The pernicious effects of inequality is maintained by our education system in at least three ways:
Private tuition. Our education process is structured in such a way that private tuition has become a necessity. This means that students from poor family backgrounds who are unable to afford such expensive tutoring are disadvantaged. As a consequence, they perform less well in exams and are placed in lower-ranked streams.
Instead of giving them a leg up, our education system puts those already at a disadvantage further down the totem pole. It is not surprising that academic failure and school drop-out rates rise dramatically among needy families. This creates a culture of poverty, perpetuating the vicious cycle.
Elite schools. Many of our elite schools are located in wealthier residential districts, making it more difficult for lower-income families to register their children in such schools. While nearly 90 percent of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, only 40 percent attend top-ranking, elite primary schools.
Of course, the government denies elite schools get better treatment. PM Lee Hsien Loong said: “I believe we can make every school a good school and we have done a lot of that to ensure that every school provides a good education for the students."
This view was challenged by Jurong West Secondary School's Vice-Principal Pushparani Nadarajah: "How many of our leaders and top officers who say that every school is a good school put their children in ordinary schools near their homes? Until they do so, parents are not going to buy it." The comment was met with applause from an audience of teachers and principals.
Pre-school. Rich parents pay in excess of $20,000 a year for their children to attend top private kindergartens in preparation for primary school whereas poorer children skip pre-school altogether because their parents can’t afford it. When a child enters Primary 1, she is expected to possess basic literacy and numeracy skills. This puts poorer children at a distinct handicap.
The Government does not provide a nation-wide pre-school programme. In fact, the Starting Well Index, compiled by the Economic Intelligence Unit which measures the availability, affordability and quality of early childhood education, ranked Singapore a dismal 29th out of 45 countries in 2012.
