5 September 1998

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*Developing Thinking Schools* was the theme of the Ministry of Education´s inaugural Work Plan Seminar on Education in Schools held on Sat 5 Sep 1998, at Nanyang Polytechnic. It is the first of what will be an annual seminar in the continuous effort by the Ministry to prepare our education system to meet future challenges.

Keynote Address by the Minister for Education

2. RADM (NS) Teo Chee Hean, the Minister for Education, opened the Seminar. In his keynote address, the Minister described Education as *a major strand in the overall fabric of the Singapore Story, one which is interwoven with other strands and one which helps to hold the nation together*. He called on the nearly 1,000 participants from MOE, schools and institutions of higher learning to discuss and debate the future of Education to lay the foundations for Singapore´s future success.

3. The Minister outlined his ideas on the strategic directions needed for the future. He traced the development of the Singapore education system from one which was driven by the need to survive and thrive as an independent sovereign nation to the current highly efficient system. He described Singapore´s
education system as *sound and robust* and paid tribute to the foresight and enterprise of educationists and policy-makers who had shaped education in the last forty years.

4. Admiral Teo told his audience that overall national capacity was the bridge that would enable Singapore to make the leap across that chasm dividing third and first world countries. He challenged the educationists and policy planners present to adopt an ability-driven strategic approach in policy planning and practices. The two key features of ability-driven education were: maximal development of talents and abilities, and maximal harnessing of talents and abilities. These would in turn require fundamental changes in mind-sets, attitudes, policies and practices to become reality.

5. The Minister ended his keynote address by calling on school leaders to exercise initiative and creativity to steer their individual institutions in the most suitable ways forward along the strategic direction of an ability-driven education system. He said that if MOE and its institutions succeeded in changing our strategic paradigm, they would keep inventing good ideas and continually put themselves on a higher growth curve.

6. After hearing the big picture from the Minister, the participants broke into smaller groups to discuss the features, strengths and potential pitfalls of a ability-driven education system, and how their individual schools would respond to the challenges ahead.

7. The results of the discussions will be used as inputs for developing work plans for MOE and its institutions over the next five years. This effort is part of the on-going process where the Ministry plans with its key personnel the short and long-term targets of MOE.