May 17, 2021

The first junior college in Singapore, National Junior College, was declared open by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 14 May 1970. The centralised junior college system was set-up to replace the pre-university system formally conducted across middle schools, in order to open more educational opportunities for students and to optimise the use of teachers and facilities.

But is education really the social leveller it promises to be, or does it instead reproduce social inequalities? This is the question that the study “Getting Ahead in Singapore: How Neighbourhoods, Gender and Ethnicity Affect Enrollment into Elite Schools” (Sociology of Education, 2019) interrogates, as it examines how the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods in Singapore influence gender and ethnic representation in elite schools. A/P Vincent Chua (NUS Department of Sociology) contends that the nation’s unique pre-university system provides a critical backdrop for the study, for its publicly financed elite and nonelite schools are well spaced across wealthy and less wealthy neighborhoods.

The study uses data collected from the yearbooks of six junior colleges (three elite, three non-elite) between the years 1971 and 2010. It reaches two main conclusions. The first finds that female students are better represented in elite junior colleges than in nonelite junior colleges, especially in the elite junior colleges located in wealthy neighborhoods. The study ascribes the cause to the large number of elite girls’ secondary schools located in wealthy neighborhoods, which encourages students who start out in elite secondary schools to continue with elite junior colleges located in the vicinity.

The second finding locates an underrepresentation of Malay students in elite junior colleges compared to nonelite junior colleges, particularly in elite junior colleges in wealthy neighborhoods. The study attributes this to neighborhood ethnic composition, for Malays were found to prefer attending schools in neighborhoods that reflected their own ethnic group. As such, because Malays make up a lower share of residents in wealthy neighborhoods, this dissuades their attendance at elite junior colleges located in its vicinity.

The study’s results indicate that neighborhoods within which elite schools are located have a critical role in sustaining and perpetuating gender and ethnic inequalities. Its findings demonstrate that while the gender gap in educational opportunities has narrowed considerably, the ethnic gap remains for Malays, who are still less likely to attend elite schools in privileged neighborhoods. A/P Chua thus proposes a relocation of elite junior colleges to neighborhoods with a greater share of Malay residents.

Read the article here.