Singapore vs Pakistan Education System Analysis by Sohail khan

Hello friends

In continuation of the education series, I'd like to analyze the education system of Singapore in this article
A country, which is always viewed at the top, whenever we talk about education.

Come, let us see
20% of what the Singaporean government spends on various things.
20% of the government expenditure is spent only on education
The direct effect of this is visible in a lot of things.
The first is the school infrastructure- the kind of schools that have been built and the facilities that are present
Another is the student-teacher ratio
The student-teacher ratio in Pakistan is around 70 to 30
that is, for every 70-30 students, there is 1 teacher
In some states, like Kasur and Multan, this figure crosses 90
In Singapore, the same ratio lies between 10-15

Singapore vs Pakistan Education System Analysis by Sohail khan

The effect of this is also perceptible on the students' capabilities. For example, PISA
that is Programme for International Student Assessment rankings.
PISA test is a test that is conducted for students in different countries across the world.
IT judges them on subjects like Maths, Science, and Reading
to gauge the performance of the students, and then later, rankings are calculated.
to find out that the students of which country are the best in these subjects
and are the most intelligent and most knowledgeable
Singapore is almost always seen at the top in the PISA test rankings almost every year
It is seen on the Number 1 or the Number 2 rank
Talking about Pakistan, Pakistan last attempted this test in 2009
and Pakistan rank was second last out of 73 countries in 2009
which tells us how good Pakistani students are in Maths and Science
But there was a lot of controversy in this test
And ever since, Pakistan did not participate in this test in 2012 and 2015
But despite all this,
Singapore education is similar to Pakistan education in some aspects.

You must have heard these in your homes
that if you do not study then you might grow up to become a sweeper.
So the culture around education in Singapore is greatly similar to the Pakistani culture
There is a lot of pressure from the parents there as well

Singapore vs Pakistan Education System Analysis by Sohail khan

Tuitions are extremely common.
A newspaper conducted a poll in 2008 which found that 97% of the students studying in Singapore
attend tuitions of some of the other kind
Along with this, it is extremely common for schools to give tremendous amounts of homework.
unlike many European countries like Germany, Finland
A lot of homework is not given in these countries
The students are not pressurized to this extent
In Singapore, marks are given a lot of importance as well- just like in Pakistan
One interesting fact is that Singapore has compulsory education
Every Singaporean citizen born after 1st January 1996 has to compulsorily attend school
and if he does not do so, then it would be a criminal offense for his parents

Talking about the actual system, then class 1 to class 6 in primary school
At the end of class 6, the students have to appear for a Primary School Leaving Exam, that is, PSLE
Based on the results of this exam, the students are divided into three streams from class 7-
Express Stream, Normal Academic Stream, and Normal Technical Stream
Express Stream is the stream of the highest level
The students that perform well in the PSLE would be assigned the Express stream
The others would get Normal Academic
and the ones that did not perform well would be assigned the Normal Technical
If you remember, this is very similar to the German Education system
After the fourth class, the students in Germany get the option of going to three schools
One of them is Realschule, another is Gymnasium, and then there's Hauptschule
Keeping in mind the student's ability, they are suggested that they should choose one of the three schools
Just like in Germany, if a student secures good grades in the normal stream,
during secondary school, then they can upgrade to the Express Stream
At the end of the 10th class, the students of Express Stream appear in an O level exam
after which they are promoted to 11th and 12th (which is called the junior college)
and then later, they can attend the universities
But the students of the Normal Stream cannot do this
At the end of the 10th class, they appear for an N level exam
After they appear for the N level exam then it becomes next to impossible to attend universities
They can attend a polytechnic or an art institution after this
or they can attend the Institute of Technical Education
which is a vocational training institute for vocational education
A question might arise in your mind that why
are the students divided into separate streams in class 6th itself in the Singaporean and German education system
What is the purpose behind this?
Singapore introduced this system in the 1980s
There was a problem of high dropout rates in schools
The students were dropping out of schools because they found education quite difficult
They were unable to keep up with the studies
After that, the government introduced a system under which, if you are good in studies
then you can opt for the express stream and the studies would remain as difficult and as challenging
and if you are not so good at studies then you can opt for the lower normal streams
and you would be taught according to your level there
The basic reason is that every student has a different learning speed and has different needs
But the introduction of this new system led to the creation of a new type of problems.