While the bar chart illustrates how female and male students’ average number of years at school in Singapore changed between 2000 and 2010, the pie charts depict the difference in levels of educational achievement for the same period.
Overall, both genders’ average time spent at school grew, but males’ initial and further growing numbers were consistently higher than females’ for the entire period. With the extended number of years at school, the percentage of adults who achieved university qualifications increased. In contrast, the proportion of those who got only secondary education or education below secondary dramatically reduced.
The initial number of years at school for adult males was 9.2 in 2000, before it began to increase by 0.3 every two years until 2004. Subsequently, it increased by 0.2 every two years, starting with 9.8 in 2004 to 10.2 in 2008, and ultimately resulted in 10.5 in 2010. In contrast, the initial number for adult females was 8.0 in the same year, and then remained constant at the same point the next two years, before increasing by 0.2 years in 2004. Consequently, it rocketed from 8.5 in 2006 to 8.9 in 2008, showing a dramatic growth, and finally ended with 9.1 in the last year.
The percentage of adults who received diploma and professional qualifications and university qualifications in 2000 was almost the same: 27.7% for the diploma and 27.6% for the university degree. However, both numbers increased significantly: the percentage of students who achieved diploma level education grew to 37.7%, while the proportion of those who completed university level expanded to significant 44.1%. Conversely, the percentage of people who had secondary education was 21.1%, and the proportion of those who received below secondary education level was recorded 23.6% in 2000. They sharply decreased after the decade to 9.6% for secondary education and 8.6% for below secondary.