Invasion of the Tiger Parents!

At the Association of Muslim Professionals seminar on education a year ago, Professor Jason Tan argues that instead of having a "meritocracy" in Singapore, we are increasingly a "parentocracy", where parents' education and financial advantages have an undue influence on children's academic success.  More recently, the issue was resurrected at Raffles Institution's homecoming event, where the principal Mr Chan Poh Meng himself warned the Rafflesian community to guard itself against becoming too insular and elitist.  My first reaction to the allegation of "parentocracy" was: how is this any different from what is already happening?  The traditional definition of meritocracy describes how the merits one receives is a direct result of and reward for hard work.  But in reality, since time immemorial the 'applied' form of meritocracy has always been flawed because no one starts from a level playing field.  Maybe in postwar Singapore, the playing field was largely even, but this has never been so since the 1980s as Singapore rose to be one of four Asian Economic Tigers, and now, the only one left.  Mr Chan Poh Meng's fear I suppose is Singapore no longer rewards people for their merit, but their parents' merit. Hence, "parentocracy"?

Credit: The Straits Times

As I reflected on Professor Tan's views, I realised that his point might be a lot more nuanced.  Yes, one's socioeconomic background has always had a major influence on one's success in life. And kudos to the Ministry of Education rolling out various policies (e.g. "Every school a good school") and working in partnership with CDAC, Mendaki and SINDA to create equal opportunities for all.   Few would argue Heng did much more than most Ministers of Education  in that area (Read Heng's interview: "Past 4 years have been demand but meaning"). Having said all that, what Professor Tan's pointing out is that many well-heeled parents today are actively subverting the government's very attempts to make Singapore a more inclusive society.  That the 'natural' good intentions of parents are inadvertently subverting Singapore's founding philosophy, our 'secret sauce' for success, i.e. meritocracy.  In the past, the Ministry of Education's 'enemy' was a public one, such as insufficient policy support for the needy students or schools that support needy student from pre-school to post-secondary education.  Now, the Ministry of Education's 'enemy' exists in the domain of the private, the very place where standard Singapore government policy protocol avoids.

Credit: www.thekeys.global

Incidentally, not long after Professor Tan's speech was delivered, Amy Chua, of Tiger Mum fame, announced the opening of a tuition enrichment center, The Keys Academy, for which she is an advisor.  While high end tuition centres are not new in Singapore (c.f. Learning Lab), The Keys Academy stands out because it offers silicon valley style enrichment for hard skills like coding and robotics to soft skills like multicultural communication and networking skills.  Beyond that, they're offering 'externships' with leading international institutions which only the uber rich kids opportunties even money might not be able to buy.  

I don't have children yet but to be honest, I would definitely do a double take on them.  And frankly, if I had the means, I might just give it a try.  This is something the public sector could never really offer and from a macro point of view, it could be good for Singapore .  Having said that, such enrichment centres bring parentocracy to a whole new level.  My guess is that such opportunties at enrichment centers like Keys may involve some level of competition even among their students.  The insanity of competition is no longer confined to the mainstream Singapore school.    Recently I was told that an entirely new level to my friendly neighbourhood shopping mall in Tampines was converted into a dedicated area for tuition and enrichment centres, with anchoring tenants like Adam Khoo.  Learning Lab recently opened a branch in Tampines as well.  The competition is now so intense that these enrichment centers have an incredibly long waiting list of student competing for enrolment.  Does this herald a new era of education in Singapore? Are we entering a new era of 'arms race' among the uber rich in Singapore? Is Singapore set to be the global centre for Tiger parenting?  We shall see.

Credit: ww.advisorhubic.com