Commenting on Asian parents enrolling their children in tuition centres, SMU Assistant Professor of Political Science (Education) Nathan Peng said countries that sorted students through high-stakes national examinations at a young age were particularly vulnerable to widening social divides. He noted that even if all schools were equally good, the earlier you test a child, the more the results reflect family background rather than schooling, because the child has spent less time in the formal education system. Asst Prof Peng added that the more a society believes credentials reflect someone’s ‘true’ potential, the less likely it is to ask how much adversity different candidates overcame to reach the same point. Asst Prof Peng also noted that early support was crucial as children often started school from very different academic baselines. He suggested that governments should help narrow gaps in family resources from pregnancy through early childhood, including nutrition, learning materials and parents’ knowledge of child development.
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