The country's academic success has helped it become a thriving economy, and the way it has built its education system could hold lessons for the rest of the world.

"Singapore is a fascinating case," said Marc Tucker, the president of the U.S. National Center on Education and the Economy. "[It] was a major British port before the Second World War. When Britain got out and closed its base Singapore was in terrible shape.

"Now today they are one of the best performing economies in the entire world. They did it largely with education and training."

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If Singapore's rags-to-riches transition was built on education, the secret of its education system is the quality of its teachers. "They source their teachers from among the best kids coming out of their high schools," explained Tucker.

'Creative use of knowledge'

In the post-war years, Singapore had a low-cost, low-skill labor market, and it was enough for its education system to aim for universal literacy. But starting in the 1970s, Singapore's economic needs shifted. It was quickly moving toward high tech, white collar jobs and the education system needed to keep up. Soon, the aim was for a world-class education for every single child, and that meant moving on from rote learning to encouraging creativity.

"They had a drilling system when that was the only option -- they had to expand education quickly," said the OECD's education director, Andreas Schleicher. "But as they had achieved this, they were the first to think about, what is it that our children need to be successful ... (in) tomorrow's economy?

"One thing that's been clear to them is that the world economy no longer rewards people just for what they know. Google knows everything. The world economy rewards people for what they can do with what they know.

"The emphasis on the application, the creative use of knowledge is very, very strong in Singapore and other Asian countries."

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The importance of education is instilled at a young age -- before children even get to primary school.

"I think for us as preschool educators, we are the foundation years," said Diana Ong, principal at Pat's Schoolhouse Sembawang Country Club, a preschool in the north of Singapore. "We form the basic foundation.

"I think the first years of a child's life is very important. So when you have a very confident child, that child's confidence will carry him or her through primary school as well. Not only do you want a child that is smart, you want a child who is resilient."

Schleicher says it's part of the culture of many Asian countries for parents to prioritize their children's education.

"It starts with resources, the priority they assign to education," he explained. "In these countries, parents and grandparents are going to invest their last resources, their last money into ... the education of their children.

"This is sort of a question of priorities. You can see in all tiers of public policy, education comes first. That's your future."

Watch the video at the top of the page to find out more

Guyana should get out of agriculture (especially sugar) and do what SIngapore did

You expect the current FOOLS to do anything Progressive????????? 

Not with you and your people clamoring for sugar like there is nothing else..why yuh think PPP never did anything...

Leadership cannot be displayed by FOOLS and House Slaves.

I thought the PPP were the Progressive party!...Why did not plumpy manickchand do anything in this direction? She could hardly get her students literate!

The active portion of your brain is pea sized and the rest mainly concrete

Mud Head like the Piwari made your brain into RAW SEWAGE.  Ask one of dem high grade Commercial Pump Trucks to pump the shit out yuh head!!!

Now we do not need to get out of agriculture.  We need to UPGRADE our agriculture (maybe get out of sugar exports) and develop agri industrial industries.

We can also develop BPO (call centers all the way through to knowledge based industries) as our labor force increases. Demerara should be reconfigured for this, given that even the rural populations are increasingly urbanized.

Linden has/had the densest pool of skilled labor in Guyana, and interestingly enough, the most educated behind G/town. Niche industries can also be developed.

Please understand that agriculture is much more important to the US economy than we living in NYC might think, so its not a sign of backwardness.  Selling raw product, produced at high costs is, as is also labor intensive micro farms (which might be why the rice industry is inefficient).

Guyanese need to stop looking to the gov't to take care of them, the local private sector needs to have a higher taste for risk, and we need to attract foreign investment.

But we need to have more signs of intelligence and big picture thinking.  Those Reform guys were rejected by the PPP and the PNC.  But we need more people like that.

Nehru your PPP was in power for 23 years.  How did they move Guyana's economy up the value chain, and reduce its dependence on preferential commodity markets?  They did NOTHING!

Plumpy (you really don't like fat girls) presided over the most abysmal CXC performances in Math and English.  Jamaica was very unhappy with their performance and they were doing BETTER than Guyana.

Guyana drew solace from the fact that its top 1% did very well, so they ignored the rest.  Every year when the CXC results came out the Indo KKK would scream at how well Guyana was doing.  And every year I reminded them that Guyana was LAST when one looked at overall performance.

Guyana has NEVER been BETTER up to May 11.  In 5 years it will be back to 1984.

PPP Mustapha was going to make Berbice, Region 6, another Singapore.

Dem thief de money and Jagdeo screwed up Skeldon factory.

He had difficulty stopping collie people pissing by the road and shittjng behind bushes.   

You and your "woe is me Indian complex"

Sakawinki Parrot, You should look in your own backyard.

my backyard is quite adequately primped and pruned. At her age is was 135.  She is pushing 200. I am currently 153. I can go tp165 and still be healthy because I was 180 and was still running five miles easily.