002. Metaphors of Literacy in Singapore

To my relief, this week’s reading was a much easier read than the previous =). It seemed like some of the metaphors that were used to describe literacy could be applied in Singapore and I shall attempt to do so in this week’s reflection.

Literacy in Singapore definitely plays a functional role. In a matter of a few decades, Singapore has moved from a position of a developing country to the position of a developed country and I believe this achievement has a lot to do with literacy acquirement. Due to the education opportunities available in the country, a large part of the population are literate in terms of being able to read and write (albeit it was mentioned in the reading that “what counts as literacy in our technological society is a matter ‘not very well-understood’” – Scribner (1984), we shall discuss that later). With these literacy skills, they were able to contribute to nation building through job opportunities that ensured the survival of the nation, and subsequently the blooming of the nation's economy. This is aligned to the desired outcomes of education, whereby 'an educated person is someone who is responsible to his community and country'.

Although Scribner (1984) mentioned that the notion of literacy as a resource for social transformation proposed by Freire (1970) remains to be established, I thought the notion was relevant to the context of Singapore. Scribner (1984) said that the expansion of literacy skills is often viewed as a means for poor and politically powerless groups to claim their place in the world and perhaps that was the reason why most missionaries would set up schools when they reach a land where people are not literate (of course, literate in this sense means to be literate in English as it is the international language - the language of power). The first schools in Singapore (e.g. Poi Ching School, Methodist Girls' School, Anglo Chinese School etc) that were established were funded by the various dialect associations and missionaries. They had the same collective goal, to improve the life of the people in Singapore and society be transformed. This is the same goal that the government has and we have seen how the vision has come to pass. Literacy in Singapore has definitely played a role in community or rather, nation advancement.

Adding on, to ensure that all Singaporeans are able to be productive citizens in a knowledge-based economy of today, they have to be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. Thus, the compulsory education act was implemented in 2003. This is aligned with the government's belief in equality and progress whereby all citizens, regardless of race and social economic status are entitled to an opportunity to be literate, and contribute to the community and country, being responsible so to speak. There is also a ‘decided’ syllabus which determines the necessary and optional literacy tasks that Singaporeans have to acquire during the years of their compulsory education. As mentioned earlier that it is hard to count what is literacy in our technological society, the syllabus is revised from time to time to ensure that Singaporeans are equipped with the literacy skills for tomorrow. This is the aim of the Ministry Of Education (MOE), that they will prepare the next generation of Singapore for the future. That’s why students now had to learn to use the computer and produce project presentations with various software when, in the past, students only had to learn to read and write with paper and pen.

Lastly, I believe that the small geographic scale of Singapore has faciliated literacy acquirement and development as it was much easier for the government to implement literacy and education polices that were uniform and highly flexibile to suit the changing needs of society today.

From the discussion above, it appears that the goals of literacy – to be adaptative and socially empowering have been applied and met in the context of Singapore.

Last note, have a blessed Chinese New Year and happy holidays to all!!