3.2 Cultural activities • Digitalizing government functions (permits, licenses, taxes) in order to speed up all procedures or delivery of required The Art and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR), published in 2012 documents to access the job market. and containing objectives to be achieved by 2025, was drafted with the input of a public consultation process that involved Every economic revolution leads to job destruction and job more than eighty stakeholders. An online public consultation creation and creates requirements for new skills and abilities. An was conducted as part of the ASCR, and it received three online training platform helps citizens to enhance their skills and thousand visits to its site and more than a hundred comments competences. Furthermore, ecareer centers and digital hiring (ACSR, 2012). In addition, a quantitative survey asking five platforms are positively influencing the employment rate by hundred respondents from across Singapore’s socioeconomic facilitating mechanisms for hiring and dismissing employees— spectrum about Singapore’s arts and culture offerings was for example, by proposing training programs or courses to conducted in 2011 (ACSR, 2012).11 candidates before a job interview to ensure that every candidate gets the same chance when applying for a given job. The ACSR envisages “a nation of cultured and gracious people, at home with our heritage, proud of our Singaporean identity” 4.2 Children’s access to school (ACSR, 2012). The objective set in the review is to increase the proportion of Singaporeans who attend at least one art or In Singapore, the government is focusing on supporting and culture event per year from 40 percent to 80 percent (ACSR, leveraging education and school access within its Smart Nation 2012). The vision will encompass two facets to ensure efficient vision. Materials published on the Singaporean government implementation: website in 2020 indicate two new priorities in terms of education. •Art and culture are an integral part of people’s lives, providing opportunities for residents to access a wide variety The first priority aims to ensure access to Singapore’s of arts and cultural activities in Singapore (ACSR, 2012); opportunities (gov.sg, 2020). In this area, many initiatives •The cultural landscape consists of high-quality cultural have been implemented to provide access to educational institutions and offerings, supported by a qualified board, opportunities for all. For example, playgroup or kindergarten aiming at raising the quality of arts and culture offerings fees can cost as much as two thousand Singapore dollars across all levels (ACSR, 2012). per month. To ensure that quality preschool is affordable, the government “raised the gross monthly household income for Under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), means-tested preschool subsidies to SGD$12,000” (gov.sg, in 2018, a Singapore Arts Plan (2018-2022) was launched with 2020). Additionally, to ensure education access for all, low- the vision of “excellence that inspires our people and connects income families pay only three Singapore dollars a month per our communities.” The plan stemmed from the Arts and Culture child for a full childcare day. These initiatives aim to reduce Strategic Review (ACSR) in 2012. A further analysis would be some of the social obstacles to access to training and to the needed to investigate the impact of these measures and their job market (gov.sg, 2020). synergies with the Smart Nation program. The second priority is to ensure that students are becoming 4. Opportunities lifelong learners by making the learning experience enjoyable. Following that direction, some objectives have been set: 4.1 Employment-finding services • In 2019, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced measures that helped to revamp the Primary School Leaving Smart city developments can lead to an influx of high-paying Examination (PSLE) scoring system. These took effect in tech jobs and accelerate the wave of digitalization developments 2021. Examination report cards with grades indicate scores that might in turn support local business growth. For example, as Achievement Level (AL) scores from AL1, the best, to AL8, the digitalization of administration facilitates entrepreneurs’ instead of the previous alphabetical grades launching of new companies. However,a shift toward •By 2021, mid-year examinations would be removed for all digitalization and a more powerful tech sector can also hurt Primary Level 3, Primary Level 5, Secondary Level 1, and the labor market. To overcome this challenge, Singapore has Secondary Level 3 students (gov.sg, 2020). implemented different ways to ensure job market stability: •A free education platform; The objective is to ensure that every student finds an area •New maintenance posts linked to the administration; that he or she can master. Accordingly, the education system (11) https://www.mccy.gov.sg/ 154 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021