I do not know the basis for the predictions, but even at the upper end of the figures there is no contest with Singapore. Indications are that other tiger economies have similar plans to make extensive use of IT in their educational systems. According to a colleague after a recent visit to Malaysia, that country is also aiming to be the IT capital of Asia, if not of the world. So our tigers are becoming fibre tigers, and in this case it is not the tigers who are the endangered species. And this is where I think of Darwin.
Survival is a competitive business.
I have talked about the schools situation, partly because Higher Education has to build on secondary education, and partly because, as I said before, figures on the use and role of IT in Higher Education do not seem to be available. Here are some figures which indicate the rapid pace of this change. This graph shows the growth in the participation index between 1980 and 1995, that is the percentage of the population in the 18-20 age range who entered Higher Education . The increase in this index presents a different kind of challenge. On the basis of this figure it is hard to see IT use at a level that can compete with the fibre tigers.