Singapore + Education + Psychology

If I did not volunteer to be a guinea pig and sign up for an experiment this afternoon, I would never know that there are more Singaporeans in the Psychology Department in my school than I thought.

And the fellow country mate I met today is currently doing her PhD degree in Educational Psychology.

I'm impressed.

I have always been impressed by people who are doing PhD. I want to do it as well.

And the second discovery I've made is that MOE actually offers PhD scholarships in psychology.

And the bond is only 6 years for 3 years of PhD. Sounds a pretty good deal. Shall consider it after my journalism bond.

Anyway, the first thing she asked me was, "Are you Singaporean or Malaysian?" before which I merely spoke less than 5 words.

I was impressed once again.

But since she has an honours Psychology degree from National University of SINGAPORE (!!!???), a Master degree from UCL, and is now doing PhD, my surprise seems redundant. This was my realisation only after my 40-minutes conversation with her.

Anyway, she enlightened me quite a bit. I am glad I have been following Singapore's news recently (I have to since I'm in the media industry), so I managed to talk about the recent educational reforms pertaining to school ranking, SAT, mother tongue, through train programs and so on.

And another discovery that I've made is that all these recently implemented reforms, that appeared too sudden for most people, have actually been in the pipeline for a while already. I don't know how true this is. But since she was bonded with MOE for 8 years, and another 6 years more after her PhD, I doubt any inaccuracy in what she said.

Besides current affairs, I also asked her lots of questions pertaining to my course... what if I fail to get my honours to qualify for Masters (touch wood)... PhD choices... comparison between US and UK psychology departments... etc...

In short, I was glad to have met her.

And it seems like I need to change my perspective of MOE soon. Acting Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam seems rather promising (read yesterday's Sunday Times). Looks like Singapore's education finally has some hope.

People, be prepared for more reforms by the MOE, soon. =)