Aims of Schooling for the Twenty-First Century: The Desired Outcomes of Education

Abstract

The Singapore Ministry of Education published the first edition of the Desired Outcomes of Education in late 1997. This document represented the first attempt systematically to list specific developmental outcomes for the various stages of schooling. It also stated explicitly that these outcomes were meant to serve not only as a common guide for all education policies and programmes, but also as a basis for evaluating these policies and programmes. The document was subsequently revised in late 2009. The chapter critically analyses the aims of schooling embedded in the Desired Outcomes of Education within the social and historical context of schooling, in an attempt to reveal the ideologies and discourses that underpin the policy curriculum. It argues that the document represented the government’s attempt to gear schools to meet the economic, social and cultural challenges posed by globalisation. At the same time, the chapter poses critical questions such as whether the outcomes are really meant to be attained by every student, whether the various stakeholders in education truly desire these outcomes, and whether the various stakeholders are in fact equally well-placed to attain these outcomes.