Educational Research for Policy and Practice (2004) 3:7792 DOI 10.

1007/s10671-004-3935-8

Springer 2005

Students Perception of Change in the Singapore Education System

Pak Tee Ng
Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore E-mail: ptng@nie.edu.sg

Abstract This paper presents the ndings of a research that examines students perception of the change in the Singapore Education System and how that impacts on their satisfaction and outlook. Analysis of the data obtained through a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews shows that the more favourable the perception of change amongst students, the more favourable is their satisfaction and outlook. The implication for education leaders is that it is important to understand student perception of change because they are the ultimate beneciary of change. Key Words: change, education system, outlook, satisfaction, student

Change in the Singapore Education System There have been many changes in the Singapore education system, motivated by a need to prepare the youths of today to meet the challenges of tomorrow. The governments rationale was that globalisation and intensifying economic competition mandated such a move. Lee Hsien Loong, current Prime Minister who was then Deputy Prime Minister, said, Looking ahead, whether Singapore survives and prospers will depend rst on our making a successful transition to a knowledgebased society, and second on achieving a strong sense of social cohesion and rooted-ness among its people. Education is not by itself the complete answer to these twin challenges, but it must be a major part of the answer. Education does not set the agenda for the future, but it moulds the people who will determine the future of the nation. (Lee, 1997) The ofcial strategy, Thinking Schools Learning Nation, emerged in 1997 from a strategic review of education, motivated by a pre-occupation with the future. The challenge was not just to be forward looking and prepare the children to be in step with the future, but to prepare them so that they could be continually prepared for the future (Tan, 2000). Goh Chok

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Tong, ex-Prime Minster, introduced this national strategy at the opening of the 7th International Conference on Thinking on 2 June 1997. In his speech, Goh (1997) said that Singapores vision for meeting this challenge for the future is encapsulated in four words: Thinking Schools, Learning Nation. It is a vision for a total learning environment, including students, teachers, parents, workers, companies, community organisations and the government. He cited the American education system as an example of one which was able to produce highly creative and entrepreneurial individuals. Their best schools produced well-rounded, innovative students by putting them through a diverse and challenging curriculum. Their academic institution and research laboratories are at the forefront of ideas and scientic breakthroughs, infused with entrepreneurial spirit. And they have developed strong links between academia and industry, society and government. We in Singapore should learn from these strengths of the American system. (Goh, 1997) To achieve the vision, Goh (1997) said, Our Ministry of Education is undertaking a fundamental review of its curriculum and assessment system to see how we can better develop the creative thinking skills and learning skills required for the future. It is studying how to cut back on the amount of content knowledge that students are required to learn, and to encourage teachers and students to spend more time on projects that can help develop these skills. We will also strengthen National Education, through formal lessons as well as experiences outside the classroom, so as to develop stronger bonds between pupils and a desire to contribute to something larger than themselves. . . Thinking Schools will be sites of learning for everyone, including those who shape our educational policies. Schools will provide lessons on how policies are working out on the ground, and give feedback on whether policies need to be changed. This process, of knowledge spiralling up and down the system, will be a dening feature of education for the future. To support the achievement of Thinking Schools Learning Nation, the desired outcomes of the education system were re-examined. What the education system is now supposed to develop in a student was summarised in a statement called The Desired Outcomes of Education (Wee, 1998). Briey, the students who have gone through the education system have to be creative, entrepreneurial, and have a lifelong habit of learning, able to think global and yet rooted to Singapore. They have to be morally upright, culturally rooted, and yet understanding and respecting differences. They have to be responsible to the family, community and country. They have to believe in the principles of multiracialism and meritocracy, appreciate the national constraints and yet be able to see the opportunities.

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To support the goals of The Desired Outcomes of Education (DOE) many changes were made to the education system. The way schools were managed was also changed in preparation to support the new education initiatives. The Ministry of Education (MOE) had found the system overly rigid, resulting in schools waiting for edicts to be issued from headquarters. The MOE also realised that one size could not t all. More autonomy was given to the schools so that they could be more exible and responsive to their own needs. Schools are now placed in clusters and given the authority and resources to spot and solve problems. Each cluster comes under the charge of a superintendent who has chalked up a sterling track record as a school leader. Principals are encouraged to think of themselves as CEO of their schools, and to manage their schools like companies by leading people, producing results and answering to shareholders and customers, and talking about service, marketing, getting results, bottom-line and vision statements. The headquarters is given the role of the guardian of standards, ensuring that overall curriculum needs are met and professional training is given to staff. To keep their ears to the ground, senior ministry ofcials make visits regularly to schools island-wide, explaining policies and gathering feedback from school staff. Under a new School Excellence Model, schools are also appraised differently, giving more emphasis on value-addedness, leadership, staff management and strategic planning, rather than just on academic results (Ng, 2003). All these changes were effected to support several major educational initiatives. An ability-driven paradigm was adopted for the education system. Ex-Minister for Education, Teo Chee Hean said, Ability-Driven Education (ADE) vision is all about how we look at each child, at his potential; and how we can develop it to the fullest (Teo, 1999). National Education (NE), launched in 1997, was another signicant initiative. The objective of NE is to develop national cohesion, the instinct for survival and condence in the future by fostering a sense of identity, pride and self-respect as Singaporeans. It involves students knowing the Singapore story, understanding Singapores unique challenges, constraints and vulnerabilities, and embracing the core values of the Singaporean way of life. Another signicant education initiative was the emphasis on creativity and entrepreneurship. Syllabi, examinations and university admission criteria were changed to encourage thinking out of the box and risk-taking. Students are now more engaged in project work and higher-order thinking questions. The usage for IT in education was also emphasised. Singapores Masterplan for IT in Education, launched also in 1997, laid out a comprehensive strategy for creating an IT-based teaching and learning environment in every school, so that every student becomes literate in IT skills by the time they leave school.

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Students Perception of Change From an organisational point of view, students are a strange group of people. For their student life, although they are not paid to study, their work is within the education system. Any change in the education system means a change in the way they will have to work. In this respect, they are like the employees in a company. But they are customers as well for a service or indeed a product, which is the education package, has been provided to them. Yet at the same time, students are also the products of the education system. Students can therefore be described as the intersection of the employees, customers and products of the education system. They have some characteristics of each group, and yet not all characteristics of each group. Students work within the education system, receive a service or product from it, and are themselves its raw materials and products. The management of each group has been well researched. Human Resource Management deals with the management of employees. Marketing deals with customers. Operations management deals with products. But the management of students during a change process has not been established as a management discipline. Almost, if not all, literature and research in the management of change point to employee and customer buy-in of any change as a best practice (e.g., Kotter, 1996; OToole, 1995; Pasmore, 1994). Since a change to the education system affects the students, and the outcome of the change dependent in many ways on their reaction, students have to be carefully managed as a group. However, unlike any other contemporary institution, the student is always a blind spot in changes in the educational arena. This blind spot arises because the key person who can in fact reect on how the whole system is functioning, is the one person who has no voice in the system, and no power to provide meaningful feedback that can produce change. Their opinions are discounted. They are treated as kids in a system run by adults for their benet. This must change. The hope of deep and enduring education evolution lies with the student (Senge et al., 2000). Student perception is important. It is a collective phenomenon, a sort of synthetic average formed from the opinions held by members of the student population. It is not unanimous. Any one student may not even hold it. But because it is collective, it can be mobilised on some particular issue and directed towards some kind of action. As a government prepares to make changes to the education system, a great challenge is to lead the students in the direction that it wants. In this respect, student opinion of the change issues is important. Although youth is an impressionable age, to swing students to come to an acceptable opinion is not necessarily an easy

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task. Student buy-in to policy is very important. Good change management is the key. If a student is constantly unhappy with the education system during change, the repeatedly evoked feelings and response dispositions become organised into a unied and enduring cognition system a cynical attitude. As the student acquires more and more attitudes, his fresh examinations and interpretations of them decrease. His action now becomes stereotyped, predictable and consistent. Cynicism has taken a hold on the student. When a person is cynical, any change is held in suspicion, if not contempt, regardless of whether it is a good or bad change (Dean, Brandes & Dharwadkar, 1998; Kretch, Crutcheld & Ballachey, 1986). A primary stakeholder of the education system is the student. Students must be featured prominently in the equation of the change management process. It is important that students buy into the content of the change. If change is to be successful, people have to be convinced that they need to change, be provided with a vision of the desired end state. The end state must be much more desirable compared with the current situation so that they will want to change (Bechhard & Harris, 1987; Jacobs, 1994). Students should be convinced that the changes are necessary. Furthermore, they have to be convinced that the rationale underlying the content of each of the policy changes is sound, good for them and good for the nation. Students should feel they are the masters of opportunities, not the victims or guinea pigs of change. It is also important that students buy into the approach of the change. While it is essential to move quickly with the changing times, the pace of change must not leave students breathless. It will create stress and will be counter-productive. So, the pace of change must be comfortable: quick enough to maintain momentum but not too fast as to drown people (Kotter, 1996). People should be consulted and involved in the change process, as partners of change and not targets of change (Kanter, 1983; LynehamBrown, 1997). Therefore, extensive two-way communication on the change and student involvement in the change process are important to cultivate shared vision and enhance motivation. Peppers and Rogers (1997) stressed the importance of developing learning relationships with customers. This relationship should not be one-way and that the role of the customer should not be passive. If the MOE sees students as customers, a dynamic two-way relationship, with open channels of dialogue, should be forged. Consultation and participation by students do not preclude the necessity of strong decisive leadership. But strong government action does not seem to be a problem in Singapore. In fact, a consultative and participative style probably requires a higher level of management competency from the government.

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The transition period of change must also be well managed. It is important that the expectation and experience of the people meet (Lawson & Angle, 1998). Politicians and senior education ofcials may have painted a wonderful picture of the change initiatives. However, whether the implementation during the transition phase of change matches the students expectation is the crux of the matter. Cynicism will set in easily and resistance to change will build up if experience is different from rhetoric (Dean, Brandes & Dharwadkar, 1998). Moreover, students have not seen the fruits of change but are already experiencing the pain of change. If the quality of student life is so low during the change process, that they felt pressurised and cannot enjoy their student life, dissatisfaction will set in and students will want to cling onto the original state. All these factors will have an impact on the frame of mind of the student. This impact has two components: their current satisfaction level and their outlook of the future state. The current satisfaction level may be gauged from whether students feel that the education system allows them to develop their potential, whether the education package is well rounded, whether they enjoy their student life, and whether they perceive Singapore to have a world-class education system. The outlook of the future state may be gauged from their perceived likelihood of the achievement of the Desired Outcomes of Education. The degree of this impact has a direct bearing on the success of the change effort. To manage well, Sun Tzes Art of War advocates knowing oneself and ones enemy to win a hundred wars (Wee, Lee & Hidajat, 1991). Understanding students perception during the change process in the education system is an important component of the management of change.

Conceptual Framework The main thrust of the conceptual framework is the belief that how favourably students perceive

Content: the policy changes in the Singapore education system, Approach: the approach of these changes, in particular the pace, the level Transition: the situation during the transition period of change, in particular with regards to the quality of student life. will have an impact on them, dened as the differential effects on their perception of: of communication and participation,

Satisfaction: their current satisfaction with the education system, Outlook: the perceived likelihood of the achievement of the DOE.

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Research Questions and Hypotheses Based on the conceptual framework, the postulation is that students perception of content, approach, and transition, which form the independent variables in this study impacts satisfaction and outlook, which form the dependent variables. The following hypotheses were developed for verication to address the research question: H1a: How favourably the students perceive content has differential effects on their perception of satisfaction. H1b: How favourably students perceive approach has differential effects on their perception of satisfaction. H1c: How favourably students perceive transition has differential effects on their perception of satisfaction. H2a: How favourably the students perceive content has differential effects on their perception of outlook. H2b: How favourably students perceive approach has differential effects on their perception of outlook. H2c: How favourably students perceive transition has differential effects on their perception of outlook.

Methodology Questionnaire Development and Sample A pilot survey was conducted to identify important issues of the education system change and design the questionnaire. The rst stage involved four focus group interviews with nine university students, eight polytechnic students, eight junior college students and six teachers, respectively. The researcher introduced the topic on change in the education system and invited members of the group to share their views freely. Issues raised included study pressure, apparent rigidity of the current system that could hinder the creative expression of ideas, and the anxiety students might face in the shift in emphasis from examinations to project work. Insights gained were recorded and categorised, and served as inputs for drafting the survey questionnaire. The second stage involved the administration of the draft questionnaire to 11 students (three Junior College, ve Polytechnic and three University). This sample was stratied to follow approximately the proportion of students found in the types of educational institution at the time of research (Junior College : Polytechnic : University = 23.4% : 46.0% : 30.6%). After lling out the questionnaire, comments about clarity of the items or difculties faced were collected from the participants. Taking the

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recommendations into consideration, redundant, leading, and other faulty items were eliminated, while ambiguous items were rephrased. The layout of the questionnaire was also improved. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, it was then tested and retested with 11 other students (three Junior College, ve Polytechnic and three University) to ensure repeatability. The internal consistency of the constructs was ensured by their Cronbachs alpha values, and the expert opinions of four teachers were also sought to verify the content validity of the questionnaire. The nal questionnaire was sent out to students in polytechnics, junior colleges and universities. Respondents were asked to make an indication of their personal prole (sex, age and current schooling status), and to examine a series of 43 statements (items) relating to the change issues. They were required to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the statements on a six-point Likert Scale. A six-point scale was chosen to force a choice from the respondents, and at the same time provide a reasonably wide breadth of possible responses. Items were randomised in the questionnaire to eliminate any anchoring effect. The method was used throughout the questionnaire to facilitate quick and easy completion. There are 415 items corresponding to each variable, making a total of 43 items in the questionnaire. Each item is a statement to which the students respond on a six-point Likert scale to indicate the degree to which they agree with it. Examples of items are:

Content: I welcome the introduction of IT in education. Approach: Students are consulted about education policy changes that Outlook: I believe that the future education system (5 years down the
road) will be able to train students to be creative. Out of the 1000 survey forms that were distributed, a total of 357 students responded to this survey, constituting a gratifying response rate of 35.7%. However, eight forms were found to be inadmissible because of various anomalies, such as a failure to respond to certain items. The nal sample size was 349, which was 34.9% of the 1000 forms sent out. Follow-up Interviews After the survey was conducted and its results analysed, low-up interviews were conducted with 11 students (three ve Polytechnic and three University). This sample was to follow the proportion of students found in the types institution. a series of folJunior College, again stratied of educational affect them.

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The interviews were essentially consultative in nature, aimed mainly to elicit a conrmation or an elaboration of the results of the survey. They were meant to complement the survey, to provide a verbal counter-check or further insights into the survey results. The major factors that affected students perception of the change in the education system formed the content of the interviews. Each interviewee was to elaborate on his or her perception of the changes made in the education system. In line with the aim of achieving a consultative footing, the interviews were not rigidly structured. The researcher began by describing certain observations about changes in the Singapore education system, and sought to conrm the general situation, while at the same time build up the rapport. The interviewee was then free to comment on the observations.

Findings Tables 13 summarise the ndings of the research. Overall, the research results showed that the student population in Singapore had a strongly favourable perception of the content of change. The students welcomed the policies. For example, when commenting on the change in emphasis from regurgitation to reasoning, an interviewee said:
For a long time, our system has over-stressed on memory work, that the ability to reason has been neglected. It is not that I have successfully entered university, and so will not face reasoning tests, that I say so. Its really true that in our days before university, our studies have not adequately prepared us to make deductions or arguments. But these skills are very important for university work and indeed in the working life.

However, there appeared to be some dissatisfaction with the approach of change. The general feeling was that changes were too many and too fast. Students might even have lost track of all the changes introduced. Moreover, students saw changes being imposed on them. They were not consulted. They had to accept changes that came to them and try to adapt.

Table 1 Scores of each variable. Type of variable Independent Independent Independent Dependent Dependent Variable Content Approach Transition Satisfaction Outlook Mean 2.510 0.847 1.106 0.779 1.264 Standard deviation 1.141 1.217 1.022 1.708 2.006 Inference Strongly favourable Slightly unfavourable Moderately unfavourable Slightly favourable Moderately favourable

The mean takes values from 5 (strongly unfavourable) to 5 (strongly favourable).

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Table 2 Results of multi-linear regression of satisfaction with content, approach and transition. Dependent variable Satisfaction Independent variable Transition Approach Content R R2 0.59 0.35 Coefcients 0.54 0.40 0.30 F 62.33 t 6.299 5.543 4.556 Signicant at 5%? Yes Signicant at 5%? Yes Yes Yes

Table 3 Results of multi-linear regression of outlook with content,approach and transition. Dependent variable Outlook Independent variable Content Approach Transition R R2 F 35.69 t 5.799 4.847 2.595 Signicant at 5%? Yes Signicant at 5%? Yes Yes Yes

0.49 0.24 Coefcients 0.48 0.45 0.29

Although they believed in the positive motives of the government, they did not feel that they had much say. As one interviewee said:
We are just students. Would anyone care to listen to us? Or think that we have anything to contribute? It is just funny that many changes were made for our good, but no one asked us for our opinion rst, when it is supposed to be for the students.

While the government welcomed the occasional feedback from students, there was a lack of established channels of feedback. Examples of such remarks from the interviews:

Seriously, who do we feedback to? The feeling is that asking for feedback is just lip service.
The results of the survey also revealed that students had a negative perception of the transition phase of change in which they found themselves. The main complaint appeared to be a student life that was too stressful and tiring, because it was too focused upon the pursuit of examination results. Examples of such remarks from the interviews:

Lets face it. What counts in the education system and for schools is We hardly have time to breathe when we have so many tests each week.
While the government was advocating a move away from examination results and encouraging creativity, teachers and schools were still obsessed with results. The message was not consistent with what was experienced. really the exam results and academic ranking.

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Trapped in a pressurised system, students themselves were also obsessed with results. An interviewee commented:
The trouble is not with the teachers and the principal. I mean teachers and principals all have this obsession with results. But if you look at some of your own friends, they are worse.

Some students felt that they might not be able to cope with the changes. Examples of such comments that came through the interviews:

So suay (colloquial for bad luck) to be the guinea pig for the new
examinations with all these creative questions. They are very difcult to score, you know. My results will be affected. With all these changes in the JC (junior college) system, I may go to polytechnic instead. However, the research results showed that the satisfaction level of students remained positive. The students in Singapore realise that the education they are receiving is much better than that in many other parts of the world. One interviewee (university student) said:
I believe that Singapore has a very good education system. (Our local universities) are catching up with world standards. But we still have some way to go and lots of things to learn from the real world class universities such as Stanford and MIT. We do not have the breadth of curriculum choice and our exposure to high-end research is very limited.

Accordingly to the research results, their outlook was even more positive, which was a little surprising. This suggested that the students had condence in the governments ability to achieve the objectives of change. This condence was strong enough to make them look beyond their current situation to visualise an education system of the future. Perhaps the excellent track record of the government had an overbearing effect on the outlook of the students. Examples of such comments that came through the interviews:

The government has a track record of being able to do things. I am not

certain what all the policy changes are in the education system. But I think that the intentions are good and the government is capable enough to achieve their aims. At the end of the day, the government will achieve what they have set out to do. We have a very capable government. Whether it is project work, national education or IT, these changes will soon be part of the education system and people will soon adapt to them. However, one interviewee pointed out:
Whether people change because they are afraid of losing out or because they truly believe in them (the changes) is another matter.

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This was a valid point. Although policy and structures have changed and students behaviour has been modied as a result, the true spirit of life-long learning might still be decient. Even so, the overall impact of the change on the students was positive. While this is a good sign, the danger is that the lack of visible resistance decreases the need to improve the way that change has been managed. Below the surface, under-currents may continue to erode the students passion about learning, whilst a mirage of a problem-free change process is maintained. The regression model hypothesised that content, approach and transition would be positively correlated with each of satisfaction and outlook. Regression analyses supported all the hypotheses at 5% level. This model can be used as a guide to understanding Singapore students and managing the change in the education system. It shows that to improve the impact of the change on students, three major factors of change have to be considered, namely the content, approach and transition period of change. Satisfaction was most signicantly correlated with transition. This was a sensible result. The satisfaction level of a student is most affected by what he is currently experiencing. This points the government to a better management of the transition period of change. Dissatisfaction with the transition period may end up as resistance to change. Interestingly, outlook was most signicantly correlated to content. Approach was a close second. Transition was signicantly less correlated. This shows that the assessment of Singapore students of the achievement of the objective of change is based mainly on the content and approach of change, not so much what they are currently experiencing. It seems that the Singapore students have the maturity to see beyond the current situation they are in. This may be because they have experienced the ability of the government to bring success in the change process.

Implications and Recommendations This section discusses some implications of the research results and recommends some corresponding strategies. The research results have shown that the change process was too fast and change was too frequent for the students. New emphasis on creativity, project work and reasoning tests came almost at the same time, putting them under great pressure. There are several implications. First, a limits to success (Senge, 1990) archetype may set in. The government has worked hard to change the education system, one that will nurture the true passion for learning. Initially, there will be some success because students appear to be engaged in

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creative work. But as the number of initiatives increase too quickly, students have to ght to cope with the new learning areas. They may even resort to coping strategies such as copying and pasting from the Internet. They may soon lose the passion for true learning, and concentrate on getting grades in those new areas. This jeopardises creativity in the long run. To the students, regardless what the rhetoric may be about creativity, in the mean time, mugging for examinations will still bear more material fruits than spending time in exploratory work, since at the end of the day, it is the examination that counts. More efforts and attention will still be channelled in that direction, instead of exploration and experimentation. Management of the pace of change is therefore important because there is a subtle limit as to how many changes people can cope with at one time. In Singapores context, the recommendation is for the government to alternate major change initiatives with minor organic ones to allow students to absorb and adjust to the change. As the veried regression model has shown, this will enhance the satisfaction level of students and their positive outlook on the success of the change process. The results have also indicated that there was room for better communication and a higher degree of consultation with the students. This is very important because it allows a chance for the vision of the change to be shared and embraced by them. Listening to reported speeches in the press are not enough. Students have to understand rst hand why they need to undergo the pain of the changes, and how the changes will benet the country and them in the long run. They have to understand the scope of the changes and their expected role during the process. Otherwise, there can be confusion, disgruntlement and anxiety. It is recommended that ministers and senior education ofcials visit schools regularly, not just to address the principals and teachers, but also to address students. This can take the form of a forum to share the new education direction and to develop give-and-take dialogues with students. During such a forum, the government can use the opportunity to share the rationale for change and the envisaged future education system, which will focus on developing expertise for a knowledge-based economy and rooted citizens for the country. Students concerns can be addressed and suggestions can also be taken up. Such a personalised approach sends the signal that students are important and play a critical part in the change. Public recognition of student suggestion and feedback sends a powerful message of support. This treatment inuences a students perception of how the education system values the student. In the spirit of TSLN, it is important to have an education system that realises the importance of identifying students as associates and partners. Such a system creates a new sense of connection between students, schools and the government. Eliminating the barriers between students,

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schools and the education ofcials will enhance team learning and collective intelligence. This is a new model of relationship, one that focuses on sharing constructive information and celebrating openness. The use of student participation in the change process can be especially helpful to elicit greater commitment on the part of the students. Participation increases the understanding of the change, allows students to offer their own ideas in making it successful, and frequently improves the nal outcome. The research results indicated that students found the transition period of change stressful, brought about mainly by the fast pace of change and the constant emphasis on examination results. Indeed, such high pressure during the transition period of change can be counter-productive to the change process for many reasons. The policy changes to develop creativity in students may, for example, push some students in the short run to focus on using their creativity in their project work. However, the obsession with results has not been addressed, and project work is examinable. The fear of making mistakes and the fear of losing out will stress out the students. They need to be creative because creativity leads to good grades. In time, their natural creativity will wane while a pressurised creativity to cook up something good will take over. Another possible scenario is that as the level of creativity required for examination increases, and this shift in examination mode is almost immediate, demand for new expertise to be quickly acquired also increases. However, there is a time delay in acquiring the new expertise because people cannot turn creative overnight. This will lead to apprehension on the part of the students as to whether they can cope with the changes to do well. They will resort to the well-tested formula of mugging up possible creative questions. This decreases the desire for creativity and opposes the effort towards real learning. Also, the experience of the students was sometimes inconsistent with the message, especially in the softer philosophical issues. One good example was that as the government encouraged students to be more creative, to experiment and not be too constrained by the possibility of failure in exams, the education system was still functioning in a result-oriented paradigm. Schools were still obsessed with grades. University entrance was still based on grades. Such was the conict: on the one hand, students were asked to step out of their comfort zone. On the other hand, the basic need of security was not guaranteed. The management of the transition period of change is thus very important to the success of the change. As the government continues to refer to a new creative mindset in all the ministerial speeches reported in the press, it may generate more and more cynicism in the students who could not feel that the same is taking place in their lives.

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The government should not talk less about a shift to a new mindset. But at the root of this problem is the competitiveness in the education system in the area of academic results. The notion of success is pretty narrow. For a long time, a successful student has been one with good academic results. Brilliant youths are those who take 4 A level subjects and 2 S papers and score distinctions in all of them (Ng, 2003b). In this area, some progress has been made. The MOE has gone some way to send signals about a broadening on the notion of success. A newspaper carried this report when the national examination results were released (Ng & Davie, 2004):
The Education Ministry has departed from its usual practice of releasing the list of schools which had 100 per cent of their students scoring ve or more O-level passes. Nor is it telling which schools showed signicant improvement in percentage passes. It is doing so, its spokesman said, because it wants to make the point that success in education should not be measured by academic results alone.

Indeed, a good school should be one that develops a students intrinsic love for learning and a spirit of questioning, and creates opportunities for them to apply learning in real life. While a healthy sense of competition among schools may be good for improvement, education ofcials should take care not to fuel this competition to a destructive level by emphasising how the results of one school compare with another. Conclusion There is scope for further research. It would be interesting to do a longitudinal study of how students perceive change in the education system. Another interesting possibility would be to explore whether students perception is inuenced by demographical variables such as age and family background. The ndings of this study strongly support the idea that policy-makers and educators can involve students to improve the effectiveness of change. Involving students can be a strategic move on the part of policy-makers to improve the school system. References
Bechhard, R. & Harris, R. T. (1987). Organisational Transitions (2nd ed.). Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. Dean, J. W. Jr, Brandes, P. & Dharwadkar, R. (1998). Organisational cynicism. The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 341352. Goh, C. T. (1997). Shaping Our Future: Thinking Schools, Learning Nation. Singapore Government Press Release. Speech by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at the Opening of the 7th International Conference on Thinking, 2 June.

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