach-
ers' Day Rally in September 1996 by the Prime Minister, was followed by an official
launch of National Education (NE) on 17 May, 1997 (Singapore: MOE, 1997). In
his Teachers' Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Goh made a pointed remark that all
teachers would have to help transmit national values and explicated how his
government was planning to prepare them to become effective purveyors of values:
National Education cannot be instilled in our students unless it is first
instilled in the teachers. Teachers must feel passionately for the country before
they can teach with conviction ... many of our teachersas many as 40 per
cent of themwere either too young to remember those critical years or
were born after 1965. They, too, must learn and acquire the sense of
history and shared destiny that we have to inculcate in our students. Our
older teachers will themselves have to revive their memories of those tumultuous
times and share them with their younger colleagues (Goh Chok Tong' s address
at the Teachers' Day Rally held on 8 September 1996, author's emphasis).
The structure of the NE curriculum is being worked out. It will definitely
involve high-level government personnel working on its content and delivery mode.
A time-frame of 2 years has been given for further preparation of curriculum
materials for a revised CME programme for schools. Undoubtedly, the business at
hand would be to ensure a close fit between the content with the explicit purpose of
National Education which are laid bare:
To develop national cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in
the future, a) by fostering a sense of identity, pride and self-respect as
Singaporeans; b) by knowing the Singapore storyhow Singapore suc-
ceeded against the odds to become a nation; c) by understanding Singa-
pore's unique challenges, constraints and vulnerabilities, which make us
different from other countries; and d) by instilling the core values of our
way of life, and the will to prevail, that ensure our continued success and
well-being (Singapore: MOE, 1997).
Thus, over the last 3 years, the control over the curriculum development process in
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 517
values education has shifted from the MOE curriculum teams to high level govern-
ment leaders. The brief for NE is clearly economic, as stated in the MOE press
release: "National Education is an integral part of the Government's strategies in
Education to prepare for the future. It is crucial to the continued success and
well-being of Singapore in the 21st century."
In May 1997, a National Education Committee was set up, chaired by the First
Permanent Secretary from the Prime Minister's office, who is also the Permanent
Secretary for Education. To quote from the same press release: "The Committee
has developed strategic approaches and measures to be adopted in the implemen-
tation of National Education. These measures cover both the formal and informal
curriculum and will extend to all levels of the education system" (Singapore: MOE,
1997). It is beyond the brief of this article to speculate on the implications of NE for
values education in Singapore schools. The next section analyses the Singapore
situation described thus far and draws out lessons about the prospect for citizenship
education in a small and highly integrated nation-state that is seeking to increase its
competitive advantage in a rapidly changing and technologically driven global
economy.
Assessing the Impact of Moral Education in Singapore Schools
Evaluation Studies and Research
Policy makers at the MOE and government levels have always been interested to
know if the explicit teaching of values has had the desired effect on pupils' secondary
socialisation. A number of official evaluation studies were conducted at different
points of time to determine the impact of different programmes in schools. As can
be expected for a curriculum area as complex and amorphous as values education,
evaluation findings are far from complete and determinative. But there are sufficient
evaluative and descriptive empirical data to suggest the overall impact of values
education efforts in the Singapore school system over the last two decades, as a brief
overview shows.
In 1982, an interim report on Good Citizen and Being and Becoming was
written by an Institute of Education (IE) evaluation team at the request of the then
Senior Minister of State for Education (Eng, 1982). The study surveyed how a
sample of schools had implemented the two new programmes. It was followed-up by
a more detailed evaluation of moral education at the lower secondary level in 1985
(Eng etal., 1985). The IE evaluation team obtained qualitative and quantitative data
from another sample of 12 secondary schools that were in the thick of implementing
Being and Becoming. An important evaluation finding, among others, showed that
teachers could be better deployed by principals in order to signal the importance of
moral education to pupils and school staff, even though it was a non-examination
subject. It was found that Being and Becoming was in danger of being neglected by
schools, with many teachers regarding it as a "filler" subject that would make up the
number of lesson periods they were expected to teach.
A further source of empirical data comes from an ethnographic study of moral
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

518 J.ChewOonAi
education in a co-education government secondary school (Chew, 1988). The field
research on the hidden moral curriculum of the school took into account the
perspectives of school leaders, teachers, pupils, parents and MOE inspectors on the
effects of major education policies such as academic streaming, bilingualism and
moral education on pupils, teachers and leaders of a school community.
Much later, in 1995/96, another evaluation study was undertaken for the MOE
by a team from the National Institute of Education (NIE). The brief was to evaluate
the impact of CME introduced to schools since 1992. The team began its work in
late 1995 and presented a report to the MOE in April 1996 (Singapore: MOE,
1996). The study sampled teachers, pupils and administrators from 15 primary and
secondary schools.
In June/July 1996, the writer visited five schools to interview their principals or
vice-principals, CME co-ordinators and teachers on their experience of teaching and
deploying staff members for CME in order to determine its status in each of the
school's programme. Although this was a very small sample, the interview data
served as a means of triangulating the 1995 evaluation data on the perceptions of
different role participants regarding CME.
Based of the available evaluation and empirical studies, some observations and
conclusions can be made about Singapore's experience with values education,
particularly citizenship education. A number of curriculum issues and policy impli-
cations relating to the conceptualisation, planning and classroom implementation of
values education in Singapore will be discussed first followed by some concluding
remarks.
Moral Education or Citizenship Education?
First, it will be noted that "moral education" as it has been practised in Singapore
is strongly influenced by a functionalist perspective from the top policy-making level
right down to the curriculum development level. As indicated earlier, the motives for
a compulsory formal moral education programme in Singapore schools are three-
fold: cultural, political and economic. Since the early 1960s, senior political leaders
have clearly articulated their rationale for a compulsory moral education subject. It
has always been linked to character building and the inculcation of civic conscious-
ness among the schooling population (Ang & Yeoh, 1990, p. 84).
In the last two decades of continuous experimentation with values education
there has been a noticeable sharpening of focus and, in fact, a restatement of
objectives. The names given to each subsequent curriculum package reveal its
changing character. From a failed Education for Living programme in the 1970s to
its successor, Good Citizen and Being and Becoming during the 1980s, pupils were
introduced to Civics and Moral Education and now will be exposed to National
Education.
Substantively, the treatment of themes in CME, as has been illustrated for some
units, shows a strong socio-centric emphasis (Chew, 1994, p. 162). Citizenship
socialisation, and much less, moral education, rides high in the curriculum agenda.
Admittedly, two modules deal with personal and social education, namely, The
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 519
Growing Me and Building Bonds. Moreover, the MOE has, since 1987, introduced
a formal pastoral care and career guidance structure for secondary and pre-univer-
sity pupils, with the view to providing a balanced curriculum in the school system.
However, there has been a definite reorientation towards citizenship training which
the government sees as being integral and fundamental for Singapore's continuing
economic success beyond the 1990s.
The latest mandate, that National Education be taken seriously as part of the
government's strategy "to develop instincts that become part of the psyche of every
child" ... "to engender a shared sense of nationhood, an understanding of how our
past is relevant to our present and future" (Mr Goh Chok Tong, quoted in
Singapore: MOE, 1997), is congruent with the government's adoption of a systems
thinking and planning approach in preparing Singaporeans for the nation's econ-
omic survival in the 21st century.
However, it may be pointed out that much of the likely content of the recently
conceptualised National Education may not be exactly new and may, in fact, be
identical to some of the materials in the existing CME textbooks. The political and
economic values that permeate CME modules on citizenship, community spirit and
unity in diversity are surely relevant to National Education. One of the findings of
the 1995/96 evaluation study was that CME was still in danger of being sidelined by
teachers and pupils in an examination-orientated school curriculum. Secondary
school principals, unlike their primary level counterparts, seemed less optimistic
about the efficacy of formal CME lessons for adolescent-age pupils. The fact that
some of them had delegated the monitoring of the CME programme to the
co-ordinator rather than be personally involved hinted at the role overload that they
faced as principals in an academically pressurising school system. The stark reality
is that schools and principals in Singapore are still largely judged by pupils'
performance in national examinations.
A renewed emphasis on citizenship training is understandable at this stage of
Singapore's development as a post-industrial economy. National Education is con-
ceptualised as meeting the requirement for re-energising Singaporeans for holding a
long-term outlook on economic success. The fact that top-ranking government
officials have been personally directing the planning for National Education is
indicative of the high profile intended for National Education. There is every
likelihood that once a revised CME programme is implemented by the year 2000,
teachers and principals will be closely supervised for the way they attempt to
integrate National Education values to subject teaching and learning.
Curriculum Planning and Delivery Issues
Micro-management of CME. To return to the question of how much influence
MOE curriculum specialist writers have had over content of the official textbooks,
it is apparent that, given the politically sensitive nature of much of the CME
syllabus, they worked according to the syllabus guidelines and schedule prepared by
the CPD. Politically and culturally sensitive topics were vetted closely by those
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

520 J. Chew Oon Ai
identified for this task. It was also their responsibility to train teachers and brief
principals on the intent and use of new curriculum packages.
What is very striking is the inordinate amount of attention given by the MOE
to the micro-management of the implementation process of CME at school level.
This could be due to two reasons, first as a response to the challenge of school level
policy implementation and, secondly, in anticipation of how teachers and secondary
pupils might react to module content that might be perceived as being contentious
and possibly controversial. For example, some CME units on cultural diversity of
Singapore society might be perceived as glossing over the complexities of the subject
at hand and present instead an over-simplistic picture of cultural or religious
phenomena, or a highly pragmatic account of political and social issues.
The content of most of the modules has been designed to instruct pupils on
civics and political topics. Curriculum writers are mindful that teachers mediate the
official CME texts. As such, they would have their own viewpoints and beliefs about
citizenship and moral issues. This was confirmed in an interview with a senior
member of the CME team who indicated that one of the concerns of specialist
writers was that secondary school teachers might not be equally committed to the
goal of political socialisation or be sufficiently familiar with the content of the new
CME syllabus. The CDIS team pre-empted this obstacle to some extent by
providing in-service training for certain units such as Responsibilities of Citizens
towards Laws and Responsibilities of Living in a Democracy, and units on Major
Systems of Beliefs in Singapore.
Teachers' engagement with CME. Are there any empirical data showing that some
teachers may be disenchanted or dissatisfied with the CME materials? Not really.
Instead, teachers and CME coordinators seem to have adopted a disturbingly
non-critical stance towards the content of the CME programme. A senior curricu-
lum officer bemoaned the fact that school practitioners were merely paying lip
service to CME rather than taking it seriously. It would be accurate to say that there
is little motivation, time or encouragement for teachers and CME coordinators to
debate about module contents or the pedagogical approaches advocated by CDIS.
It is apparent that each functionary has been caught up with the technical details of
delivering and learning how to cope with the new assessment modes for CME rather
than be concerned about working out ideological differences regarding CME topics.
Co-ordinators are expected to teach some CME classes, conduct meetings at least
twice a year, and report directly to the principal. They are not expected by the MOE
to help teachers to ventilate any dissatisfaction with the CME programme.
Interviews with principals, CME co-ordinators and teachers also gave the
impression that they were more ready to comment on the nuts and bolts of
implementing the subject than the content of CME. They were generally pleased
with the high level of resource support from CDIS. Only one of the five principals
interviewed by the writer felt that the approach used for developing CME was "too
cerebral with inadequate attention given to the affective dimension" of moral
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 521
education. Such a viewpoint is unlikely to be aired publicly. Teachers will be seen
as implementers, not critics of the mandated programme.
Conflicting educational policies. The multiple motives for making moral education
a compulsory subject have important ramifications for policy implementation, such
as the deployment of personnel and resource allocation at the school level. The
policy of using pupils' mother tongues at the primary level for values transmission
is a case in point. At secondary and pre-university level, English is the main medium
of instruction for CME, due partly to a shortage of mother-tongue teachers for
CME. The real picture is more complex than it appears to be. Even if it were
possible for the MOE to deploy more mother-tongue teachers to handle all the
moral education programmes, it would have run counter to the bilingual policy of
the education system and the policy of integrated schooling for pupils of different
ethnic backgrounds. The short stint with Religious Knowledge and Confucian
Ethics from 1985 to 1990 is instructive about the politics of curriculum policy
implementation and deserves elaboration.
When Islamic Religious Knowledge, Buddhist Studies, Hindu Studies, Sikh
Studies, Bible Knowledge and Confucian Ethics were offered as "O" level examin-
ation electives, pupils were given the option of being taught their chosen elective in
their mother tongue. Thus, those opting for Islamic Religious Knowledge, Bud-
dhism, Hinduism and Sikh Studies were taught the subject by a teacher with the
language competence to handle the subject syllabus and official textbooks. Confu-
cian Ethics was taught in either English or Chinese, and Bible Knowledge in
English. While such an arrangement met the requirements for using the mother
tongue for values instruction and teacher deployment, it had the unintended effect
of attenuating the ethnic segregation of pupils in secondary schools for this other
subject besides the teaching of the mother-tongues. The government's decision to
remove Religious Knowledge and Confucian Ethics in 1990 was motivated partly by
this realisation.
Conclusions
A discussion of the impact of the CME programme in Singapore schools would be
incomplete if the sociological context of schooling is ignored. Educational policy
makers in Singapore are only too aware that pupils and teachers treat the academic
curriculum as being more important than CME. This was borne out by recent data
and feedback from schools about CME. Teachers and pupils still ranked moral
education after academic and assessment goals in schooling, which is not surprising.
National examinations remain a key selection mechanism for identifying and stream-
ing pupils at the primary, secondary and post-secondary levels of schooling in
Singapore. They are likely to be retained as a valued sorting and sifting function in
the future years. This reality poses the most severe challenge for any values
education programme in Singapore and needs to be addressed by policy makers.
The writer's earlier research on moral education in a secondary school revealed
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

522 J. Chew Oon Ai
inherent tensions and dilemmas presented to pupils and teachers in the Singapore
school system (Chew, 1988). It provided ethnographic data of how secondary school
pupils attempted to deal with conflicting values arising from an earlier moral
education programme, Being and Becoming. That programme lauded co-operation
and group solidarity. At the same time, the school management system and a rigid
assessment mode encouraged a highly competitive ethos. Revisiting the sociology of
schooling and moral education in Singapore 9 years later leaves some nagging
doubts about whether schools have become more effective in helping highly aspiring
adolescent pupils to deal with the moral dilemma of whom to serve, the individual
"Self or the "common good". Increasingly, school leaders and teachers are ex-
pected to demonstrate their effectiveness in using improved educational resources to
produce highly skilled and trainable school leavers and citizens for the nation's
economic growth in the 21st century.
No citizenship education programme could be planned and implemented in a
social and political vacuum. The Singapore example of a state-sponsored values
education programme demonstrates the interwoven nature of schooling and the
larger society. A functionalist theoretical perspective of schooling is useful in
unveiling the interconnectedness of educational policies with political, economic,
social and cultural policies as these are interpreted and enacted at different institu-
tional levels. A school-based citizenship education programme that purports to teach
solely for children's personal and social development, without any attention given to
the economic, social and political context of the large society, would soon be
perceived as being irrelevant and dysfunctional by pupils, teachers, school adminis-
trators and parents. It would be especially difficult to justify such a model of values
education when the existing instructional programme is hinged to a centralised and
examination dominated assessment system.
Singapore's experimentation with its unique brand of values education serves to
underline the fact that there is no easy solution to curriculum planning and
implementation. There are too many stakeholders and participants in the arena who
will influence, willy nilly, the decision making process and determine how formal
programmes are implemented at the classroom level. The attempt to raise the status
of the subject by making it examinable has not solved the problem. At most, it has
had the effect of increasing the pressure on pupils and teachers to spend more time
on what is perceived as an interesting but relatively unimportant item in the school
programme.
Correspondence: Dr Joy Chew Oon Ai, Senior Lecturer, School of Education,
Nanyang Technological University, 469 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259756.
NOTES
[1] Singapore is an island republic with a land area of 641.4 km
2
and a multiethnic population of
slightly over 3 million. As an ex-British colony, it became a self-governing state in 1959 and an
independent republic in 1965. The country has been governed by a cohesive team of political
leaders in the People's Action Party (PAP) government since. After a successful industrialisation
programme launched in the early 1960s, the economy has continued to enjoy sustained growth.
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

Civics and Moral Education in Singapore 523
Manufacturing, financial and business services, commerce, transport and communication make up
the main sectors of the economy. The country enjoyed a per capita income of S828,252 in 1995.
[2] In 1996, the Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced a new provision for the teaching of
Minority Indian Languages (e.g. Gujerati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali) as a subject for children of
such language backgrounds. Language teachers for the minority Indian communities are
identified, recruited and paid for by the specific Indian communities. Classes are held outside of
the school curriculum hours, such as on Saturday afternoons.
[3] The Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS) was set up as a separate unit of the
Ministry of Education in June 1980 to develop curriculum and teaching materials. It worked in
unison with the Curriculum Planning Division to prepare new curricular materials which were
piloted and disseminated to primary and secondary schools. In December 1996, the two units were
combined to form the Curriculum Planning and Development Division.
[4] The 60^10% allocation of CME marks for group project work and tests designed for individual
work is an interesting departure from the more rigid assessment structure used for other examin-
ation subjects in Singapore schools. The Singapore-Cambridge "O" level subjects are examined
on the basis of individual work during written examinations. This departure for CME suggests its
unique status from the rest, perhaps indicating that it need not be so rigously examined since it is
designed for the transmission of values and attitudinal change.
[5] The principles of meritocracy and academic streaming at all levels of the school system are
observed and practised in Singapore. Pupils and schools are expected to work to high attainment
targets and are evaluated on the basis of academic achievement criteria and measurable indicators.
School ranking at the secondary and post-secondary levels serve a means of ensuring institutional
accountability to parents and prospective pupils. Pupils who demonstrate that they have mastered
the examined curriculum at different stages of the 10-year school system will be channelled into
the more prestigious curriculum tracks. The less academically inclined pupils are located in a less
demanding track beginning from the upper primary level to the secondary school level.
[6] In this paper, space does not permit a further analysis of how curricular themes have been
developed to convey political, economic and cultural values in the school texts. Readers who have
access to the CME textbooks would be able to draw out further examples of the selection and
presentation of contents.
[7] The Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools at the secondary school level are given the choice of
teaching CME in Chinese or English as they admit a largely homogeneous intake of Chinese
students who are offered English and Chinese languages which are taught at the first language
levels.
[8] Social studies is offered as one of the six lower secondary subjects in the Normal Technical stream
starting in 1994 instead of history. The latter was perceived by curriculum planners to be too
academic for a curriculum track designed for pupils who are believed to benefit from more
practical-type courses. Before 1994, social studies was only taught at the upper primary school
level.
[9] Curriculum writers are identified by the Ministry of Education from the pool of secondary and
junior college teachers and are provided with in-house training for curriculum development work
at the Curriculum Planning and Development Division. Some are sponsored for overseas training
in curriculum and instructional design.
[10] The religious organisations that were consulted in the curriculum preparation stage of the module
on Unity in Diversity included: Association for Confucian Studies, The Catholic Church of
Singapore, The Diocese of Singapore, Hindu Advisory Board, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura,
The Methodist Church in Singapore, National Council of Churches in Singapore, Sikh Advisory
Board, Singapore Buddhist Federation and Taoist Federation (Singapore).
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2

524 J. Chew Oon At
REFERENCES
ANG, W.H. & YEOH, O.C. (1990) Twenty-five years of curriculum development, in: J.S.K. YIP & W.K.
SIM (Eds) Evolution of Educational Excellence: 25 years of education in the Republic of Singapore,
pp. 81-105 (Singapore, Longman).
CHEW, J.O.A. (1988) Moral Education in a Singapore Secondary School. Unpublished PhD thesis,
Monash University.
CHEW, J.O.A. (1994) Schooling for Singaporeans: the interaction of Singapore culture and values in the
school, in: E. THOMAS (Ed.) International Perspectives on Culture and Schooling: a symposium
proceedings, pp. 143-164 (London, Institute of Education, University of London).
CUMMINGS, W., GOPINATHAN, S. & TOMODA, Y. (Eds) (1988) The Revival of Values Education in Asia
and the West (Oxford, Pergamon Press).
ENG, S.P. (1982) Status Report on the Good Citizen and Being and Becoming Moral Education Programmes
(Report submitted to the Ministry of Education), Singapore: Institute of Education.
ENG, S.P., CHEW, J. & LEE, C. (1985) Moral Education in Lower Secondary Classes (report submitted to
the Ministry of Education), Singapore: Institute of Education.
GOH, C.T. (1996) Prepare our children for the new century: teach them well (full text of the Prime
Minister's address at the Teachers' Day Rally, 8 September 1996 in The Straits Times, 9 September
1996).
GOH, C.T. (1997) Shaping our future: "thinking schools" and a "learning nation" (full text of the Prime
Minister's welcome speech at the 7th International Conference on Thinking held in Singapore from
1 to 6 June 1997).
GOPINATHAN, S. (1995) Religious education in a secular state: the Singapore experience, Asian Journal
of Political Science, 3, pp. 15-27.
LIM, S.T. & GOPINATHAN, S. (1990) 25 years of curriculum planning, in: J.S.K. YIP & W.K. SIM (Eds)
Evolution of Educational Excellence: 25 years of education in the Republic of Singapore, pp. 59-80
(Singapore, Longman).
QUAH, J.S.T. (1990) In Search of Singapore's National Values (Singapore, Times Academic Press for the
Institute of Policy Studies).
SINGAPORE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE (CDIS) (1984/85) Social and Econ-
omic History of Modern Singapore Book 1 and Book 2 (Singapore, CDIS).
SINGAPORE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE (CDIS) (1992) Civics and Moral
Education, secondary 3 series, 3B, teachers' guide (Singapore, CDIS).
SINGAPORE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE (CDIS) (1993a) Civics and Moral
Education, teachers' guide (secondary 1-5 series) (Singapore, CDIS).
SINGAPORE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF Singapore (CDIS) (1993b) Civics and Moral
Education, secondary 4 series, 4A, teachers' guide (Singapore, CDIS).
SINGAPORE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE (CDIS) (1995) Civics and Moral
Education (Secondary 1-5 series), teachers' guides, 1992-95 (Singapore, CDIS).
SINGAPORE: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (MOE) (1978) Report of the Ministry of Education, 1978, Singa-
pore.
SINGAPORE: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (MOE) (1996) Report of the Evaluation of Civics and Moral
Education (Prepared by the National Institute of Education, unpublished and restricted access
paper).
SINGAPORE: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (MOE) (1997) Launch of National Education (MOE press release
16 May 1997).
TAN, T.W. (1994) Moral education in Singapore: a critical appraisal, Journal of Moral Education, 23,
pp. 61-73.
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
C
o
r
p
o
r
a
c
i
o
n

C
I
N
C
E
L
]

a
t

0
7
:
5
5

3
0

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
1
2