I’ve collected the blog posts on education in Singapore and turned them into an eBook. This contains some more research and information, and presents the posts in an orderly, comprehensible way. The title is Singapore’s Education System: How it Works, and it’s available on Amazon.com. Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Singapores-School-System-Works-ebook/dp/B007D7SXW0/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330294049&sr=1-2 The book is now (June 2012) […]
There are two traditional ornate gates to Nanyang Technological University, both inscribed in Chinese and with the date 1955. Neither is actually at an entrance to the university, but we’ll pass over that for now. They are both within hailing distance of the main campus and obviously point the way to the same direction. But […]
As part of the government effort to ensure survival of the species, or at least of the well-educated Chinese Singaporean portion of it, the National Institute of Education was relocated to Nanyang Technological University 13 years ago. A huge new campus was built for NIE, located in an old durian orchard just across the street […]
NIE, Singapore’s National Institute of Education, will host the Youth Olympic Games arts and cultural events in the evenings during the games. So for the two weeks of the Games proper, plus a week on either end – in fact, the whole of August – NIE will be non-functional. But that doesn’t mean its employees […]
We went home to the U.S. for the holidays, and now we’re back in Singapore. As I read about sub-zero temperatures and storms closing the roads in California I try to be less annoyed by the daily sweatiness here. It’s actually the nicest time of year in Singapore, with light breezes and frequent rain; sort […]
We found this at a school, on the steps between the science room and the gym. Over the objections of certain members of the family, I brought it home and kept it in the living room. I’m pleased with the focus on the individual diamonds that my camera managed to achieve. I didn’t realize […]
The library system in Singapore is good, but not free. Foreigners pay $57/year for membership, and locals pay $24 (I think). You can reserve books, but it costs $1.55 per book. Late fees are fifty cents a day. You may not borrow more than 8 books at any time, or borrow more books if you […]
It’s examination time at the university, and the students are extremely quiet. But today on our morning walk around the campus, we were passing a dormitory when we heard a peculiar, rhythmic knocking sound. Clearly it was not a machine – could it be a really big woodpecker? Well, sort of. As we went by […]