What Gove should know about Singapore schools

Excelliarmus! Why do East Asian children feel they can relate to Harry Potter? Because he wears glasses, like so many of them do. The fascination with British wizarding students extends to British schools, and it’s safe to say that many Asian youngsters, not to mention their parents, picture the ideal institution of learning as being very much like Hogwarts — an age-old establishment with neat timetables, clear rules, homework, team sports, and a dash of imagination and magicking on top. In other words, an old-school school. 

I have been thinking quite a lot about Michael Gove (in a scholarly kind of way) ever since he declared that the British education system should emulate that of places such as Hong Kong and Singapore. My first reaction was to recoil — I completed my secondary and tertiary schooling in Singapore, and I know first-hand what rote-learning and a heavy emphasis on science and maths is like.