Should young children aspire to be academically perfect? During the last few days of November, students in Singaporean schools find out their Primary School Learning Examination (PSLE) results, which determine their enrollment into secondary schools. Students are admitted to secondary schools on the basis of their performance in these examinations, with higher scoring students gaining […]

The New Singapore Shares Scheme was launched by ex-PM Goh Chok Tong in his National Day Rally speech on 19 August 2001. In the aftermath of the 2001 economic downturn, the initiative sought to redistribute Singapore’s wealth among less well off citizens. Apart from public policies which look out for the welfare of the less […]

Dr Winston Chow (NUS Geography) highlighted three areas of climate change which could affect Singapore: Firstly, higher daily average temperatures are predicted to occur more frequently. Dr Chow attributes this to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the urban heat island effect. To reduce the heat island effect, he stressed the need to integrate climate-sensitive urban […]

What issues affect the future direction of Singapore’s community engagement programs? The annual Community Chest Heartstrings Walk is an example of how Singapore approaches community engagement – by involving citizens at all levels of society, and engaging the government, private corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). According to A/P S. Vasoo (Department of Social Work), Singapore […]

Critical Issues in Asset Building in Singapore’s Development is a new collection of essays published by World Scientific and edited by Associate Professors S. Vasoo (NUS Department of Social Work) and Bilveer Singh (NUS Department of Political Science). The essays presented chose to define “assets” broadly. Apart from traditional tangible assets such as housing, intangible […]

Why weren’t Singaporeans keen on state-endorsed matchmaking services? In 1984 Singapore initiated the Social Development Unit (SDU) and the Social Development Services (SDS) to provide matchmaking services for university graduates and non-graduates. In January 2009, SDU and SDS merged and on 16 October 2009 became known as Social Development Network (SDN). The SDN provides matchmaking […]

What role should the state play as the pace of globalisation accelerates? Beginning in Thailand in July 1997 with the devaluation of the Thai baht, the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) rapidly swept across Southeast Asia and Japan to trigger the devaluation of Asian currencies and slumping of Asian economies along with financial and political upheavals. […]

A Lien foundation-NUS study revealed that more elderly Singaporeans are being cared for at home and centre-based care services instead of nursing homes. Co-authored by Associate Professors Elaine Ho and Shirlena Huang (NUS Department of Geography), the study further discovered that the monthly cost of taking proper care of a severely disabled senior at home […]

The environment provides free positive externalities that many people are unaware of and tend to take for granted. These ecosystem services include carbon storage, coastal protection and food production. A team of researchers from the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) hope to illuminate this by quantifying the benefits of Singapore’s […]

How do Southeast Asian states cooperate to combat piracy in the Straits of Malacca? Piracy is a great threat to Southeast Asian states, particularly the coastal states in the Straits of Malacca. For this reason, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia came together on 20 July 2004 to form MALSINDO – an effort between the navies, coast […]