Abstract
Keywords
Special Education Landscape in Singapore
Singapore in Context
Singapore is an affluent, small island city-state situated off the southern tip of Malaysia in Southeast Asia, covering approximately 720 square kilometers, and home to 5.5 million people. Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Despite its small size and lack of natural resources, Singapore has become known as a shipping and financial hub in Southeast Asia and globally (Polland, 2015). There are four official languages spoken in Singapore (i.e., English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil). English is the language of instruction in schools. The country currently spends approximately US$8 billion on education; this accounts for more than 20% of total government expenditure (Ministry of Education, 2013). The priority placed on education has helped Singapore become one of the world’s top performing educational systems (Learning Curve, 2014).
Predominant Views of Disability
In 2004, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong decreed, “all communities will progress and no one will be left behind . . . We must also have a place in our hearts and our lives for the disabled, who are our brothers and sisters too.” The Prime Minister’s decree encouraged a shift from continuing the practice of restricted learning environments for students with special educational needs (SEN; Nonis, Pereira, Gomez, Gomez, & Tan, 2006), but a dual system of service delivery has been maintained. Nevertheless, several initiatives were introduced to ensure better support in mainstream classrooms, which have led to an increased awareness about inclusive education in Singapore.
Primary Service Delivery Model
While the island nation of Singapore grew in the 1980s and 1990s, it has became known for student academic achievement; an unintended gradual separation of schools occurred that divided the education system into two categories: mainstream schools for students who are typically developing and special schools for individuals with SEN (Poon, Musti-Rao, & Wettasinghe, 2013). This separate school system is known as dual education.
How Teachers Are Prepared
Mainstream
Mainstream primary teachers take one course on supporting students with SEN. This embedded component is usually one course titled Teaching and Managing Learners at the Primary Level. The thrust of this course is to consolidate a teacher candidate’s understanding of student diversity, and the application of relevant strategies to support the pupils in their learning and development.
Special education
There are two distinct paths in special education teacher preparation for working with students with SEN in Singapore. One is to become a Special School Teacher (SST) in which teachers work full-time in special schools as a lead teacher in a class. The second is to become an Allied Educator (AED) and/or Learning Behavior Support (LBS) specialist at a mainstream school. In either case, a Diploma in Special Education (DISE) via a designated program is required. The DISE coursework focuses on child development, pedagogy, and the major types of disability, including learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders, and others. Graduates of the DISE program have the skills necessary for identifying students with disabilities, diagnosing and assessing strengths and weaknesses, and planning interventions. While the DISE coursework itself is rigorous, it is limited. The path to becoming a special educator is not nearly as comprehensive as the path to becoming a mainstream teacher in Singapore.
Prevalence of Teacher Preparation Programs
The National Institute of Education (NIE) is an institute of The Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. NIE is responsible for preparing all preservice mainstream teachers through degree, diploma, and postgraduate programs. In addition, NIE provides ongoing and continuing professional development, graduate coursework, and doctoral study. The school offers a menu of teacher education programs for mainstream teacher candidates.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.