Singapore, US sign cooperation agreement on education

By eGov Innovation Editors | Feb 12, 2012

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Singapore and the United States have signed an agreement to enhance cooperation on education. Singapore’s Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signed the memorandum of agreement in Washington last week.

“Whether in the US or Singapore, we all want our children to be well prepared for the future. To provide our children with a good education, we need good teachers and good school leaders, working together to deliver a holistic and future-oriented curriculum. Learning from the experiences and achievements in other countries, and deriving insights from research and benchmarking studies will also stimulate us to explore areas of improvement," said Minister Heng.

The MOU builds on the first US-Singapore MOU on education signed in 2002, which focused primarily on the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science.

"This broader and deeper MOU builds on the success of the earlier collaboration. We look forward to working closely with the US on these two new areas - the development of teachers and school leaders and research and international benchmarking. Our collaboration with other countries is part of our continuing effort to provide the best possible education for our children,” Heng added.

The Ministry of Education website said the National Institute of Education (NIE) and Columbia University’s Teacher’s College are launching a joint Masters of Arts in Leadership and Educational Change. The program will take in students from January 2013 and builds on the strengths of both institutions in the two countries to equip leaders in education with the necessary skills and knowledge to take on curriculum leadership roles in their schools.

"Closer collaboration in education research and benchmarking studies will help both countries deepen our understanding of best practices in education, especially in support of Singapore’s increased emphasis in holistic education. The measurement of student development outcomes in non-academic areas is at the cutting edge of educational research and benchmarking efforts," the report said.