Learning from Singapore tells the inside story of the country’s journey in transforming its education system from a struggling one to one that is hailed internationally as effective and successful. It is a story not of the glory of international test results, but of the hard work and tenacity of a few generations of policy makers, practitioners and teacher trainers. Despite its success, Singapore continues to reform its education system, and is willing to deal with difficult issues and cha...

This book provides readers with insights into how Singapore school leaders are actively engaged in the transformation of the Singapore education system. It brings to attention crucial elucidations of the increasing demand and complexity placed on school leaders through the use of case studies. Each chapter in the book focuses on a particular issue which has become important or has gained renewed importance in the Singapore education system.The chapters first provide a background to...

Education is threatened on a global scale by forces of neoliberalism, through high stakes accountability, privatization and a destructive language of learning. In all respects, a GERM (Global Education Reform Movement) has erupted from international benchmark rankings such as PISA, TIMMS and PIRL, causing inequity, narrowing of the curriculum and teacher deprofessionalization on a truly global scale.In this book, teachers from around the world and other educational experts such as ...

In an industry of higher education that measures the longevity of its leading institutions in decades and centuries, the establishment and rapid growth of the eight-year-old Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School), National University of Singapore, is a remarkable story that deserves to be told. The five co-authors, all of whom were involved in guiding the School during its formative years, provide unique perspectives of key events and the thinking behind major decisions that hel...

The blame game, with its finger-pointing and mutual buck-passing, is a familiar feature of politics and organizational life, and blame avoidance pervades government and public organizations at every level. Political and bureaucratic blame games and blame avoidance are more often condemned than analyzed. In The Blame Game, Christopher Hood takes a different approach by showing how blame avoidance shapes the workings of government and public services. Arguing that the blaming phenom...

When a group of educators from Massachusetts traveled to Singapore to visit schools and talk to teachers, teacher educators, and school and system-level leaders in the fall of 2015, they were determined to learn how Singapore had built a high-performing education system. Singapore has transitioned from an education system focused simply on universal literacy and primary education to one that aims for universal high school graduation and post-secondary success. It has gone from a developing...

The strategies adopted by governments and public officials can have dramatic effects on peoples' lives. The best ones can transform economic laggards into trailblazers, eliminate diseases, or sharply cut crime. Strategic failures can result in highly visible disasters, like the shrinking of the Russian economy in the 1990s, or the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. This book is about how strategies take shape, and how money, people, technologies, and public commitment c...

It is widely recognised that the foreign aid system - which today involves every country in the world - is in need of drastic change. But there are conflicting opinions as to what is needed. Some call for dramatic increases in resources, to meet long-overdue commitments, and to scale up what is already being done around the world. Others point to the flaws in aid, and bang the drum for cutting it altogether - and argue that the fate of poor and vulnerable people be best placed in the hands...

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of education development in Singapore since 1965, giving particular attention to the type of strategic management that has enabled Singapore over the last four decades to develop its education and training system, from one similar to that of many Sub-Saharan Africa countries, to become one of the World's best performing systems.

There has been an explosion of interest in entrepreneurs in the popular media, as well as in business, policy, and education. But what do entrepreneurs do? What is entrepreneurship and why is it important? What is distinctive about entrepreneurs? And where do they come from? In this Very Short Introduction Paul Westhead and Mike Wright weave a pathway through the debates about entrepreneurship, providing a guide to the entrepreneurial process. They look at how the actions of entre...

Understanding and demonstrating the effectiveness of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty is an essential part of international development practice. But who decides what counts as good or credible evidence? Can the drive to measure results do justice to and promote transformational change – change that challenges the power relations that produce and reproduce inequality, injustice and the non-fulfilment of human rights? The Politics of Evidence and Results in Internatio...

This book is about the Social Contract with Business as a means to deliver humanitys global sustainability mandate. From a well researched Socratic dialogue with todays leaders and thinkers in the West, East, and South emerged action-oriented answers to the questions: What kind of future does humanity want?; What society for such a future?; What business for such a society?; What business leader for such a business?; What education for such a business leader? This book is written for busin...