Inculcating National Identity and Economic Competiveness: A Comparative Study of Curriculum Reforms in Singapore and Hong Kong

Abstract

Policy makers in both Singapore and Hong Kong have been preoccupied by the need to meet the economic competitiveness challenges of a global economy. As education is widely considered as a social investment which contributes significantly to economic growth, both in Singapore and Hong Kong, there is a consensus that the school curriculum needs to be reformed to prepare for the knowledge-based society in which enhanced human capital is needed to preserve both city-states’ competitive advantages in the global economy. Ongoing school curriculum reforms are also about inculcating civic, political and social identity among the younger generation so as to keep the “local” alive in the “global” environment. Similar rationales and policy contexts for the school curriculum reforms can be found in both places. However, the ways the reform policies were, and are, formed and implemented in Singapore and Hong Kong differ from each other because of the divergences in the orientation and strength of the state in both city-states. This article examines how school curriculum reforms in Singapore and Hong Kong are similar and different from each other, and also discusses how the state factor affects the formation and implementation of policy and reform initiatives. It argues that while globalization is a major trigger, different reform policies found in both city-states are best seen as an action of integrating between the “local” and the “global” in the process of “glocalization”, in which the state’s role in shaping education and curriculum policies while different remains prominent.