Shadow Education Beyond Tutoring? New Forms of Private Supplementary Classes in Singapore

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of new forms of private supplementary classes in Singapore. Specifically, it examines the consolidation of an ‘enrichment industry’ offering classes in sports, music, performing arts, and extracurricular academic activities. The paper argues that even if such classes do not shadow the school curriculum or prepare students for national examinations, they can still be understood as a form of shadow education. More precisely, they reflect a policy shift from exclusively academic to more holistic criteria of educational advancement. They interact directly with private tutoring as competing strategies in the educational arms race, and in this sense, extend the competitive logic of shadow education into holistic education itself. As many other (especially Asian) countries with substantial shadow education sectors are undertaking similar reforms, the dynamics between education reform and shadow education uncovered here may have relevance for other systems as well.