Singapore
Turning to foreign students
Hoping to have 150,000, and that enough will stay on after studies. By Izumi Ogura, Asahi Shimbun.
Aug 24, 2005

Try googling "Singapore" and chances are the word "hub" will appear alongside any mention of the city-state-whether in regard to transport, aviation, tourism, business, finance, even shopping.

With one eye on the sagging birthrate, and the other on its reputation as a safe, clean and prosperous nation, the government has come up with a plan to establish Singapore as Asia's premier "education hub."

While foreign students already account for 1.5 percent of the city-state's population of 4.25 million, bureaucrats have figured that by attracting just over double that, a greater number will stay on and make Singapore their permanent home.

Those extra bodies, officials calculate, should offset the dismal 1.25
birthrate and ensure the nation has the human resources needed to sustain the economy well into the future.

The change is not expected to happen overnight; the official goal is to raise the current 66,000 foreign students to 150,000 by 2012.

Nevertheless, education providers are pretty much already prepared.

Even at the primary level, Singapore has long been a popular destination for thousands of Asian students keen to draw on the island's English-speaking culture.

In fact some 20,000 primary and junior high school students - four percent of the country's total 530,000 students - are from overseas. Boarding schools here attract kids as young as 7-years-old.

Peter Oi, a former English teacher, runs a dormitory for foreign students not far from the city centre.

Approximately 40 students aged 7 to 21 call the four-story building home.

One-third of them are female. They come from South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The younger students live three to four per room, while the older ones get their own. From junior high up, they all attend different schools due to the nation's streaming policy.

But at 7 pm, all the students meet in the facility's communal study hall where they spend four hours, divided by dinner, buried in study books.

Although intense, the boarding-school style education seems to be paying off.

When Song Jong Fun, 15, first arrived at the dormitory five years ago from Pusan, South Korea, he says he was homesick and miserable.

But as he got used to his surroundings and the language, things started to click.

Now he says he feels like English has become his first language, and
worries about his Korean ability.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board, there are about 30 such dorms in operation across the city-state. At least that's the number registered.

It is assumed there are numerous unregistered small-sized boarding houses for foreign students being run from homes. Many schools also offer boarding facilities.

Compared to countries to which Asian youngsters are usually sent to study English, namely the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia, Singapore does appear to have a lot going for it.

Students can learn English yet remain an easy flight away from home; parents can breathe easy-conservative Singapore is said to be one of the safest countries in the world; it also has a squeaky-clean reputation for its spotless streets and amenities; and, it's not too hard on the wallet.

At Jong Fun's dorm, monthly fees are S$900.

That includes accommodation, meals, cleaning and laundry services. Special lessons with Oi or other tutors cost Singapore $300 per subject.

Perhaps even more than that, education standards in Singapore are regarded as high.

In maths, Singaporean students are the best in the world, according to a 2002-2003 study by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

For Meutya Hafid, 27, a journalist for Indonesia's Metro TV, her years spent in the Singapore education system were on par with her weeklong experience as a hostage of a militant group in Iraq.

Shortly after her February release, Hafid told an English newspaper here, "Being held hostage in Iraq was just as tough as being in school in Singapore."

Like Hafid, Mari Elka Pangestu, who was last year appointed trade minister in the Indonesian Cabinet of Prime Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was also partly schooled in Singapore.

The government is hoping it is students of this caliber that will stick
around and become part of the workforce. It is even offering generous scholarships to star students who stay on to pursue tertiary education.

Hardly a surprise, then, that S$117 million in state coffers was spent on education-related endeavours last year, a huge jump on the S$78 million spent the previous year, according to the Economic Development Board.

The spending is justified, many argue, even if the students decide to
eventually return to home.

A good education in Singapore, it is reckoned, makes for a good standing in a student's own country.

And that could translate into having influence, in either the public or private sectors, which, in turn, could have positive spin-offs for Singapore.

Going by that theory, China, in particular, would be exceptionally
friendly.

Most of Singapore's current foreign student contingent are from China.

In fact, between 20 and 30 Chinese youngsters can be found in every school in Singapore, from primary to junior high level.

The vast majority had to undergo a tough screening process to win Chinese government scholarships. Accordingly, they are among the top grade earners on the island.

In 2002, the Straits Times reported that six of the 17 top PSLE (Primary school leaving examination) scorers were from China, while at one elementary school here, Chinese students recorded the school's best marks for three consecutive years.

But the "education hub" project still has a way to go as there are problems on the other side of the school gates.

Some mothers who accompanied non-scholarship students have been caught working illegally-in the sex industry.

The scandal caused a major stir in the outwardly chaste government, which has since refused to issue work permits.
Asahi Shimbun