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The reform agenda for madrasah education in Singapore
Citation
Tan, C. (2009). The reform agenda for madrasah education in Singapore. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival, 3(2), 67-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595690902762068
Author
Tan, Charlene
Abstract
As governments in many countries review their education systems to optimise their human capital in an age of globalisation, religious schools such as madrasahs (Islamic or Muslim schools) have also come under state scrutiny. This paper examines the Singapore government’s reform agenda for madrasah education in the country. It argues that the Singapore government advocates a reformist Muslim view of madrasah education that emphasises the learning of academic subjects such as English, Mathematics and Sciences,
and raising the academic standards of the madrasah so as to increase the economic prospects of madrasah graduates. To carry out its reform agenda, the government presented the ‘problem’ faced by madrasah students within an economic survival rhetoric. It then made tactical changes to ‘solve’ the ‘problem’ by relying on the Compulsory Education Act, providing generous state support to raise the academic standards of the madrasahs, and revamping the madrasah system.
Date Issued
2009
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration Integration Equity and Cultural Survival
DOI
10.1080/15595690902762068
Description
This is the final draft, after peer-review, of a manuscript published in Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival. The published version is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595690902762068