I got to your blog from the Carnival of Education, and read about this previous post just (a little late in commenting on this perhaps). I happen to be a Singaporean, and have read news reports on this topic a while ago.
I have a hunch that perhaps the attitude of the teachers and learners matters more than the texts alone. Education is a very intense and serious concern for parents, children and teachers in this country, all facing pressure to perform in their own areas. In striving for academic achievements, everyone in the equation sees the need for students to slave endlessly on school work.
For mathematics, that entails concept learning followed by constant and diligent practice on the topic which tests the learned concepts from different angles. The tuition industry (a huge one here) helps in part to propagate the amount of work students do in practicing mathematics, fueled by parents' demand to gain extracurriculum learning time for their children.
Do feel free to write back if you have anything you would like to know about things over here in Singapore. I will be going into teaching college here in June, as a English literature and Physical Education trainee teacher though.
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