The Development of Civic Participation Among Youth in Singapore

Abstract

The development of active participation in citizens hallmarks the endeavor of formal citizenship programs, equipping citizens with the relevant knowledge, skills, and values to participate in their communities. Such attempts to formulate an ideal citizenry are especially apparent in Singapore, a small city-state whose success owes much to the role that formal citizenship education played and continues to play as an instrument of state formation. This chapter will discuss the development of youth participation in Singapore, specifically within the education context, and more generally among the youth. We will trace how the Singapore government has carefully molded what began as a politically bustling arena of activism among youths during the pre-independence era into a pervasively depoliticized understanding of participation in Singapore’s young citizenry today. We highlight how several key aspects of education in Singapore – namely, National Education, the Community Involvement Program, Character and Citizenship Education, and the Values in Action initiatives – have attended to civic participation in reformulating the notion of an ideal citizen. Finally, we will briefly discuss the shift in civic participation brought about by the New Media Age in more recent times.