Singapore’s niche market lies in its tertiary industries, which makes out a large percentage of Singapore’s gross domestic income. The success behind these tertiary industries is due to the large emphasis placed on education, allowing a small and young country like Singapore to thrive and grab a spot in the placing of first world countries. This can be illustrated as Singapore tops the biggest global school rankings published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2015. (Goy, 2015)
Meritocracy is a core principle of governance in Singapore and education has played a major role in upholding this principle. Since the early days, Singapore has embraced meritocracy as it promotes national cohesion through improving equality and fairness. Indeed, meritocracy has benefited young Singaporeans in a myriad of ways but there are bound to be pitfalls to this practice as well.
Meritocracy is highly valued in Singapore as it seeks to provide equal opportunities to young individuals to learn, achieve and excel, regardless of their backgrounds, races and religions. Instead of discriminating people into social classes, meritocracy allows individuals to realise and excel in their own merits and be rewarded for their hard work and achievements. By providing a stepping stone in life and incentives to work hard, this encourages and motivates young Singaporeans to outshine their peers and not be demoralised or held back by their financial constraints. In addition, by