Press Releases
Enhancing School Infrastructure - 10 More Primary Schools to be Upgraded
To support holistic education and the use of engaging teaching methods in primary schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will upgrade another ten primary schools from November 2011. This will also facilitate the transition of primary schools to single session. Estimated to cost $130 million, this is the second phase of the Ministry’s plans in enhancing primary school infrastructure to enable schools to deliver quality programmes to their students.
MOE will provide all primary schools with additional facilities that facilitate engaged learning in academic and non-academic areas, to deliver a well-rounded education to students. Under the upgrading, schools can look forward to new design norms such as redesigned classrooms, band room, dance studio, performing arts studio, outdoor running track and student care centre. The schools will also benefit from the provision of an indoor sports hall and a synthetic turf field as part of the upgrading.
Seven of the schools under Phase 2 will continue to operate on their existing sites in parallel with the upgrading works, while three schools will be held temporarily at another site. Details on the Phase 2 schools are in Annex A (48kb .pdf). MOE will take the necessary measures to ensure safety, security and the smooth operations of the schools during the upgrading process.
Background
In April 2009, MOE accepted the Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) Committee’s recommendations to enhance the quality of primary education, one of which was to enhance the infrastructure of primary schools to support a higher quality primary education. To support the delivery of holistic education, the PERI Committee recommended that primary schools provide more spaces that facilitate engaged learning in both academic and non-academic areas. The PERI Committee also recommended moving all primary schools towards a single-session model, so as to give schools more flexibility to provide well-balanced educational programmes for pupils.
To achieve the above, MOE plans to build up to 18 new primary schools and provide all primary schools with additional facilities in phases. Under Phase 1, 11 new primary schools will be built and 28 existing schools will be upgraded. Details on the Phase 1 schools are in Annex B (64kb .pdf).