Education, Industrialization and the End of Empire in Singapore by Kevin Blackburn (review)

Kevin Blackburn is an associate professor of History in Singapore’s National Institute of Education, the country’s principal institution for training its teachers. Having taught in Singapore since 1993, he is clearly familiar with the country’s internationally acclaimed education system. This accessibly-written book is useful for readers looking to understand the successive Singapore governments’ development and instrumentalization of technical and vocational education to serve economic goals, as well as the anxieties, aspirations and dilemmas that influenced this process. His new book shows that there has been a growing “‘education-economy’ nexus” in Singapore since colonial times, in which economic considerations and educational policies have become intertwined. The interplay between the political and economic calculations of the respective Singapore governments, the socioeconomic aspirations and anxieties of local communities, and the changing structure of Singapore’s economy have driven the development of technical and vocational education.

Chapter 1 discusses the neglect of educational development in early colonial Singapore, when colonial officials were reluctant to invest resources to support the educational interests of transient immigrant communities. Since the mid-1850s, however, the growing need for clerks to serve the colonial administration and business houses, and the growing desire for English language education as a “pathway for social mobility into white collar employment” (p. 25) among the migrant communities, spurred the gradual expansion of English-medium schools and introduction of commercial classes. Nonetheless, it was clear that the colonial officials were not keen on creating “an overeducation of the masses” (p. 24). They also wanted to limit access to English language education for native Malays, so as to inhibit the latter’s social aspirations.

Chapter 2 sheds some light on the intense debates and disagreements among colonial officials on the subject of vocational and technical education in Singapore between 1901 and 1941. The rise of manufacturing industries in Singapore, and the desire to provide suitable educational opportunities for local boys deemed “not suitable” for clerical work were the principal considerations. Nevertheless, it took the dislocations of the Great Depression to really convince colonial officials to expand existing schools, establish new trade schools, and to push previously reluctant parents and children towards vocational education. This impetus did not, however, stop Singapore from remaining “a colonial entrepôt with an industrial sector at its margins” (p. 55).

Chapter 3 demonstrates how the Japanese invasion and occupation of Singapore between 1942 and 1945 and the resulting destabilization of colonial rule accelerated the pace of industrialization, and correspondingly the development of institutions and infrastructure for education. The Japanese military administration laid special emphasis on technical education primarily to serve their own needs, but also to win the loyalty of the populace — especially the Malays. Subsequently, the returning colonial administration revamped English-medium education and established new institutions, for instance, Singapore’s first polytechnic. This was done to prepare Malaya for eventual self-governance and meet increased demand as Singapore’s industrial sector grew further in the 1950s.

Chapter 4 brings us closer to the present, focusing on how the Singapore People’s Action Party (PAP) government, after coming to power in 1959, dramatically and comprehensively reformed and expanded industrial education to support Singapore’s rapidly industrializing economy. Similar to the experience of the erstwhile colonial administration, the “ingrained attitudes” (p. 112) of many parents and their children for academic education and white collar jobs impeded their early efforts. This was until the British withdrawal from their military bases in Singapore, announced in 1968 and completed in 1971, which heralded the loss of employment for about 40,000 employees in the naval base in Singapore. This galvanized greater public acceptance of, and public investment in vocational and technical education.

This book is timely — it comes as Singapore reconsiders its colonial legacies in the light of the approaching bicentenary of its founding. Blackburn aims to interrogate the “People’s Action Party inspired mythology that it inherited a fragile state and poor economy neglected by the colonial power” (p. 5). He...