Income, Wealth and Power, edited by Pasuk
Phongpaichit and Chris Baker; and The
Oil Palm Complex, edited by Rob Cramb
and John McCarthy.
Translating academic works from
Asian languages into English is also of
particular interest to Schoppert and his
team, “but, again, it is an uphill battle.
Translators and editors have to be sensi-
tized to differences not just in language,
but also in discourse and rhetorics.
While this is very important work to us
and to many of our authors, it is often
hard to justify, in business terms, given
the time spent readjusting arguments for
different language worlds.”
But, with initial print runs ranging
from 400 to 2,000 copies, Schoppert
considers himself—and NUS Press—
fortunate that the region’s book trade
still supports serious nonfiction and aca-
demic/trade crossover titles.
Shing Lee Publishers
The 2014 launch of the U.K. edition of
the Maths—No Problem textbooks was
a watershed moment for Shing Lee
Publishers. “It opened the door for sim-
ilar collaborations with publishers
around the world,” says CEO Peh Shing
Woei. “The timing was great as the local
educational market has not been growing
due to the low birthrate,” he adds. “We
had to look beyond the Singapore shores
for future expansion.” (This primary
school math series has since been licensed
to publishers in the Philippines and
Sweden, with the Spanish edition due
out soon.)
Shing Lee’s primary and secondary
math series—its most popular prod-
ucts—have been adopted by educators in
40 countries, including Australia,
Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands,
New Zealand, Taiwan, and the U.S. Peh
and his team have licensed the secondary
school series, which is approved by
Singapore’s Ministry of Education since
1979, to Italy, and are now in the process
of completing the U.K. edition. “As for
the U.S., our current K– 10 series is
Common Core–compliant, while grades
11 and 12 titles are in the developmental
process.”
Peh recalls his surprise and elation
when, in 2009, President Barack Obama
acknowledged the effectiveness of
Singapore math, and pointed out how
Singapore students outperform their
U.S. peers in the 13-to-14-year-old age
group. “It threw the focus on math series
like ours, and it coincided with a time
when overseas teachers were starting to
look for new content and resources for
use in the classroom,” Peh says.
Today, the 81-year-old company,
which started as a humble comics bookshop operated by Peh’s grandfather, is a
major player. “We have moved beyond
our specialty, which is math, to offer
both textbooks and supplementary
materials for English and Chinese languages, science, literature, geography,
and history,” adds Peh, whose team also
offers 10-year examination series with
step-by-step solutions. “Products aside,
we also offer professional development
courses for teachers to help them with
the latest teaching trends and pedago-gies. Our principal trainer, Dr. Yeap Ban
Har, is one of the world’s leading experts
in professional development for teachers
in Singapore math.” Peh Shing Woei, CEO of Shing Lee Publishers
Star Publishing
With seven series of its textbooks
approved by Singapore’s Ministry of
Education, Star Publishing has effectively dominated over one-third of the
primary school market, as well as over
two-thirds of the secondary school math
segment. “Given the above market
strengths, we started looking into overseas expansion opportunities two years
ago,” says executive chairman and managing director Steve Seow. “Since then,
we have published math programs for
Brunei and the U.S. This year, the
Ministry of Education in Colombia has
approved the Spanish edition of our primary math for use in its schools.” He
adds that the South African edition of
the Targeting Mathematics series will be
published this November.
Singapore, says Seow, is one of the few
Asian countries to use English
throughout its education system. “With
the growing number of international
schools using English as the medium of
instruction in Asia, our textbooks are
ready to be adopted or used by these
schools. Within the region itself, the
business potential is immense.”
Seow has over 40 years of experience
in educational publishing, having
turned a small bookshop into the pub-
Steve Seow, executive chairman and managing
director of Star Publishing
