International
Journal of Social
Economics
29,12
946
International Journal of Social
Economics, Vol. 29 No. 12, 2002,
pp. 946-955. # MCB UP Limited,
0306-8293
DOI 10.1108/03068290210447987
Education policies as means to
tackle income disparity:
the Singapore case
Pundarik Mukhopadhaya
Department of Economics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Keywords Income, Inequality, Education, Policy, Immigrants, Health care
Abstract The Singapore economy maintained a 9-10 per cent growth rate in terms of per
capita real GNP during the period 1980-1990; the Asian financial crisis, however, lowered the
growth rate to some extent after 1995-1996. The incidence of inequality in Singapore, however,
is quite high compared to other similar industrialised countries. The government has gone to a
great extent to be fair in terms of educational opportunities to the poorer section of the society.
This paper has examined the education policies of the Singapore government and showed that
some of the schemes are reasonably biased towards the high and middle income class people.
1 Introduction
Singapore, a city-state of around four million people, recorded the world's ninth
highest gross national product (GNP) per capita of US$ 30,060 in the list of 174
countries covered in the World Development Report 1999-2000 (World Bank,
2001). However, an alternative set of estimates using purchasing power parity
criteria ranked Singapore as fifth. Singapore has been one of the fastest
growing economies in East Asia. Its average rate of growth (in per capita real
GNP) was around 10 per cent during 1980-1990 period and 9 per cent during the
first half of the 1990s. It, however, slowed down in the mid-1990s, with a decline
from 8 per cent to 4.9 per cent during 1995 to 1996, decreasing sharply to ±3.77
per cent in 1998, largely due to the adverse impact of the East Asian crisis. It
has, however, recovered quickly, and grew at a rate of 4 per cent in 1999 and
almost at the rate of 10 per cent in the first three quarters of 2000.
Very recently the concern of increasing income disparity in Singapore has
become a hot debate. The occasional paper by Singapore Department of
Statistics (2000)[1] released to the local media generated much discussion,
notably because of the finding that household income inequality had risen in
1998 and 1999, the years of lacklustre economic performance caused by the
after-effects of the economic crisis in the region, otherwise marked by good
overall economic growth in the decade.
Singapore economy experienced a relatively low degree of inequality in the
1970s due to the achievement of full employment and tightening labour
markets (as well as the National Wages Council policy of suggesting a small
fixed amount in its wage increase guidelines). The low inequality, however, did
not last long. As Singapore began losing its competitive advantage in labour
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The research grant (No: R-122-000-034-112) by the Faculty of Social Sciences, National
University of Singapore to carry out this research is gratefully acknowledged.