Multicultural education in Singapore \ stacker news ~BooksAndArticles

A Japanese professor is coming to visit my school (NorthLight School) tomorrow. She sent my vice-principal two questions:

・How does your school foster tolerance and a sense of coexistence towards people with different languages and cultures? ・Does your school give special consideration to the linguistic and cultural diversity of children and their parents?

I would have a one-to-one chat with her tomorrow. Guided by the desire to be a good host, I put in V4V to answer her questions as follows:

MOE (Ministry of Education) encourages every school in Singapore to foster a partnership with an overseas school. In 2022, about 2/3 of schools have done so. In NorthLight’s context, we have an exchange programme with Chaipattana Foundation (Thailand). Selected students will visit the Thai school one year; their Thai buddies will be hosted at our school the following year. These exchange programmes help students to make friends with their peers from a different race.
MOE supports schools who bring their students on overseas trips to let them gain exposure to foreign cultures. In 2023, about 600 overseas trips have been planned. In NorthLight’s context, the student leaders visited Taiwan last year. In previous years, the soccer and sepak takraw teams visited Thailand and Indonesia to have friendly matches with the local students. Sports is a good way to unite people of different cultures.
MOE schools typically organise celebrations to usher in the various ethnic festivals: Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and Deepavali. Staff and students alike put on traditional performances and educate others about cultural dos and don’ts related to the festivals. In NorthLight’s context, we even invite a lion dance troupe from Dunman Secondary School to hype up the atmosphere. Teachers will also dress up as the Fortune God and other deities.
MOE celebrates International Friendship Day on the 3rd Friday of Term 2. This is aimed to encourage students to build good relationships with people from neighbouring countries and beyond. Typically, students learn simple key phrases and customs of people living in ASEAN countries.
MOE also designates 21 July as Racial Harmony Day. In 1964, riots broke out between the Chinese and Malays in Singapore - and people subsequently died as a result. Since 1997, Singapore schools celebrate Racial Harmony Day to impress upon the young the importance of keeping religious and racial harmony in Singapore. In NorthLight’s context, we celebrated Racial Harmony Day last year by making roti prata, playing traditional musical instruments, and watching a shadow play. All this helps students to be familiarised with different cultures.
NorthLight School has this subject called “The World and Singapore” so that students can understand SIngapore in relation to the wider world and develop a global orientation.

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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @justanumber 28 Feb

Gosh that seems like a lot of work. I just unschooled and worldshooled my kids. We've been traveling full-time for the past few years. My youngest, especially, has been exposed to many different cultures, languages etc.. We soak up wherever we are, attend festivals, shop, eat locally, make friends with people of lots of different nationalities. It just happened naturally and I never made a lesson plan hehe.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 29 Feb

That’s so cool. Thank you for your perspective. I feel that teachers here are expected to be a master of all trades haha.

I would have loved to be like you and yours, but unfortunately, my wife is not as adventurous. So anchoring roots we are haha

90 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln 28 Feb

Isn't Singapore already one of the most diverse countries from South East Asia?

In your experience, do all the minorities happily coexist, or is there some unspoken ranking between them?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 29 Feb

I think the different races get along with one another, but compared to our grandparents’ or parents’ generation, we (Gen X and younger) do not mix with people of other races as much. So, social mixing is a problem. And being Singapore, we have initiatives to socially engineer greater frequency of interactions among different races haha.

I have to admit that there is some sort of Chinese privilege here. Our then-Deputy Prime Minister said in 2019 that Singapore was not ready for a non-Chinese Prime Ninister, to the consternation of many Singaporeans.