Singaporean Education System

The Singaporean education system is managed by the Ministry of Education, which develops and administers state schools funded by taxpayers and holds an advisory and supervisory role over private schools, with education spending making up about 20 percent of the annual national budget. Singapore's 2000 Compulsory Education Act made school attendance mandatory for children of primary school age, with exemptions available for homeschooling or full-time religious institutions on application. English was designated the first language of instruction in 1987 and is used for nearly all subjects except the official Mother Tongue languages, and the system has been consistently ranked among the highest in the world by the OECD, topping global rankings on the PISA assessment and producing half of all perfect scorers worldwide on the International Baccalaureate examinations in 2020.