Immigrant Students in Singapore

Abstract

From the beginning of its independence in 1965, Singapore has had a quite diverse and multicultural population. Unlike other countries, immigrant students in Singapore show consistently high achievement scores and – with the only exception of the TIMSS 2003 cycle – achieve the same level as native students, or even outperformed their native peers. This chapter seeks to explore the difference in approach towards immigrant students that Singapore takes in comparison to other countries. The history of Singapore’s education system that ranks high in all international large-scale system monitoring surveys is described and compared to other international education systems. The chapter shows statistics for the achievement of first- and second-generation immigrant students and sheds some light on background variables such as the language spoken at home and parental background. Singapore subjects students with an immigrant background to high restrictions when it comes to school access and the consequences are highlighted in detail. On the other hand, Singapore not only has various support programs for immigrant students, some of which will be presented here, it also has policies in place fostering positive attitudes towards immigrants in general.