Globalisation, the Singapore developmental state and education policy: a thesis revisited

Abstract

In this article I revisit and extend arguments made in 1996 and 1997 about the relationship between globalisation, the state and education policy. I was particularly concerned then to see how a small but strong state, Singapore, was responding in the education arena to globalisation. I also wished to draw attention to the literature on the high rates of economic growth achieved by the East Asian ‘tigers’ in which education, training and capital–labour accommodation played a large part; in all these countries the state was strong, being in the market as well as managing it. But with globalisation and neo‐liberal economic policies growing in strength, the havoc caused by the 1997 Asian economic crisis and the new geopolitical and security environment following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, there is a need to reconsider some of the arguments and to review the policy responses, especially in education. Is there evidence of the state weakening? Are more pro‐market policies changing governance and funding of education thereby altering the nature and purposes of schooling? I begin with a consideration of the broader phenomena of globalisation and then review the claims that call into question the continued relevance of the East Asian developmental state model and its education and training infrastructures.