Learning Marketplace, The: East Meets West In Singapore

East Meets West in Singapore

Prem Kumar

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9789814452694
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Scienza generale

In Asia, we are witnessing an era where the pendulum of power seems to be swaying towards the East with the rising strength of China and India and Singapore is at the 'crossroads' between these populous nations. Although Singapore may appear to be the most westernized country in Asia, she is nevertheless a multi-cultural Asian society. Having the most open economy in the world, Singapore is plugged into the global marketplace of education and learning. The development of human capital is used as a strategic economic driver to internationalize and transform education for sustainable competitive advantage. Singapore's education system, regarded as one of the consistently best performing in the world, offers a unique opportunity to explore issues where eastern and western culture, values, beliefs, learning and knowledge systems converge, clash, and at times diverge.

This book is meant to extend our knowledge on the role of ‘learning’, often overlooked and taken for granted as the air that we breathe but which constantly transforms our lives and reshapes societies. It is the first book that deals with the dichotomy of ‘east’ and ‘west’ going beyond the traditional learning and education framework to other areas such as economic, socio-cultural, political, and technological dimensions that impact Singapore. It puts together key topical issues and explores the underbelly of how a small 'resourceless' independent city-state like Singapore stays ahead of the learning curve, even while facing increasingly intense global competition where the discovery and emergence of new systems for empowerment and independence and the resulting creation of new knowledge and modes of communication are challenging traditional boundaries between the virtual and real world.

In Asia, we are witnessing an era where the pendulum of power seems to be swaying towards the East with the rising strength of China and India and Singapore is at the 'crossroads' between these populous nations. Although Singapore may appear to be the most westernized country in Asia, she is nevertheless a multi-cultural Asian society. Having the most open economy in the world, Singapore is plugged into the global marketplace of education and learning. The development of human capital is used as a strategic economic driver to internationalize and transform education for sustainable competitive advantage. Singapore's education system, regarded as one of the consistently best performing in the world, offers a unique opportunity to explore issues where eastern and western culture, values, beliefs, learning and knowledge systems converge, clash, and at times diverge.

This book is meant to extend our knowledge on the role of ‘learning’, often overlooked and taken for granted as the air that we breathe but which constantly transforms our lives and reshapes societies. It is the first book that deals with the dichotomy of ‘east’ and ‘west’ going beyond the traditional learning and education framework to other areas such as economic, socio-cultural, political, and technological dimensions that impact Singapore. It puts together key topical issues and explores the underbelly of how a small 'resourceless' independent city-state like Singapore stays ahead of the learning curve, even while facing increasingly intense global competition where the discovery and emergence of new systems for empowerment and independence and the resulting creation of new knowledge and modes of communication are challenging traditional boundaries between the virtual and real world.

Readership: Universities, business schools and public and private institutions conducting executive programs, libraries, private and public sector organisations, individuals, consultants, researchers, HRD/HRM directors/managers, teachers, policy-makers, etc.
Key Features:

• New and original edition on educational and learning that puts together topical issues as seen from both the East and West perspectives in the context of Singapore
• Serves as a reference in understanding the why, what and how educational policies and practice converge

Chapter 1

A LEARNING STATE?

Small nation states like Singapore with only a limited land mass and air space depend on their human and lifelong learning systems for continued success and sustainability. Some, who may not be familiar with Singapore’s location, tend to view her as part of China or situated in the Chinese archipelago. This could be due in part to the fact that the Chinese comprise about 74 per cent of the resident population compared to the Malays at 13 per cent and Indians 9.2 per cent.¹

Small nations have a number of defining characteristics such as, a population of less than 10 million; a legally constituted territory; a functioning social-cultural system; and the power to manage their internal affairs — apart from this there are other features such as their degree of political freedom, per capita income and wealth levels; international connectedness; and the extent to which the local economy is linked to the global economic network.² Although there may not be absolute agreement on what constitutes a small state, general consensus indicates the performance of small states however, tends to be associated with their location, the availability of natural resources, their governance system — of policies, institutions and politics, and the extent to which their economy is integrated with the global system of trade and commerce. Some of these states could offer insights and inspiration in the way they have responded to the world’s pressing problems in the areas of education, governance, health and environment, among others. An example of one such state that stands out as a model of transformation is the island state of Singapore. A recent book by William Haseltine entitled Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story shares how Singapore has developed her healthcare system to achieve high quality care but spending only about 4 per cent of GDP on health care.^3,4 She is also the world’s sixth best country to be born in (based on determinants such as an individual’s quality of life — on material well-being, life expectancy at birth, quality of family life (includes divorce rates) compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.⁵ In relation to other social development indicators, Singapore’s progress since 1965 improved significantly. Infant mortality rate that was above 26 per 1000 live births in 1965 dropped to 2.5 in 2006, among the lowest in the world. Over the same period the proportion of people living in and owning publicly provided housing units increased from 4 per cent to 85 per cent, the adult literacy rate improved from 73 per cent to 95 per cent, the labour force with secondary education went up from 14 per cent to 50 per cent, the labour force with tertiary education went up from 2 per cent to 35 per cent and life expectancy at birth improved from 66 to 80 years.⁶ And the world’s largest healthcare training facility housing laboratories and conference facilities in a single 13-storey building named Academia was officially opened in July 2013 at a cost of S$360 million. The building is expected to be the hub for diagnostic, education and research serving as an incubator for biomedical breakthroughs and care innovations.⁷

An infamous episode that perhaps illustrates conflicting ideological-governance systems and one that attracted the attention of the Western media was on the caning of Michael Fay, an American, who was the first Caucasian charged with vandalism and other related offences in Singapore in 1994. He was sentenced to four months’ jail, a fine of S$3,500 and six strokes of the cane. The powerful US media got involved and then President of the United States Bill Clinton interceded by requesting for Fay to be pardoned. The Government accommodated President Clinton’s appeal by reducing the six strokes to four without compromising on Singapore’s laws and principles. The Western press and media saw this as a conflict of civilisations, of Asian values espousing discipline and order and the Western liberal culture of freedom and respect for human rights.⁸ Learning in the Marketplace also requires countries large and small to find creative ways to untangle complex historical and emerging tensions through dialogue — respecting international norms, laws and agreements rather than trading these for war.

Singapore’s land area increased from 578.1 sq km in 1819 to 581.5 sq km in 1965.⁹ With land reclamation, it is now (as in 2012) at 715.8¹ square kilometres (ranked between the Federated States of Micronesia [700 sq km] and Tonga [720 sq km] in terms of size).¹⁰ It enjoys tropical weather all year round — it either rains and/or shines with temperatures in the range of approximately 25 to 35 degrees centigrade with high humidity. Lilliputian in size, Singapore is an independent State and both a city and a country — a pin-head on the world map, hardly recognisable (physically insignificant) but the second most densely populated country in the world based on population per sq km.¹¹ It is easy to give it a miss, unless there is a reason to explicitly search for it. The State and the way the governance system is organized and designed is an important institution in shaping the behaviours and development of its’ citizens. It is therefore, important to understand the contextual and evolving nature of a society in ways that the market place is being shaped by the historical, cultural, social, economic, political, technological and religious dimensions and vice versa. A dynamic State in the case of Singapore is one that is constantly in a state of continuous learning, adapting to changes in the marketplace. Singapore itself is an experiment in social engineering — a nation that is continuously challenging providence — finding ways to develop and influence its only resource — people, where almost everything else is limited or imported. Nations grapple with ways on how they can provide opportunities to their people to realise their full potential, improve their living standards, and for some to stay ahead in a marketplace of rapid change, innovation and complexity brought about by globalisation and technology. Singapore has managed to stay ahead in the race and is a hub for both the East and West to meet, learn, collaborate, innovate and do business. In this and following chapters we explore the distinctive characteristics of Singapore and highlight some of the issues and her unique way of developing responses where East and West paradigms have intersected, that may be reflective of a ‘learning state’.

Singapore’s Raison D’être

Singapore is the only country in Asia that has experienced the anthems of ‘God Save the King’, ‘Kimigayo’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Negara Ku’ and finally her very own ‘Majulah Singapura’. It began as a trading post to further the commercial interest of the British Empire influencing immigrants from mainly China, India and Malay Archipelago to come to Singapore. Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819 and discovered her value proposition as a trading hub (with a deep harbour and strategic location) for traders from the East and West to meet, trade and build social networks. She experienced colonisation for close to 140 years by the British, the ravages of war from the Japanese occupation, an uncomfortable partnership from being a state of Malaysia, to finally gaining independence unexpectedly in 1965. Perhaps it is her unique way of doing things and her achievements that capture attention of those who admire the country, as well as detractors who find certain aspects of her not to their liking, for example her views and application of laws on freedom of speech; distinction between political and religious affiliations; management of racial and religious harmony; media control; and others.

Her odds of economic survival when she was expelled unexpectedly from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 were slim. Hardly anyone would have ventured to place their ‘bets’ on her survivability. Singapore had been under colonial rule until the Japanese occupied Singapore in World War II from 1942 to 1945. After the end of the war, Singapore returned to British rule. Two key advances in history laid the foundation to Singapore’s status as a free trading port. One was when the Europeans discovered the maritime route to the East via the Straits of Malacca — they needed a thriving port of call facilitating commerce between Europe and the Orient. The other was the impact of the Industrial Revolution, when Britain became the leading trading nation in the world that spurred industrialisation during the 18^th century, espousing the principles of free trade or laissez-faire for the world.¹²

A Colony

The key actors who played an important part in the development of early education in Singapore were the merchants, missionaries and “mandarin” officials during the colonial period. The language of instruction in vernacular languages mirrored the population profile, which were Chinese dialects, Malay, Tamil and English. The Christian Missions established both English–medium and vernacular schools, while the rich Chinese merchants supported Chinese education. The British provisions on the use of English language in schools were restricted to the aristocracy while the others were in the Malay language. British educational policy was incoherent, with outcomes that widened social gaps. Before World War II the Chinese schools had the highest proportion of students with 38,000 compared to 27,000 pupils in English schools, 5,800 pupils in Malay schools and 1,000 in Tamil schools, respectively.¹³ Since the British supported and recognised only British education, the vernacular schools on the other hand had to rely on their ‘motherland’ culture and values — the Chinese textbooks from China or Taiwan; and Tamil textbooks from India.¹² Forging a national identity became a challenge given that they were still ‘attached’ to their respective ancestral homeland.

The English origins of the idea of trusteeship were adhered by Sir Stamford Raffles and became internationalised after World War I and the League of Nations. Raffles “believed in educating the élite who would then spread the benefit around, the diffusion principle being one of the tenets of education in his time and even long afterwards. But Raffles also showed himself to be very much a man of this time in another way. This is seen in his inclusion of merchants’ sons as well as the sons of royalty among the élite to be educated” (pg. 25).¹³ After World War II, the Colonial Office established in 1947 a Commission of Enquiry headed by Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science to study the issue of merging two existing institutions, i.e. Raffles College and Medical College. The Commission amongst other things recommended the setting up of The University of Malaya which was founded on 8 October 1949. There was opposition to this since 43 years that the Medical College had been in existence, no local person was appointed to the eleven chairs, which were all held by British professors. There were tensions within the University of Malaya relating to academic freedom and the setting up of an Economics department, and between the senior members of the expatriate staff who were Europeans and the junior members who were local graduates. This resulted in a Commission of Enquiry in 1957 which was chaired by Dr R.S. Aitken, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham (also referred to as the Aitken Commission) and it revealed that the local University staff wanted more of their members to be recruited while the expatriate members were feeling insecure of their positions and ‘had not always been sensitive to the aspirations of the community in which they worked, a community “self-consciously emerging from ‘colonialism’ into independence”’ (pg. 30).¹³

The access to higher education was then available only to students from the English stream and not for the Chinese stream schools. This naturally led to the view of the colonial office as being biased and practicing double standards. As Edwin Lee notes “the professors were absorbed in the improbable exercise of trying to fashion an English-style university in the tropics, and resorted to labelling the periods of the academic year as Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity Terms...and most important of all, the Aitken Commission saw the failure of the university to admit Chinese Middle School students as a major inducement to the Chinese community, led by prominent towkay (business owner), to establish a Chinese university. In fact, the opening of the Nanyang University in 1956 marked the crowning point of the dual system of education, English and vernacular, that had developed in Singapore under the divisive impact of British rule” (pg. 30–31).¹³ The British gave Singapore the governance framework that she could develop further — the rule of law, principles and values of effective administration, including the game of soccer in 1889. Hence, we find the English Premier League is widely popular and has a large following of fans in Singapore and Asia to this day. The role of sports that originated in the West impacted social and cultural change in this part of the world. For example, the game of cricket took root in South Asia, and in some countries it was soccer or rugby.

Being Independent

Independence was thrust upon Singapore in August 1965. Mr Lee Kuan Yew with his team, is widely recognised as having shaped Singapore’s modern history and frequently referred to as the country’s founding father, shared his thoughts in the book on ‘The Singapore Story’¹⁴ when Singapore was expelled as one of the states of Malaysia.

We were in a daze, not yet adjusted to the new realities and fearful of the imponderables ahead. We faced a bleak future. Singapore and Malaya, joined by causeway across the Straits of Johor, had always been governed as one territory by the British. Malaya was Singapore’s hinterland… Now we were on our own, and the Malaysian government was out to teach us a lesson for being difficult, and for not complying with their norms and practices and fitting into their set-up. We could expect them to cut us off from our role as their traditional outlet for imports and exports and as the provider of many other services. In a world of new nation states, all pursuing nationalistic economic policies, all wanting to do everything themselves and to deal directly with their principal buyers and sellers in Europe, America or Japan, how was Singapore going to survive without its hinterland? Indeed, how were we to live? Even our water came from the neighbouring Malaysian state of Johor.

Singapore had independence thrust upon it. Some 45 British colonies had held colourful ceremonies to formalise and celebrate the transfer of sovereign power from imperial Britain to their indigenous governments. For Singapore, 9 August 1965 was no ceremonial occasion … How were we to create a nation out of a polyglot collection of migrants from China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and several other parts of Asia? … Meanwhile, not only did the entrepot trade on which Singapore had depended ever since it was founded in 1819 face a doubtful future, but our strategic value to Britain in holding the empire together was vanishing as the empire dissolved. Singapore’s economy would be hard hit by any sudden scaling down of the British presence. British defence spending in Singapore acc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• About the Book
• Foreword
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 A Learning State?
• Chapter 2 Cultural Neuroscience in Learning
• Chapter 3 The Business of Learning
• Chapter 4 Switching between Cultures
• Chapter 5 Wireless Learning: A New Frontier?
• Chapter 6 The East–West Learning Matrix
• Chapter 7 Theories and Discourses
• Notes and Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Index