Abstract
Citizenship education in Singapore received a major boost in 1997, with the launch of the “National Education” (NE) programme by the Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 17 May. The stated aim of NE was “to develop national cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in the future”.1 This was to be achieved by fostering a sense of Singaporean identity, promoting an understanding of Singapore’s recent history, promoting understanding of Singapore’s major challenges and vulnerabilities, and the intention was to instil core national values which would ensure Singapore’s continued success and well-being. NE was clearly a “citizenship education initiative [by the state] aimed at socialising the young into a set of desired attitudes and values”.2 These values include patriotism, loyalty and the willingness to defend the nation. This represented the state-formation aim of citizenship education in Singapore. Other values commonly associated with citizenship education, such as social justice and democratic civic engagement, were noticeably absent.3 NE was to become the de facto citizenship education programme in Singapore. Unlike the previous “flagship” citizenship education programmes like EFL and RK, NE was more than a curricular subject — it was a comprehensive citizenship education framework for the entire educational system in Singapore.
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Notes
Nexus, Engaging Hearts and Minds (Singapore: Nexus [Central National Education Office], 2003).
Lee Hsien Loong, “Question and Answer session for Plenary Session 1”, Pre-University Seminar 1988, Agenda for Action: Goals and Challenges for Singapore-The Report (Singapore: MOE, 1989), pp. 22
Tim Huxley, Defending the Lion City: The Armed Forces of Singapore (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000), p. 25.
Linda Symcox, Whose History: The Struggle for Na tional S tandards in American Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 2002).
See for instance, E. H. Carr, What is History? Edited by R. W. Davies (London: Penguin Books, 1987, 2nd ed.)
Richard J. Evans, In Defence of History (London: Granta Books, 2000).
Cumculum Planning and Development Division (CPDD), Social Studies Primary (Singapore: MOE, 1998)
CPDD, History: Lower Secondary Normal Academic/Special/Express: Syllabus for Implementation from January 1999 (Singapore: MOE, 1998)
CPDD, History: Upper Secondary, “N” and “O” Levels (Singapore: MOE, 1998)
CPDD, History “A” Level (Singapore: MOE, 1998).
Lee Kuan Yew, The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore: Times Edition, 1998).
John Dewey, Experience and Education: The 60th Anniversary Edition (Indiana: Kappa Delta Pi, 1998), p. 113.
Lee Kuan Yew, “Survival through Remaining Relevant”, Speeches 96: A Bimonthly Selection of Ministerial Speeches (January-February), vol. 20, no. 1 (Singapore: Ministry of Information and the Arts, 1996), p. 14.
Michael Leifer, Singapore’s Foreign Policy: Coping with Vulnerability (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 1.
Bilveer Singh, “A Small State’s Quest for Security: Operationalising Deterrence in Singapore’s Strategic Thinking”. In Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir and Tong Chee Kiong (eds) Imagining Singapore (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2004), pp. 117–118.
Jason Tan, “Whither National Education?”. In Jason Tan and Ng Pak Tee (eds) Thinking Schools, Learning Nation: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2008), p. 83.
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© 2015 Yeow-Tong Chia
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Chia, YT. (2015). The Crisis of Historical Amnesia and the “National Education” Response. In: Education, Culture and the Singapore Developmental State. Education, Economy and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137374608_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137374608_6
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