[Music] every weekday morning across the small island nation of Singapore children arrive at state schools while the children come from different economic and cultural backgrounds they are all offered the same quality of instruction with 20% of the national budget devoted to education Singapore has developed a well resourced world leading educational system with the world becoming much smaller and more globally competitive we are looking at what's going on in education throughout the globe and to see where things are being done well and what we can replicate in the United States looking at the piece of results you see certain countries who out-compete America countries like Finland an Ontario Canada and countries like Singapore where we are in right now and what's remarkable about the places that out-compete America they focus on collaborative environments where kids and teachers can thrive and they focus on building the best professional class of teachers one can be just at a heart of medication and the Institute that trains the teachers it is the heart of the whole education system the National Institute of Education trains all teachers in the Singapore school system the top performing students are selected for specific subjects and teaching positions and are given a rigorous 21st century training to prepare them for a lifelong career we open the loop and new areas new domains would the total ultimate focus is how do we prepare a better teacher such that he or she can bring the best education to the students in the classroom religious service-learning day where many as we walk around and see the campus he will just demonstrate to you how the government view in terms of this importance of teacher education in Singapore where the square for the land is equated the goal and diamonds and here the government gave us 16 hectare devoted to teacher education and teacher development then they actually created a timeline so they're actually contributing so you're really trying to get his perspective of what he was thinking about wow that's fantastic kids in this school are joyful they like being here but equally important is what the teachers are doing in every classroom we go into teachers can explain what they're doing why they're doing it and the connection between what they're doing and the learning that kids are accomplishing and in seeing them math classes we're starting to see a really interesting pedagogical method it's about visualization as opposed to memorization and about kids actually engaging in creating blocks to see what's more and what you also see as part of this a real focus on language immersion so that kids are understanding what more than means what fewer than means things like that in Singapore there is a recognition that post-secondary education is important for all students not only the top performers the state of the art institute of technical education involves businesses in shaping their curriculum preparing students for real-world employment prospects the extracted enzyme and walk out and come up with a washing detergent and they pick up some basic skills either in enterprise of entrepreneurship whether they go for for someone else they understand how business or operating to be able to contribute more to the organization than what we or they can go and start their own little business you see a place that is focused on Commerce a place that is very entrepreneurial a place that is very focused on work and a work ethic we better cook for them so there is more friendship so basically if I wanted to have a party I only have to make one phone call right yeah and you do everything ooh I'm ready it's great to be here at the Tampines school we've just spent several hours looking and watching an amazing educational environment so every Jews be dirty so they're learning how to use itself the education is engaging where technology is infused as a tool in education and where teachers are constantly working with each other we're just so happy to be here to see and to watch how you're creating that engagement and that love of learning and that sense of kids becoming resilient and confident and caring and passionate and and and learners and that's fantastic so thank you there is collaboration there's trust there sharing you didn't hear one teacher talk about test based accountability you didn't hear one principal talk about test based accountability and you didn't see any fixation in terms of testing do you see a school system that's focused on collaboration and Trust Eddie station pupils will learn on how multi-ethnic multi-religious nation of Singapore and go to a freedom freesia allegiance harmony that also has these in a school environment thank you visitors it's been a wonderful trip not just because of the hospitality that we've been shown by the educators here but because of the commitment that you see to education kids are joyful the education is engaging where technology is infused as a tool in education and where teachers are constantly working with each other to create an amazing educational environment [Music] you [Music]