Education and the child

Abstract

Education is the means to freedom: freedom from poverty, freedom from injustice, freedom from illiteracy. In the 1950s, youths and children roamed the streets with little prospect of their future in a society of poverty and racial unrest. Today, Singapore’s youth are disproportionally represented on the world’s stage, from winning Science Olympiads to internationally benchmarked assessments. Even the weakest of the Singapore cohort made vast improvements and out-performed the average of many developed nations. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew saw education as the key to develop this nation state. His vision for education had a clear mandate on developing every child to his fullest potential. He believed that education must prepare a child for work and also develops him holistically, in terms of his intellectual discipline, attitudes, values and behaviours. This chapter will take a closer look at Singapore’s journey from idealisation to reality, paying particular attention to his beliefs of the child and his approach to growing a cultivated mind, developing the good man who could contribute as an active citizen, and building the society.