Education in Singapore

    My field lab for Cognitive Psychology was today, and the class went to the National Institute for Education of Singapore.  This is the university where students go to school for teaching.  We were shown powerpoint presentations and given time to talk to students of the program.  Heather and I had great conversation with two of the girls, who we got contact information for.

          Education in Singapore is very successful and different from that in the states.  You do not start Primary school until you are 7, but there are still preschools for kids to go to.  When they learn to read at 7, in about two years they are the same reading level of students in the States that started reading at 4 or 5.  In Singapore, the age at which students are ready to tackle certain things, like reading, is very important. 

          After six years of schooling, some students can go into secondary school for four-five years.  Depending on how they do in these classes, they will either go onto polytechnic school for a diploma, or junior college for a GCEA.  I don’t know what that stands for, but it holds more prestige than a diploma.  If you have done really well, you can then go onto university for your bachelor’s degree of 3-4 years. 

          Although the teachers are a huge part of why students do better in Singapore, the teachers say that most of it is the children’s doing.  Unlike in the US, the children have the ability to sit down and do their work.  They do not fight doing homework, but welcome it.  They are much more hardworking, and with a very involved family that comes with Asian culture, it is easy to get their work done.  There is a very low prevalence of ADHD and other behavior disorders in Singapore when compared to America.

          After learning a little about the education program in Singapore, we brought the students back to the ship to tell them about our education.  Our professor mostly just gave information on Semester at Sea; one student spoke about what life was like on the ship.  The students were then split into groups and given tours of the ship.
       
        I have been emailing a girl, Esther, who I met at the NIE.  She told me that they loved to see what the ship was like, and we have continued to talk about the differences between the States and Singapore!  Attached is the picture of the SAS students with the NIE students; Esther is the girl on the far left of the picture.  She is in her last year of schooling at the NIE and plans to teach Family and Consumer Sciences!

Some Facts about Singapore

        Singapore is very similar and different from the US.  They have a parliamentary system, but the same party has been in power for 50 years.  Their laws are very strict.  You cannot chew gum at all.  Drugs are obviously very illegal.  There are a lot of heavy fines for things like littering and chewing gum, smoking in public, or eating and drinking on the metro.  If you are caught with drugs on you, it is capital punishment, or death by hanging.  Other offences can land you with time in prison and a certain number of canings.  You normally get one caning for every month that you are in jail.  They hit you so hard that they have to wrap your kidneys so they don’t rupture.  It is a good way to keep people from breaking the law.

          The infrastructure of Singapore is very advanced, because of the amount of money the government makes off of cars.  The tax on importing cars is 120%.  A 1.6 liter Toyota that costs about 25,000 with all of the extras in America, would cost 100,000 dollars.  You also have to pay a road tax of $900 a year, and when you get your car, you have to buy a ten year license for anywhere from 60,000 to 90,000 dollars.  Once that one is up, you have to get rid of your car and buy a new one.  Another big expense is on landscape maintenance.  The whole island is a garden basically.  On the road, you see a tree every 20 feet.  Every tree is fertilized and cared for.  To keep it looking nice, the electrical wires are kept underground.  It’s not just trees that they have either.  There are bushes to hide the guard rails, and flowers are everywhere.  We were told that it costs about 40million a year to maintain the landscape.

Shopping - Singapore

        After little India, we went to Orchard street, which is a mall that is known for the shopping.  All of the malls there are very nice.  I walked in wearing a tshirt and leggings, and I felt so out of place!  Everyone was dressed in fancy clothes, and the bathrooms were some of the nicest I had ever seen.  We went into the basement where the food court was and stopped at a Gelato place.  I got a giant cone with a scoop of vanilla gelato and a scoop called Dark Rocher.  It was dark chocolate gelato with pieces of Fererro Rocher candies in it!  It was so delicious. 

          At this point, we realized we were late for our meeting with Jessica.  We had plans to meet her at the Singapore Flyer when she was finished with her field lab.  We arrived about half an hour late, but she was nowhere to be found.  It looked like it was going to rain, so we got a seat under a veranda near one of the ticket booths.  It costs 33 dollars to ride the Ferris Wheel, and it is a half hour long ride.  Heather and I decided not to ride it, because we didn’t want to miss Jessica.  Once an hour had passed, we gave up hope of finding her.

          We decided to eat at a sports bar in the bottom of the ferris wheel.  It was called O’Leary’s, and they were obsessed with the Boston Celtics.  Their walls were completely covered with things from the Celtics, along with the occasional New England Patriots banner.  I ordered a vegetarian Panini; it had different grilled vegetables on it with melted cheese!  It was a much better choice than  a burger.   That’s saying something coming from me.

          After that Heather and I headed back to the Orchard mall to really shop.  It was pretty late so we did not expect anything to be open. We stayed there for about an hour, and then headed back to the ship terminal to take advantage of the free wifi.

More Beach Resorts and Little India - Singapore

        One of the first things that we wanted to get done today was our project for Marine Biology.  Heather and I needed to go to a beach and collect data on the trash that we found there.  When we were waiting for a bus, we met a guy from SAS, named Ben, who was going to the same place we were, so we stuck with him.  It took a little bit to figure out the subway stations, but once we did, it was so easy to use.  After about a half hour ride, we got to this mall, called Harbour Front, and Heather and I walked around a little bit before we finally made our way to the beach.  The mall was huge and very complicated.  We had to get directions multiple times to get to the metro that would take us to Sentosa World Resort.  It probably took just an hour to find the place.  We paid for our round trip ticket, and got off at Beach Station.  Heather liked the name of Palawan Beach so that is where we went.

          The beach was made mostly for children, with playthings everywhere.  They even had a life-size Shoots and Ladders board!  Because of the strict laws in Singapore, it was a very clean beach.  We walked on the beach and were able to find debris that had washed ashore from the ocean.  This took about an hour, and when we finally finished we decided to go to Little India.

          The buildings of Little India were very brightly colored, which is not something that we commonly see in America.  We met an ex army man in there, who told us that if we needed any help we could just come find him.  We told him we were from Canada and learned that he has been to Toronto many times.  He said the people of Canada are very nice.  We tell people that we are from Canada, because then they don’t bother us.