April 21, 2023

A major talking point in refreshing Singapore’s governance and social compact is the shape and form of the meritocracy prized as the enabler of social mobility in the nation-state. In ‘Commentary: Why Singapore needs to move towards a meritocracy of skills and contributions’ (TODAY, April 2023), Associate Professor Vincent Chua (NUS Sociology and Anthropology) argues against the current mode of “educational meritocracy”. Instead, he advocates a form of meritocracy with an emphasis on skills and contributions.

A/P Chua identifies the current state of Singapore meritocracy as an educational meritocracy. In this form, people are rewarded based on the grades they attained in school because grades are assumed to reflect the individual’s efforts and abilities. He criticises this as being blind to the invisible impact of class background: wealthier people better able to help their children gain better grades in various ways. This means that the children of wealthier adults are more likely to be better rewarded under educational meritocracy than children from less wealthy backgrounds. This system becomes one that reproduces social inequalities and extends the lead that previous winners in the system have over others.

A/P Chua argues that if Singapore were to fulfil its aspirations towards social mobility and harmony, then it would be better served if it shifted towards a meritocracy of skills and contributions. He speaks of skills because they are a measure of the contributions that a person can make, which metrics like academic grades might not totally capture. In this way, a skills-based meritocracy can reward a wide variety of skills which contribute to a country’s society and economy.

However, this line of thinking implies the existence of a hierarchy of higher valued and lower valued skills. A/P Chua asserts that this division is quite arbitrary; the demarcation of “high-skilled” and “low-skilled” jobs can largely be narrowed down to differentiated respect accorded to these job classes rather than a measure of their contributions to society. He cites the Progressive Wage Model as one that recognises the social and economic value that “low-skilled” jobs provide, allowing for the recognition and flourishing of various skills in their capacities to contribute to society.

Having reframed the debate on “high-skilled” and “low-skilled” jobs, A/P Chua argues that it is important to narrow the material (e.g., wage) and immaterial (e.g., social standing) gaps between the two job categories. He asserts that the reduction of inequalities in these two regards can lead to less competitive and more collaborative modes of co-existence.

Read the commentary here: https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/commentary-why-singapore-needs-move-towards-meritocracy-skills-and-contributions-2152301