"Values Education" refers to any explicit attempt to impart values to students in the formal education system. In the Singapore context, this mainly takes the form of the curriculum subject "Civics and Moral Education" (CME) as well as National Education (NE) initiatives. This article attempts to discuss some challenges faced by and tensions within the system, and to provide some suggestions on how to address such issues.

Values Education and MOE

The subject syllabuses for CME can be found here. Information on NE can be found on its official website. Upon examination it is easy to see a significant overlap in both CME and NE; both are designed with the very pragmatist motivations of the nation achieving social cohesion and economic success.

CME in particular, has been criticized as "citizenship training" rather than authentic moral education. Chew (1998) writes that:

"Whethe[...]