Singapore boasts a highly competitive and well-regarded primary and secondary education system, but the number of Singaporeans completing a tertiary education is relatively low. Only 23 percent of Singaporean students entering primary school complete a degree at a local four-year university. In other knowledge-economies such as Japan's, around 50 percent of students complete a university degree. However, according to Cheryl Chan, Assistant Director of the Planning Division at the Ministry of Education (MOE), the government does not plan to encourage more students to get a higher education. The university enrollment rate will continue to be maintained at 20-25 percent because the Singaporean labor market does not need everyone to get a four-year degree, she asserted.
Ever thinking strategically, Singapore's leadership will keep pushing innovation in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing Asia. To its credit, the government appears to recognize that its own penchant for control -- however enlightened its policy choices or soft its authoritarian touch -- may be at odds with the kind of free-wheeling atmosphere it needs to achieve its economic objectives.
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