That means most university places will be publicly funded even as the government looks into expanding the number of university places for Singaporeans.
The issue of too many university places going to foreign students resulting in insufficient spots for local students was hotly debated.
Concerns were raised even as the government said an additional 2,000 university places will open up for Singaporeans by 2015.
The quota for foreign students will also be capped at 15 per cent for the next four years.
In August, a Committee on University Education Pathways was formed.
Its role includes looking into ways for even more Singaporeans to attain a university education in the long term, and ensuring a robust university sector with high standards.
One option has been the prospect of a fifth, publicly-funded university.
Mr Wong said: "We haven't decided whether the expansion should be done through a new institution or through an expansion of an existing institution, so that's something we will deliberate (on), and discuss with different stakeholders.
"We will have the recommendations out in due course. But if we want to expand our university sector, our focus should be on teaching, on providing young people with the relevant competencies and skills that will prepare them for the workplace.
"And so, the concept of the teaching university was mentioned. It doesn't mean that we will definitely create a fifth university, because we can expand our existing universities."
Mr Wong noted Singapore already has two well-established research-focused universities in the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore.
"I think if you look around at examples of research universities, you really need critical mass, you need economies of scale to do research well," he said. "You need to bring in people together. You don't want research efforts to be fragmented and dispersed.
"In fact, that's what's happening in France, where they are trying to pool together some of their research universities to create that critical mass because they had developed in a more diverse and disparate manner.
"When you look at our sector in Singapore, I think you have research-intensive universities like NUS and NTU that are doing well. I don't think we need to develop even more research-intensive universities for a small country like Singapore."
The committee will also consider expanding other university pathway options, through private institutions, part-time degrees, and Continuing Education and Training (CET).
But Mr Wong stressed that publicly-funded universities will continue to be at the heart of Singapore's higher education function.
"When you have a publicly-funded institution, you are able to think through the programmes you are offering, you are able to ensure a certain quality in the programmes you are offering, you are able to make sure that the mix of offerings that you have is closely tied to the industry," he said.
"So there is that much more linkage with the outcomes you want to achieve when you have publicly-funded institutions."
Besides higher education, the Ministry of Education is also reviewing the teaching and learning methods to raise the quality and consistency within the pre-school education sector.
The government has said it wants to ensure pre-schools here provide a holistic education for children, through play, arts, creativity and innovation.
It also wants to see an easier transition for children going from kindergarten to primary school.
The Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework (SPARK), a voluntary quality assurance programme, was implemented early this year.
It is open to kindergartens, as well as childcare centres, which fall under the directive of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).
MCYS does not rule out making SPARK mandatory for all pre-schools.
Character development may also be introduced into the childcare education sector.
That is in line with a similar initiative for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
"We also want to ensure that we start instilling values in children at a very young age, not necessarily in a very class-roomy way, but in a fun way, where they learn about important things, about honesty, sincerity, hard work, caring for each other," said Minister of State for MCYS Halimah Yacob.
"I don't think it will be so structured, like in terms of a specific lesson, but there's a lot of things we can do through play, through teaching.
"For example, for physical education, we have a new framework which was launched together with the sports council, where you sort of integrate that into the children's curriculum, instead of saying, 'let's have a specific class on physical education'.
"But even when you're reading, playing with them, you could structure some part of physical activities.
"I think it's the same with (teaching) values...Children learn a lot by interacting with adults, and through play, and through a different way, instead of a more didactic way of teaching values."
As far as curriculum is concerned, the focus will be on the recently-launched "Early Years Development Framework" for children up to the age of three.
Over the years, there have been calls for kindergarten and the childcare industry to come under the regulation of one ministry, but Madam Halimah said this would not be easy.
She said: "There are issues which both ministries -- whether you feel that everything should go under the Ministry of Education or everything should go under my ministry -- need to iron out.
"Because, if you look at childcare centres, a significant part of the operations provides custodial care, and that may not necessarily be up the alley of the Ministry of Education.
"So we do feel that so long as you have a method, a vehicle where both ministries can work together, and we could see that consistency and quality, that is more important."
The special needs education sector will also expand in the coming years.
By 2013, the government will add a total of 450 places to two special education (SPED) schools -- 150 for Metta School and 300 for Pathlight School.
It is also pumping S$30 million to refurbish these schools.
To raise the quality of education in the sector, the ministry is rolling out a SPED Outcomes and Curriculum Framework, which Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Sim Ann said will help the diverse SPED schools share a common language with the ministry.
The framework sets out the vision for SPED as well as desired outcomes the students should achieve.
MOE aims to release the final framework by the end of 2012.
- CNA/wk
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