Implementation of public education programs about Confucian Ethics and Religious Knowledge in Singapore

• Main Authors: Wen-Hui Chiu, 邱文惠
• Other Authors: Chi-Rong Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97732871576949927228

碩士 === 真理大學 === 宗教文化與組織管理學系碩士班 === 101 === The study mainly discusses news clippings published in Chinese papers and other relevant research during the period of the implementation of the moral education programme of religion and Confucian ethics in Singapore from 1984 to 1989 in order to summarize the opinions of the whole nation regarding the programme reform, analyze reasons for the failure and state subsequent development; thus the study can be a reference for a nation consisting of multiple ethnics, languages, religions and cultures when it intents to implement a moral education programme of religion and Confucianism. For the purpose of providing a background to the topic researched, the study refers firstly to the reasons for implementing the programme, the reform of religion and Confucian ethics; next the study mentions the brief history of religious and moral education in the east and west, the growth and decline of religious education in public schools set up by main national churches, and whether Confucianism is a kind of religion, a brief developmental history of Singapore, the process of the Chinese introducing Confucianism into their lives and a brief history of Lee Kuan Yew etc. This paper describes the whole process of the implementation of the programme reform in the sequence including the Preparation Period (1982 - 1983), the Implementation Period (1984 - 1989), analysis on termination factors and the effect and development after the termination (1990 ~). Subsequently the paper discusses the part of the reform from which we may draw some lessons in sub-sections, typically involving five issues: philosophical theories, education, connotation of Confucian ethics, queries and debates, queries and amended debates. Among the issues foregoing, as the content and structure of philosophical theories are too massive for the study to contain, we can only address them briefly. The study aims to make a painstaking investigation to list the items that should be noted when a nation with multiple ethnics, languages, religions and cultures intents to implement a moral education programme of religion and Confucianism so as to avoid the same mistakes as Singapore. At the same time, I deeply admire Lee Kuan Yew and the Government of Singapore for their spirit of always planning beforehand and performing tasks with full vigor and urgency. I don’t think the programme reform of the Government of Singapore has completely failed; at least they have left a precious human experience which is a valuable contribution.