STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN SINGAPORE SCHOOLS

Abstract

In a meritocratic and pluralistic society like Singapore that seeks to promote moral values and achievement-orientation in its youths, schools have become an important agent of socialisation. It has been observed that the education system, whilst encouraging attainment of academic excellence, also promotes participation in extracurricular activities (ECA) to incorporate desirable attitudes and skills in these young minds. This research seeks to report the perceptions and attitudes of secondary students towards ECA. This paper also attempts to find out if the education system with its overemphasis on the academic curriculum and the institutional streaming system, has an impact in the shaping of these student perceptions, by comparing such findings across the three academic streams of SAP (Special Assistance Schools), Express and Normal. Upon completion of the research and fieldwork, this paper found that respondents from the different streams did not accord ECA with the same level of importance as examination subjects, despite ECA being made compulsory. However, it was found that students from different streams held different perceptions of ECA, manifested by their different participation patterns and responses to the questions fielded. It also discovered that there were certain limitations in the present ECA policy. However, most of these bottlenecks are interlinked with the education system as a whole. As such, despite several ECA policy changes, it is difficult to envision the elimination of all these problems in the foreseeable future, without a corresponding reform in the education system as a whole.