Expanded prison education improves inmate prospects
Nakarasan, 49, has been in and out of prison since his teenage years for offences such as robbery, vehicle theft and housebreaking.
When he was handed a 10-year prison sentence in 2015, the extent of the time he would be behind bars hit him.
“I wanted to change. I realised I was wasting my life,” Nakarasan, who did not want to give his full name, told The Straits Times.
Determined to make that his last incarceration, he enrolled in a Nitec course in electronics and computer networking in prison school to give himself a goal to work towards.
“I realised that education was my ticket to a new life. I wanted to break free, to live with purpose, and to truly embrace the life I was meant to lead,” he said.
Nakarasan, who will be released in March 2025, is now in a halfway house for the last part of his sentence. He continued his studies in prison school in 2023, pursuing a diploma in business practice (administration and management) from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP). He completed the course in May 2024, and now works at a pharmaceutical company.
“This job has helped me rebuild my life, and I am deeply appreciative of the trust and support I have received along the way,” he said.
He is one of 300 people who studied while in prison in 2023.
Classes are held on prison grounds in classrooms that – if one looks past the barred windows – resemble those in typical mainstream schools, with whiteboards and tables. Prison guards sometimes patrol the corridor outside the classrooms. Lessons can be held both in person and virtually.
Over the years, the courses offered in prison school have expanded beyond the national examinations, giving inmates more chances at better prospects when they return to society.
The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) collaborated with NP in 2018 to begin offering a diploma in business practice course for inmates. In 2020, a degree programme from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) was added to the prison school.
The prison school also started offering the Institute of Technical Education’s Nitec in services course in 2021.
The number of inmates taking the diploma course offered by NP has gone up from 16 in 2022 to 38 in 2023. The inmates pursuing degrees also doubled in number, from three in 2022 to six in 2023.
SUSS told ST that it has plans to introduce more part-time undergraduate programmes to prison school students.
SPS said that about 70 per cent of its inmate population have secondary-level education or below.
“Hence, availing education and skills training programmes is important to help raise inmates’ economic capital and increase their employability upon release,” it said. “Ex-offenders who remain employed are at a lower risk of reoffending than those who are not.”
The Ministry of Education has offered work attachment opportunities for teachers who are keen to teach at prison school since the 1970s. For the past five years, around 12 teachers have been seconded to prison school yearly, with the average tenure ranging from two to five years, it added.
Madam Hernie Salleh taught English in prison school from January 2021 to December 2022.
She was initially worried and anxious about teaching in the new environment, which she feared might be daunting. “I was particularly concerned about potential discipline issues and how best to handle or approach them if they arose,” she said.
Madam Hernie’s worries were eased on the first day when she saw how excited the class was at meeting a new teacher. The students were respectful in their interactions with her and asked questions politely, she said.
“They frequently asked questions about how to improve their English and what they could do to continue learning after class, despite having limited resources in their cells.”
Many also shared their aspirations for the future with her, with some telling her they hoped to continue in prison school as far as they could.
“Their drive and self-reflection made me pause and think about how much they valued education as a means to better themselves,” she said.
“Witnessing the determination of students striving to excel, even under such constrained circumstances, was incredibly inspiring and reinforced the value of education as a tool for transformation.”
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