OVERVIEW The Singapore education story over the last 50 years has been a remarkable transformation; one that has met the twin goals of social cohesion and economic modernization. Yet, are some of the policies outdated when looking at the needs of the nation today? Prof Gopinathan takes a look at the rise of Singapore’s education system, while discussing what new policies may be needed to ensure continued excellence with enhanced equity.
MEET THE SPEAKER Professor S. Gopinathan Adjunct Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS
Senior Advisor, The HEAD Foundation
Professor S. Gopinathan obtained his doctorate in comparative higher education and education policy at SUNY, Buffalo, United States. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and the Senior Advisor at The HEAD Foundaiton. He served as the Dean of the School of Education (Mar 1994 till June 2000) and was the former Dean of Initial Teacher Training (July 2000 till June 2003). In this role he oversaw the development and implementation of a BA/BSc (Education) programme as well as having responsibility for departments involved in leadership preparation, early childhood and special needs education, and ICT.
In 2003, he helped NIE establish a Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice. He has served on various MOE review committees and was a Resource Specialist for the Government Parliamentary Committee on Education, as a consultant for the Singapore Teachers Union, and a Board Member of the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board. Professor Gopinathan was also involved in setting up the Singapore Centre for Teaching Thinking, the Principals Executive Centre and is also a founder member of the Educational Research Association of Singapore.
His research interests span teacher education, higher education, values and citizenship education, and education development. He is founding editor of the Singapore Journal of Education, serves on the International Advisory Board of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, and co-edits the Routledge Critical Studies in Asian Education. He is currently involved in projects to establish teacher training facilities in Abu Dhabi, in Bahrain and in Indonesia. He has consulted widely on policy development for educational excellence with the World Bank, Unesco, Unicef, the Arab League etc. and is acknowledged internationally as an expert on Singapore’s educational development.
This free lecture is presented by the HEAD Foundation, a Singapore-based think tank focused on education and leadership for development in Asia.
