„In January 1979, a new education system was introduced. Singapore moved away from its earlier one-size-fits-all approach to schooling to create multiple pathways for students in order to reduce the drop-out rate, improve quality and produce the more technically-skilled labour force needed to achieve the new economic goals. Streaming (tracking) based on academic ability was introduced, starting in elementary schools […] While streaming was unpopular when it was introduced, drop-out rates did, in fact, decline significantly: by 1986, only 6 % of students were leaving school with fewer than 10 years of education. The range of efforts to raise standards also yielded results: performance in the O-level English examinations went from a 60 % failure rate to a 90 % pass rate by 1984, and by 1995 Singapore led the world in mathematics and science on TIMSS.“
OECD (Hrsg.), „Lessons from PISA for Korea“ (2014), S. 135f