It's no great revelation to say that Singaporeans are encouraged to aspire to high educational achievement. Some would go further to draw a parallel between the strongly tiered school system and society & government. But I digress. It is Government Policy for English-medium eduction as a means to foster multi-culturalism (everyone must learn a 'foreign' language) and global competitiveness.
My favourite local education establishment is a branch of the Carpe Diem pre-schools chain. Pre-schools are big business here. the Ministry of Education (MoE) provides a list of Pre-Schools and as of 1st Oct 2006, it lists 488 registered schools:
439 have Chinese tuition, 234 have Malay and 84 Tamil.
30 schol names contain the word Church, 20 Mosque
24 are named after Montessori and there's a lone Jenius
And my favourite pre-school? Not listed interestingly, so it must be one of the many, many private companies competing to offer the best start on an education ladder that might last 16+ years.
Carpe iuventus I say.
