(Part 4)
The focus of Japanese character formation is always group responsibility, in great contrast with the philosophy of individualism prevalent in Western societies. Students work in small teams (han) for activities, cleaning tasks, and projects. Cooperation, peer support (not rivalry), and self-governance are encouraged. Children learn to adjust their behavior to help the group succeed. The mandatory use of uniforms minimizes economic differences and emphasizes belonging. Strict punctuality and structured routines instill discipline and respect for time, especially the time of others.
Much value is given to extracurricular activities (bukatsu). After-school clubs are central to Japanese education. Students commit long hours to sports, music, or arts groups. They learn team loyalty, endurance, hierarchy, and collective responsibility. Older students mentor the younger ones, reinforcing what is called a senpai-kohai (senior-junior) social structure. Social virtues are also taught through community involvement. Neighborhood associations teach children civic responsibility. Festivals, local cleanups, and disaster-preparedness drills build public-mindedness or concern for the common good. Children walk to school in groups, fostering cooperation and mutual care.
Broader culture and media reinforce social virtues through cultural norms. Public behavior expectations are instilled in the young at a very young age: quiet trains, orderly queues, polite behavior. Stories in anime/manga often promote perseverance, loyalty, and integrity. National emphasis on collective harmony shapes the appropriate attitudes from childhood. It is clear that what makes Japan effective is alignment: family teaches respect; school reinforces; society expects it. Virtues are modeled everywhere: teachers, elders, public figures, and peers. To summarize, Japan inculcates social virtues through a holistic system: families teach empathy and respect; schools teach discipline, responsibility, and teamwork; communities teach participation and self-restraint; and culture reinforces harmony and self-restraint. The result is that social virtues, by constant repetition and reinforcement, become habits, not abstract lessons.
To demonstrate that these Japanese practices can be replicated in another society, we now examine how the late authoritarian leader of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, was able to systematically follow the example of Japan in the 1960s when he took over the reins of a disorderly and undisciplined group of individuals who separated themselves from the state of Malaysia.
Prime Minister Lee intentionally looked at Japan as a model for transforming the economically backward society that Singapore was into a state-guided, multicultural, and meritocratic system in order to cultivate civic virtues. The people of Singapore were fortunate that they had a leader who was totally committed to the common good of their society, which explains the very low level of corruption in that small city state.
Lee Kuan Yew made sure that the inculcation of civic virtues would start with the family. Families teach respect and responsibility, supported by long-term national efforts like learning how to speak good English while at the same time striving for bilingualism through Good Mandarin movements.
Learning from Japan, the early years of schooling the school system focused not on academics but on the cultivation of such civic virtues as politeness, cleanliness, and civic duty. I can never forget what I saw in the 1970s at the Luneta, which at that time was being transformed as an exceptional oasis of order and cleanliness through the efforts of the famous journalist, Doroy Valencia. There was this Singaporean couple with three children enjoying the sights of the park. The children were eating candies that had wrappers. Once they had consumed the delicacies, the kids were visibly looking for a garbage can. Unfortunately, there was none close by. Just one look from their parents prompted all three to put the candy wrappers into their pockets.
Singapore has a structured nationwide program broken down into Character and Citizenship Education (CCD) which is a major pillar of the education system. It inculcates in the children, through both words and deeds, the virtues of respect for others, responsibility, resilience, national identity, cultural harmony, and integrity. Like in Japan, virtues formation does not stop with exhortations and lectures. In school, the children are assigned concrete tasks through which they exercise everyday responsibilities such as cleaning their classroom, serving meals during lunch, and learning how to live punctuality and discipline. Work assignments are in project groups, developing a keen sense of cooperation.
There is a big difference between Japan and Singapore as regards ethnicity. Japan is monoethnic. Singapore is multiethnic (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and others). For this reason, the schools in Singapore teach racial harmony, understanding different religions, and shared national identity (analogous to the US), celebrating the festivals of all major groups. Events like Racial Harmony Day train children to respect diversity as a core virtue.
Obligatory military service is another means of inculcating discipline among the youth. For boys, National Service (NS) at age 18 contributes to strengthening discipline, unity across races, leadership, and resilience. For younger children, volunteer programs and community-service programs build civic engagement early on.
There is continuous cultural messaging sponsored by the State. There are constant reminders, school posters, social campaigns, and media messages that emphasize orderliness, lawfulness, kindness, cleanliness, and national pride.
Mr. Lee stressed that parents are the first teachers. The State supported families through parenting education, health and nutrition programs, and community-based childcare. Schools complemented, not replaced, the family. Mr. Lee’s strong belief in this reminds me of the motto of Parents for Education Foundation (PAREF), the Philippine NGO inspired by the teachings of Opus Dei founder St. Josemaria Escriva, that owns and manages several private schools run by parents: “Parents first, then teachers and in the third place the students.”
In Singapore, early childhood teachers are carefully trained, professionally certified, and continuously evaluated. Singapore has avoided rapid expansion that would dilute quality. The lesson we can learn from Singapore is that in early education, who teaches matters more than what is taught. Lee Kuan Yew viewed early childhood education as the most decisive battleground for national character, competence, and cohesion.
Some lessons for Philippine education that are possible takeaways from the Singaporean experience are:
• we should be investing more on ages 0 to 6, and less in universities;
• we should elevate teacher status and training in preschool;
• we should integrate character formation, language mastery, and family support; and,
• we should treat early education as economic and moral infrastructure.
(To be continued.)
Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.
