Programme for School-Based Excellence

1.                   MOE will launch the Programme for School-Based Excellence (PSE) for primary schools from Jan 2005 to better support schools with strong niche programmes that will benefit their students educationally. Successful applicant schools will receive a recurrent grant of up to $100,000 per year per primary school, so as to further raise the quality and outreach of their school-based programmes/initiatives.  The PSE was announced by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education, at the MOE Work Plan Seminar 2004 on 29 Sep 2004.

2.                   Examples of areas of excellence for which primary schools can apply under the PSE include:

a.                   New teaching approaches or pedagogies (e.g. human dynamics);

b.                   Aesthetics (e.g. calligraphy or art); and

c.                   Character Development (e.g. outdoor rugged activities).

3.                   Possible uses of the grant include: 

a.                   Hiring of additional staff or instructors;

b.                   Training of teachers in the niche area;

c.                   Minor infrastructure development; and

d.                   Purchase of materials.

Rationale

4.                   The primary school landscape is largely standardised today with relatively little differentiation among schools as compared to the secondary/JC levels, which have greater peaks among schools with strong niche programmes and CCAs.  However, primary schools have shown that their students are also able to benefit from school-based programmes that are customised to their students’ needs and interest.

5.                   The PSE will encourage even greater diversity in our primary school landscape, by providing further assistance to primary schools with strong school-based excellence programmes.  It is an important step in our efforts to develop strong primary schools with distinctive character to give more opportunities for our students to develop strong peaks in different areas of excellence.

Implementation Framework

6.                   Primary schools can submit their proposals from now till Nov 2004.  The first PSE grants will be disbursed in Jan 2005.