SINGAPORE : The education landscape in Singapore this year was characterised by many changes, all designed to provide better quality and more diversity.

And secondary students will benefit from these changes next year as more advanced elective modules, ranging from water technology to fashion apparel design, will be introduced.

As for Primary 1 and 2 students, they will have a new modular-based Chinese language curriculum while a new school offering enhanced vocational programme with a strong emphasis on social emotional needs, will open its doors in January.

The key announcement in the education scene this year was the scrapping of streaming after 27 years.

In its place will be subject-based banding.

Under this new system to be implemented in 2008, weaker students can take a combination of foundation courses and standard courses, depending on what they are good at - a move from a fixed menu to an ala carte menu, according to Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Chandler Jay Siva, Principal, Marsiling Primary School, said: "In the past, a teacher teaching purely EM3 students often feels demoralised because she is often not able to see the outcome she wants, because the children are generally not motivated or interested in their studies. But now, I believe that with the mixed ability, they are able to engage children in a more constructive manner and more positive outcomes are seen. So it actually encourages them to do better."

Motivating teachers and attracting new entrants to the teaching force was also high on the Education Ministry's priorities this year.

$250 million will be spent in the next three years on measures such as bigger gratuities, full-pay sabbaticals, and funding staff development - all to make teaching more attractive as a long-term career.

The target is to have 30,000 teachers in the service by 2010, a number needed to implement the diversified education options that schools are increasingly offering.

In 2007, more advanced elective modules, ranging from water technology to fashion apparel design, will be made available to secondary school students.

While a new modular-based Chinese language curriculum will be implemented at Primary 1 and 2 in all schools next year.

NorthLight, a new school to cater to "drop-out" students, by offering an enhanced vocational programme with a strong emphasis on social emotional needs, will also open its doors in January.

Central to the education system is the nine-year-old National Education scheme which will be tweaked.

The aim is to not make National Education didactic or propagandistic but rather to get students more involved so they can develop a sense of rootedness to the country.

A committee has been set up to look into how this delicate task can be achieved.

Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: "We have to find every way to help our young know who they are, give them the skills and confidence to engage in a globalised world, and give them the sense that they are responsible for taking Singapore forward into the future."

And taking Singapore's arts education into the future will be the $210 million LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts City Campus.

The school, which aims to be one of the leading arts institutes in the world, will open in the Bugis area in June 2007. - CNA/ch