The focus of this essay would be the conformity in the education system among students in Singapore. According to Psychology Today, “(c)onformity is the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs and behaviors with those around you” (n.d.). The key forms of conformity in Singapore’s education are normative and ingratiational conformity. Normative conformity is succumbing to group pressures in order to fit in due to the fear of rejection and ingratiational conformity is the act of conforming to impress or gain acceptance from others, motivated by social rewards (McLeod, 2007). In Singapore, the society has molded people into thinking that in order to do well and succeed in the future, they would first have to achieve academic excellence in school.
From a young age, the children in Singapore are exposed to an education system of standardized assessments and examinations which rewards and recognizes stellar results and scorns the poor. As a result, the students fear failure and are pressured to keep up with the standards, just to gain validation and approval. As cited from the Ministry of Social and Family Development, “a greater proportion of children fear failing tests and examinations more than the death of their parents”, with 36% fearing failure and 17% fearing the death of parents (n.d.). With this statistic, the fact that more students are afraid of failing their examinations than the lost of a loved one, is a testament to the immense stress carried on their shoulders.