04 Aug 2005

Title: Innovation, enterprise need daily nurturing

1. Mr Sanjeev Kumar Roy (“Primary 3 pupil taught MBA-style curriculum”, ST Forum, 23 Jul) had raised the issue of teaching innovation and enterprise in his daughter’s school.
2. We agree with Mr Roy that innovation and enterprise is a “cultural philosophy” and it takes time to build this culture. As such, the spirit of the Ministry’s Innovation & Enterprise (I&E) drive should not be narrowly interpreted as teaching students about running businesses. It is about developing desired attributes and mindsets such as intellectual curiosity, resilience, ruggedness and a willingness to give back to the community.
3. While 'entrepreneurship' is not a part of schools' formal curriculum, we encourage schools to provide students with learning opportunities to encourage creativity and initiative. Schools can work with external providers to run 'entrepreneurship' workshops for their students. More importantly, schools are encouraged to leverage on the classroom and programmes such as Co-Curricular Activities and the Community Involvement Programme to promote I&E as a way of life.
4. We believe that nurturing the spirit of I&E is a journey, and it is best inculcated through a whole-school approach on a daily, ongoing basis. As Mr Roy pointed out, creating a more flexible environment, where pupils are allowed to make mistakes, would be a good way to get pupils to be more innovative.
5. We thank Mr Roy for his feedback. He may also like to get in touch with the specific school concerned, so that the workshop content can be reviewed and made more appropriate and engaging for students of his daughter's age.

Wong Siew Hoong
Director, Schools
Ministry of Education