Ministry of Education (Singapore)

The Ministry of Education (Abbreviation: MOE; Malay: Kementerian Pendidikan; Chinese: 教育部; Tamil: கல்வி அமைச்சு) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore that directs the formulation and implementation of policies related to Education in Singapore. It is currently headed by Minister Ong Ye Kung who oversees education from Primary 1 to tertiary institutions.

Ministry of Education
Logo of the MOE
Agency overview
Formed7 April 1955 (1955-04-07)
JurisdictionGovernment of Singapore
Headquarters1 North Buona Vista Drive, Singapore 138675
Employees62,964[1]
Annual budget 13.20 billion (est) SGD (2019) [2]
Ministers responsible
Agency executives
  • Lai Chung Han, Permanent Secretary
  • Lai Wei Lin, 2nd Permanent Secretary
  • Wong Siew Hoong, Director-General of Education
  • Melissa Khoo, Deputy Secretary (Policy)
  • Lim Boon Wee, Deputy Secretary (Services) / Group Director HR
  • Ng Cher Pong, Deputy Secretary (SkillsFuture) / Chief Executive, SkillsFuture Singapore
  • Chua-Lim Yen Ching, Deputy Director-General of Education (Professional Development) and Executive Director, Academy of Singapore Teachers
  • Liew Wei Li, Deputy Director-General of Education (Schools) and Director of Schools
  • Sng Chern Wei, Deputy Director-General of Education (Curriculum)
Child agencies
Websitewww.moe.gov.sg
Ministry of Education headquarters at Buona Vista
Stakeholders and initiatives chart for SkillsFuture.

Budget

The Government of Singapore invests heavily in education to equip citizens with the necessary knowledge and skills to compete in the global marketplace.[3] Singapore currently spends around 1/5 of its national budget on education.[4] To boost its economic standing, the Government of Singapore created a mandate that most Singaporeans learn English. As a result, the country rose from one of the most impoverished Asian countries to one with the strongest economies and highest standards of living.[5]

Statutory boards

The ministry currently oversees 10 statutory boards:

In 2016, a new statutory board under the Ministry of Education (MOE), SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), was formed to drive and coordinate the implementation of SkillsFuture. It took over some of the functions currently performed by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and absorbed the Committee for Private Education (CPE).


SkillsFuture

The SkillsFuture initiative was introduced in 2015 to support Singapore’s next stage of economic advancement by providing lifelong learning and skills development opportunities for Singaporeans.[6] SkillsFuture aims at unlocking the full potential of all Singaporeans, regardless of background and industry.[7] The program contains several key initiatives, such as SkillsFuture Credit and SkillsFuture Earn and Learn. SkillsFuture caters to many stakeholders, with initiatives centred on students, adult learners, employers, and training providers.[8] In general, SkillsFuture involves a broad array of policy instruments targeting a wider range of beneficiaries over a longer-term horizon – schooling years, early career, mid-career or silver years – with a variety of resources available to help them attain mastery of skills.[9]

Every Singapore citizen from the age of 25 is given S$500 (approximately $370) by the Singapore government for the SkillsFuture Credit to invest in their personal learning.[10] This sum can be used for continuing education courses in local tertiary institutions, as well as short courses provided by MOOC providers such as Udemy, Coursera, and edX.

By the end of 2017, the SkillsFuture Credit has been utilised by over 285,000 Singaporeans.[11] There were more than 18,000 SkillsFuture credit-approved courses available at that time.[12] As of 2016, there were also a total of 40 Earn and Learn Programmes.[13]

SkillsFuture has established a multi-level training system with dozens of initiatives and programs targeting the different skill-training needs of different social groups, such as students and employees in different career stages. Moreover, SkillsFuture also invests in forms of industry collaboration to uplift the broad base of private companies, and strengthen collaboration between training institutions, unions, trade associations, and employers to develop the skills of the Singaporean workforce.[14] In terms of funding, according to the Singaporean government budget report, a provision of $220 million has been made for SSG in the fiscal year 2018 to implement plans, policies and strategies to support skills development programs under SkillsFuture.[15]

Autonomous Universities

There are six autonomous universities in Singapore.[16][17]

Unions

Civil servants employed by the Ministry of Education are organised into several Unions, including the Singapore Teachers' Union, Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union, Singapore Malay Teachers' Union and Singapore Tamil Teachers' Union for Education Officers; and the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees for the non-Education Officers. All these unions are affiliates of the National Trades Union Congress.

Minister for Education
Years in Office Minister Political Party
1955 – 1959Chew Swee KeeLabour Front
March 1959 – June 1959Lim Yew HockSingapore People's Alliance
1959 – 1963Yong Nyuk Lin People's Action Party
1963 –1970Ong Pang Boon
1972 – 1975Lee Chiaw Meng
1975 - 1975Toh Chin Chye
1975 – 1979Chua Sian Chin
1979 – 1984Goh Keng Swee
1985 – 1992Tony Tan
1992 – 1997Lee Yock Suan
1997 – 2003Teo Chee Hean
2003 – 2008Tharman Shanmugaratnam
2008 – 2011Ng Eng Hen
2011 – 2015Heng Swee Keat
2015 – 2018Ng Chee Meng (Schools)
Ong Ye Kung
(Higher Education and Skills)
2018–presentOng Ye Kung

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA License statement: Lifelong Learning in Transformation: Promising Practices in Southeast Asia, 1-62, Yorozu, Rika, UNESCO. UNESCO. To learn how to add open license text to Wikipedia articles, please see this how-to page. For information on reusing text from Wikipedia, please see the terms of use.

References
  1. https://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/docs/default-source/budget_2019/download/pdf/27-MOE-2019.pdf
  2. https://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/docs/default-source/budget_2019/download/pdf/27-MOE-2019.pdf
  3. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in Transformation: Promising practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). UNESCO. No. 4: 16 – via UNESCO.
  4. Mara, Wil (2016). Singapore. New York: Scholastic. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-531-23297-2.
  5. Mara, Wil (2016). Singapore. New York: Scholastic. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-531-23297-2.
  6. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in Transformation: Promising practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). UNESCO. No. 4: 50 – via UNESCO.
  7. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in Transformation: Promising Practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). Uil Publications Series on Lifelong Learning Policies and Strategies. No.4: 17 – via UNESCO.
  8. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in Transformation: Promising Practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). Uil Publications Series on Lifelong Learning Policies and Strategies. No.4: 17 – via UNESCO.
  9. Woo, J. J. (15 August 2017). "Educating the developmental state: policy integration and mechanism redesign in Singapore's SkillsFuture scheme". Journal of Asian Public Policy. 11 (3): 267–284. doi:10.1080/17516234.2017.1368616.
  10. Seow, Joanna (19 May 2017). "The ST Guide To... Using your SkillsFuture Credit". The Straits Times. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  11. Seow, Joanna (1 February 2018). "285,000 Singaporeans have used SkillsFuture Credit, with more doing so in 2017". The Straits Times. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  12. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in transformation: Promising practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). UNESCO. No. 4: 52 – via UNESCO.
  13. Yorozu, Rika (2017). "Lifelong Learning in transformation: Promising practices in Southeast Asia" (PDF). UNESCO. No. 4: 52 – via UNESCO.
  14. "ANNEX A-2 SUMMARY OF SKILLSFUTURE INITIATIVES" (PDF). 22 June 2019.
  15. "Head K: Ministry of Education – Budget 2019" (PDF). 22 June 2019.
  16. Times, The Straits (3 March 2015). "How Singapore's six public universities differ". The Straits Times. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  17. "Post-secondary". Ministry of Education, Singapore. Ministry of Education, Singapore. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
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