Chapter 7 - Education and Knowledge

Summary

The road to modernity in higher education may need a reinforcement of […] traditional values, not a break with the past.

— Goh Keng Swee (University of Hong Kong, March 1993)

In August 1978, Goh was tasked by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew “to look into the problems of the Ministry of Education with a team of your own choice”. No terms of reference were given because “the field was vast, the problems innumerable, the objective simple”. This objective, Lee later wrote in his official response to the final report, was “to educate the child to bring out his greatest potential, so that he [would] grow up into a good man and a useful citizen” (Report on the Ministry of Education 1979: iii).

The team concluded its report on 10 February 1979, the same day that Singapore had its largest ever by-election. The latter event was triggered by the demise of a PAP Member of Parliament. The timed resignation of six party veterans as part of the party's drive to renew its ranks meant that seven constituencies held polls that day, two of which were walkovers for the PAP (SE). Significantly, on 13 February that year, Goh became Minister of Education, and would remain so until his retirement. Heading this new ministry was thus a heavy responsibility that came at the end of his political career. He had however always held strong views on education, and his early opinions can here act as a point of departure for our appraisal of his later contributions.

Interestingly, Goh participated in a student debate held at the University of Malaya in October 1958 where he led the opposition against a motion that read: “Where the state largely finances a university it should have the right to determine and direct university policy”. The Straits Times reported him arguing against the “absurd and indefensible” motion, saying that the university's primary duty was “the pursuit of knowledge and not turning out leaders for political parties or staff for the civil service”. His side, which included student Ernest Wong and lecturer Dr Wang Gungwu, won the debate (ST 30 Oct 1958).