This article describes the development and current status of special education in Singapore. Topics include a brief history of special education services, organization of service delivery, integration, teacher training, and achievements. Highlighted within these topics are significant developments over the past decade that have influenced special education services. We conclude by noting several challenges to improve the quality of special education services through integration opportunities, preservice teacher training, greater coordination among services, current educational and social initiatives and rhetoric, and societal vision.Singapore is a small island nation in Southeast Asia that is situated off the southern tip of its closest neighbor, Malaysia. The land mass of Singapore totals 647.5 square kilometers. It has a population of over 3.5 million people, making it one of the most densely populated and highly urbanized countries in the world. In spite of its diminutive size and lack of natural resources, Singapore has become a very successful and prosperous nation. Since independence in 1965, Singapore has progressed to become a model city-state that has achieved many world-class accomplishments. The country boasts the busiest port in the world, operates one of the world's best airlines, is recognized as the world's freest economy, has been recently listed by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy as the most stable country in Asia, and has one of the world's highest per capita gross domestic products (GDPs).To achieve the international status, wealth, and competitive edge Singapore now possesses, rapid change has been a constant feature in Singaporean society during the past few decades. Because its people are its sole natural resource, education is of paramount importance to ensure that Singapore continues to thrive in an increasingly competitive and technologically advanced global environment. As a result, the government expenditure on education is vast. For example, government recurrent and development expenditure on education for 1997/1998 reached record levels of over 3.5 billion and 1.1 billion Singapore dollars, respectively (U.S.$1 is approximately equivalent to S$1.65; Ministry of Education, 1998b). The total government expenditure for the fiscal year of 1998 was $27 billion (Ministry of Finance, 1999).In light of these facts and figures, what is the special education system like in Singapore? Limited information exists on special education in Singapore, and such literature was written at the turn of the last decade. In 1990, Quah described services for people with disabilities in Singapore, and in that same year, Chalmers discussed teacher training for special educators. Significant developments in special education have since been achieved within the past decade. The purpose of this article is to provide information on the current special education system in Singapore, discuss developments in the past decade pertinent to disability services, and suggest new directions and possibilities. We firs...

It is widely known that parent-teacher partnerships are vital to children's progress in their development and learning in schools. These partnerships involve parent-teacher conferences, parents helping in the classroom, teachers making home visits and parent education seminars. However, partnerships rarely extend to having parents involved in the assessment process of their children in a significant way. In Singapore, opportunities for parents to be involved in the assessment process exist but only when invited by a professional, and this is only to a limited extent. Routinely, when professionals assess a child, parents are asked for their observations of their progress at home. However, such information gathered from parents is informal, unorganized and used on a supplementary basis. Hence, it was the purpose of this research project to develop a child-screening instrument that utilized observations of Singaporean parents in an organized fashion by the help of computer technology. With this, it is hoped that the involvement in the assessment process will educate and empower parents to make decisions and play a more active role in the identification of their children's learning needs.This paper reports the use of parents' observations of their children across five developmental domains in the device of a computer-based child-screening questionnaire in Singapore. The Developmental Screening Questionnaire (DSQ) is developed as an initial screening tool to detect potentially at-risk children within the age range of one to six years. This paper also describes the validity and utility of the instrument, making use of computer technology in the test administration process.