While Singapore’s education system claims to implement meritocratic ideals, official statistics indicate that Malay students in Singapore have been underperforming when compared to other ethnic groups (MOE 2012). This statistical representation raises the possibility of a politically induced, systemic inequality as a point of investigation. To investigate this seeming contradiction between the rhetoric and practice of equal educational opportunity, this paper proposes a philosophical and analytical synthesis for examining the 1979 policy report that provides the fundamental basis for Singapore’s streaming education system. In examining this policy development, the analysis draws upon a combination of Foucault’s archaeological method and Critical Discourse Analysis as a way of understanding conditions that made possible the continuous re-construction of new but unequal representation of learners. The findings suggest that complex relations between capability identification, justice, and ethics set the conditions for the appearance and transformation of subject positions necessary to legitimise unequal structural access.

中文翻译：

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为人类分裂和结构性不平等创造条件

虽然新加坡的教育体系声称要实施精英理想，但官方统计数据表明，与其他族裔相比，新加坡的马来学生表现不佳（MOE 2012）。这种统计表示提出了政治诱发的系统性不平等的可能性作为调查点。为了调查平等教育机会的修辞和实践之间的这种看似矛盾的现象，本文提出了一种哲学和分析性的综合方法，用于审查 1979 年的政策报告，该报告为新加坡的流媒体教育系统提供了基本依据。在审查这一政策发展时，该分析结合了福柯的考古方法和批判性话语分析，作为理解条件的一种方式，使不断重建新的但不平等的学习者表征成为可能。研究结果表明，能力识别、正义和伦理之间的复杂关系为主体地位的出现和转变创造了条件，这些条件是使不平等的结构性获得合法化所必需的。