well for starters, their government pays an INCREDIBLE amount of money to their "public" schools, so their facilities, technology, number of computers, etc etc are all top-notch. the government here really seems to value education and i don't blame them. i think the students also have a great respect for their education and teachers. I'm actually in a homestay right now with a girl named Tiara from CHIG secondary school... let me ask her.
ok well this girl is an exception... she doesn't particularally like school
but she suggested that some reasons are hands-on learning experiences and having the facilities and equipment that they have (good guess kate!).
In detail about my homestay... Tiara's parents, Joan and Patrick, took us to the Shore Restaurant, a place on the east coast of Singapore (where they live... it takes her 30 minutes to get to school! by car!) which was RIGHT NEXT to the sea. The meal was amazing... I had beef curry, baby kai lan, fried chicken wings, and for dessert a "tennis ball"... fried ice cream and the fried stuff was green. YUMMY! They took me back to their apartment afterwards to watch SINGAPORE IDOL!!!! apparently the people who are still on the show are terrible but it was very similar to the one back in the states.
Now we're getting ready for bed and I need a lot of sleep for tomorrow... school visits again!