OPENING SPEECH BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION & 2ND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE AT THE OPENING OF STU CONFERENCES ON TOWARDS THE TECHNOLOGY-INTEGRATED SCHOOL ON MON 22 JUN 98 AT THE SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC AUDITORIUM @ 9 AM

Good morning

Mr Lawrence Sia, President, Singapore Teachers' Union

Mr Low Wong Fook, Principal, Singapore Polytechnic

Ladies and gentlemen

1     Economic and social landscapes are changing very rapidly across the world. We know for sure that the economy of the near future will be one driven by knowledge and information. Employers will be expecting higher levels of technological and information literacy skills from workers. They will want workers who can master and apply the latest technology and will pay a premium for them. Workers, too, will have to embrace continuous training and skills upgrading, and focus on lifelong employability rather than lifelong employment.

2     Our immediate challenge is to manage the spillovers from the regional financial crisis. The number of retrenched workers in the first quarter of this year is 7,131. This exceeds the 6,717 figure in the third quarter of 1985 when a recession hit Singapore. 7 out of 10 workers axed in the first three months of the year were from manufacturing. Professional and technical staff were not spared either, making up nearly 1 in 5 of those who lost their jobs. CPF records show that only about 6 out of 10 retrenched Singapore workers in the last three months of last year had found jobs by March. 4 out of 10 had not.

3     The main reason for this is the current economic situation. But what is more worrying in the long term is the underlying trend of structural unemployment where retrenched workers are unable to find jobs because there is a mismatch between their current skills and those required by new companies. That is why there is an urgent need for the government to lead the way, by making available $100 million to upgrade workers' skills and help them meet the demands of the knowledge-based economy of the future.

4     Our economy is dualistic in nature. We have productive internationally oriented sectors co-existing alongside less productive domestic sectors. We are also operating in a world where regional and international competition is keen, where production networks are global, where talent is internationally mobile and where rapid advances in IT have made knowledge the key competitive advantage. We have to manage this transition in our labour market so that as old jobs are lost, our people will have the skills for the new jobs that are being created.

5     One way for us to move ahead is to adopt a holistic approach to develop human and intellectual capital, and leverage on science, technology and innovation as competitive tools. We must build up critical skills to enable our people to be globally in tune, starting at school and continuing throughout their working life. This will form the basis of a lifelong learning culture.

6     In the social sphere, we have started a whole new way of working, living and learning. PM Goh recently announced that up to half of Singapore's homes are expected to be Singapore One subscribers in 3 years' time and access will be as pervasive as access to telephone services. Singapore One services will range from online shopping and banking to distance learning and news-on-demand. These will be available to all homes and businesses, schools, libraries and community centres in Singapore. The information superhighway will not stop at our borders. Singapore will be inextricably linked to other economies and societies.

7     IT is integral to Singapore's transition to a knowledge-based economy. It is going to be the infrastructural backbone of the economy. But the best infrastructure in the world will be useless, unless the people are able to use it. That's one of the key reasons why the Ministry of Education has decided that IT-based learning in schools should take up 30 per cent of curriculum time. IT cannot be an end in itself but a means to develop in our students independent learning, communication skills and higher order thinking skills.

8     If we don't make IT accessible to all, we will land up with a wide gap between those who have and those who don't. Those who can will stay connected, those who can't will fall away. This will lead to social stratification and social disintegration will set in.

9     As teachers, you are important agents of change in this transition and process of social levelling. You can use educational technology to effect improvements in how students learn. With guided interaction, students can use a variety of information resources and technologies to develop deeper and richer understanding as they acquire knowledge. You can also use the range of resources and instructional technologies available to vary the learning pace, level of engagement, and depth of content coverage to help individual students learn better.

10     I commend the Singapore Teachers' Union for organising these IT conferences and the teachers for coming forward to attend. This is a forward looking move on the part of the STU to help our teaching profession prepare for the challenges ahead.

11     Being trained is a move forward. But for change and transformation to take place, the vision has to be forged at the individual and team levels. I hope that teachers will participate in identifying and implementing change, and build a shared vision of a dynamic learning environment. You will need to work together with your teaching colleagues and also with library officers, media specialists and curriculum planners to plan integrated activities focusing on important curriculum content while encouraging practice with information access, acquisition, evaluation, organisation and presentation. With the exposure of our students to technological gadgets and information resources, their transition from school to the workplace should be second nature.

12     The consultants of these conferences have brought with them their experiences in different countries. I look forward to seeing these adapted and modified for use in our local classrooms. I wish all of you an enriching two and a half days. It is now my pleasure to declare the Conferences open.