Hi there,

In your written article you touched on the issue of problems created by online based

educational system on students of lower social class. While I agree it could be

disastrous when implemented in some countries however I believe this is unlikely in

Singapore. Mostly because Singapore was ranked amongst the top in education and

school satisfaction and in terms of the availability of educational material, Singapore

fared among the best on the index as reported by the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development in 2017 (OECD, 2019).

During the COVID 19 situation, Singapore who was ranked first in Bloomberg’s COVID

19 resilience ranking (Thong, 2021) manage their online education system by loaning

more than 20, 000 computing devices and 1,600 internet-enabling devices to students

without these resources. In addition, they collaborated with IMDA in the NEU PC Plus

program to apply and distribute close to 10,000 computing devices to students from low-

income and needy families (MOE, 2020). Additionally, telco companies such as Starhub

sponsored unlimited mobile broadband connectivity to lower-income families (Ang,

2020) to access the internet for studying purposes.

Conversely, an online educational system would have caused a detrimental effect on

the teachers. A change in the way student and teacher interact during Covid 19 with the

introduction of online home-based learning increased the responsibilities for teachers

who had to perform added task on top of the numerous duties of teaching. As a result, a

study by the Singapore counselling centre reported that more than 80% of teaches in

Singapore claim that their mental health was adversely affected by their job during the

COVID 19 pandemic (Qing 2021).

References:
ABD OECD. (2019). Government At Glance Southeast Asia 2019. Country Fact Sheet

Singapore. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.oecd.org/gov/gov-at-

a-glance-sea-country-factsheet-singapore.pdf

Ang Qing. (2021, October 1). More than 80% of S'pore teachers say Covid-19

pandemic has hurt their mental health: Survey. The Straits Times.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/more-than-80-of-

teachers-say-the-pandemic-has-hurt-their-mental-health

Gwendolyn Thong (2021a, June 23). How Singapore is handling the pandemic - Policy

Forum. Policy Forum. https://www.policyforum.net/how-singapore-is-handling-

the-pandemic/
Jolene Ang. (2020b, June 10). MOE lends 3,300 devices to students who need them for

home-based learning amid Covid-19 pandemic. The Straits Times.

https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/3300-devices-loaned-by-moe-to-students-

who-need-them-for-home-based-learning-amid-covid-19

MOE (2020). Provision of Devices to Primary and Secondary Students for Home-based

Learning. (n.d.). Base.

https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/parliamentary-replies/20201104-provision-of-

devices-to-primary-and-secondary-students-for-home-based-learning