04102

10 Sep 2002

First US-Singapore Government to Government MOU on Education signed on 9 Sep

    RAdm (NS) Teo Chee Hean, Minister for Education, and Secretary Roderick Paige, US Secretary for Education, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on collaborations in education in Washington D.C. on Monday, 9 September.

2. This MOU is the first government-to-government memorandum on education between Singapore and the US, and serves to formalise and strengthen the existing exchanges and collaborations in education between our two countries. Educational relations are an important part of the broad and deep relations between the US and Singapore. At the tertiary level, US universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago Business School, Johns Hopkins University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania have a significant presence in Singapore. Our universities have many exchange programmes and collaborations with US universities. At the school level, our students regularly participate in various camps and conferences in the US. The MOU signed on 9 Sep will promote activities such as partnerships between schools and institutions to develop co-operative programmes in primary and secondary education and the exchange of information and effective practices in teaching and learning. The MOU will also cover collaborations in developing learning activities, resources and materials for education, especially in the area of the innovative use of technology.

3. As a start, Singapore and the US will be working together to study the best approaches to the teaching and learning of science and mathematics. There will be a joint US-Singapore study of Singapore's approach in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. Singapore students had performed well at the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-95) and its follow-up study in 1999, coming in top among 38 nations in both studies. One of the aims of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the use of Singapore mathematics textbooks in US schools. The joint study will also enable Singapore to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of the strategies used in teaching mathematics in our schools.

4. MOE will also be inviting National or State award winning science teachers to visit Singapore to share their teaching approaches with Singapore Science teachers. In Jan and Feb this year, for example, the National Institute of Education (NIE) invited two master trainers from the University of Washington, USA, Dr Maureen Munn and Ms Megan Brown, to conduct workshops on 'Teaching Genetics Concepts' for our teachers.

5. A high-level bi-national Steering Group has been formed to co-ordinate the projects initiated under the US-Singapore MOU. This committee is co-chaired by Mr Wee Heng Tin, Director-General of Education from the Singapore Ministry of Education, and Dr Susan Sclafani who is the Counsellor to Secretary Paige.

6. The MOU signed on 9 Sep will form the basis for stronger links between the two governments in education in future. Singapore hopes that these collaborations will open up more opportunities for our teachers to exchange ideas and best practices with their US counterparts. MOE hopes that the various exchanges and joint-projects will create new resources and teaching and learning methodologies that will benefit our students.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Annex

US-SINGAPORE MOU ON EDUCATION

Members of the Bi-National Steering Group

Singapore members

Mr WEE Heng Tin (Co-chair) Director-General of Education Ministry of Education

Mrs CHAN Jee Kun Director, Curriculum Planning and Development Ministry of Education

Professor Leo TAN Wee Hin Director, National Institute of Education

Professor LAI Choy Heng Dean of Science Faculty National University of Singapore

Mrs CHUA-LIM Yen Ching Deputy Director for Sciences Curriculum Planning and Development Division Ministry of Education

US members

Dr Susan K. SCLAFANI (Co-Chair) Counselor to the Secretary Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Dr Valerie REYNA Senior Research Advisor to the Assistant Secretary Office of Educational Research and Improvement U. S. Department of Education

Pat O'Connell ROSS Team Leader, Mathematics and Science Partnerships Office of Elementary and Secondary Education U.S. Department of Education

Dr David B. CAMPBELL Program Director Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education Education and Human Resources National Science Foundation