Singapore : Education and Change of Class Stratification

Abstract

In Singapore education has made a significant contribution to the change of class stratification in the past three decades. This contribution was accomplished in two basic ways : (1) by facilitating economic development, thereby helping to create a functional imperative to expand the proportion of professionals, technicians, executives and managers, i. e., to expand the relative size of the upper division of the class hierarchy; and (2) by equipping members of underprivileged groups (the lower class division, the female group, and some ethnic minorities) with necessary qualifications to respond to this imperative and move upward to join the upper division-thus leading to change of the social composition of the upper division. Differential advances of the underprivileged groups are reported. Forces that affect education's transformational power are identified.