2 December 2000

SPEECH BY RADM (NS) TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE PRIZE PRESENTATION CEREMONY OF THE SINGAPORE BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD HELD AT LT 2, YUNAN GARDENS CAMPUS, NTU,
ON SATURDAY 2 DEC 2000 @ 9.AM,

President and Council members of the Singapore Institute of Biology
Supporters and Participants of the Singapore Biology Olympiad
Ladies and Gentlemen

1. The Life Sciences have emerged as the next wave in scientific and technological innovations. The mapping of the human genome in June this year heralds a new era.

2. While we cannot be certain of the precise way the Life Sciences will impact our lives, we need to prepare for the changes that will inevitably come. The coming together of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, IT and Engineering with Biology have opened up many more possibilities than before, in the areas of health care, agriculture and food, and the environment.

3. Singapore is planning for the Life Sciences industry to become an important part of our economic landscape, alongside electronics, chemicals and engineering. Recently, the Government announced several initiatives to give the Life Science industry a boost. One of them is a S$1 billion corporate R&D fund to attract leading industry players to set up world-class corporate research centres in Singapore. This is complemented by a S$1 billion Life Sciences Investment Fund to co-invest in biotech start-ups and joint ventures. As for public R&D, the Government has set up the Biomedical Research Council to coordinate research in the Life Sciences with the focus on human health. The Singapore Genomics Programme is a flagship biomedical research programme.

4. Beyond Economics, advances in the Life Sciences will bring with them attendant ethical, legal and social issues. Our citizens must have the necessary knowledge and tools to understand these developments and to make decisions that affect themselves and their communities.

5. We need to prepare and position ourselves for these changes that will come. Let me start with our schools. Our strategy is to make Life Sciences education an integral part of the general education we provide to students, so as to prepare all of them for the future. The Ministry of Education has two objectives in the teaching and learning of the Life Sciences in school:

6. MOE is taking a systems approach to Life Science education. While the base of Life Sciences is Biology, it is the injection of ideas, techniques and concepts from other disciplines that will enhance the applications and further the discoveries in Life Sciences. So our school system will continue to emphasise our traditional strengths in Mathematics and the physical sciences. We will build links between these subjects and Biology to give our students a fuller understanding of the Life Sciences.

7. To achieve our objectives, MOE will implement additional measures from 2001 in 5 areas in our schools.

8. MOE has been revising the science curriculum regularly to keep it in line with scientific developments. We have a 6-year review cycle with a mid-term review in between. Over the years, we have replaced topics, revised and added others. For the 2001 round of revisions, we have increased the proportion of cellular and molecular Biology in the Biology curriculum. Important topics that provide the background and theory to the Life Sciences have been reinforced. For example, topics like food biotechnology, industrial biotechnology and genetic engineering have been introduced at the 'O' levels. Biotechnology and Environmental Biology options are available at the 'A' levels.

9. Our primary school students have a natural interest in science, especially in living things. Some of them can name more dinosaur species than you and I can and give a run down of their diets. We will introduce concepts such as Cells and certain aspects of Biotechnology starting from Primary 5.

10. In our 2001 'A' level Physics and Chemistry syllabuses, we will retain Life Science options such as Medical Physics and Biochemistry.

11. Next, MOE will do more to raise students' awareness of the linkages among the subjects contributing to Life Sciences. Life Science Guidebooks will be launched in Jan 2001 to serve as resource materials for all science teachers to integrate topics and disciplines.

12. We will use open-ended assessment tools such as Interdisciplinary Project Work to give students opportunities to integrate what they learn from several disciplines.

13. We will furnish the schools with $6 million worth of Life Science laboratory equipment. They will be delivered in 2001. $3 million goes to equipping all Primary schools¹ with microscopes, glassware and other equipment. We will also progressively equip our Primary schools with a second science room through our school upgrading programme, PRIME. Secondary schools² will get $2 million worth of new Life Science equipment while Junior Colleges³ will get $1 million.

14. All students are exposed to Life Sciences in the Health Education and General Science syllabuses in Primary and Lower Secondary levels. Over the last 3 years, about 9,500 or 27%⁴ of the annual 'O' level candidature offered Biology as a subject or as part of a Science subject. 1,300 students, or 12%⁵ of the candidature offered Biology at the 'A' levels. Most of our 'A' level Biology students take the subject with the intention of positioning themselves for the Medical Faculty.

15. This is a good base to begin. There is room for more students, who have the aptitude and interest to study Biology, to do so. MOE will recruit more Biology teachers to facilitate this. Even if our students go on to take up a non-Life Science course at certificate, diploma, degree or post-graduate degree levels, their background in Biology will help them in life and when they work for industries that provide services to Life Science companies. The Life Science industry too needs engineers, chemists, mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, patent lawyers and technicians, all of whom would benefit from having a better knowledge of the Life Sciences.

16. The final piece MOE has to put in place is to enthuse teachers and students in the Life Sciences. We will provide our teachers with opportunities to attend in-service training, professional seminars, attachment programmes with both local and overseas industries, research institutes and universities, so that they can be kept up-to-date with the latest R&D and science teaching approaches.

17. Together with NSTB, we are working out attachment places for our teachers in local research institutes like Kent Ridge Digital Labs, Bioprocessing Technology Centre, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and so on. We are also exploring link-ups with overseas Research Centres and universities so that we can attach some of our teachers there for short stints. One possible attachment programme, which will allow our teachers to understudy how Life Sciences can be taught in interesting ways, is the programme run by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth.

18. From 2001 onwards, under the Singapore International Science Teachers Programme (InSTeP), MOE will bring in annually about 20 foreign science teachers who are experts in their fields. These foreign teachers will be invited to teach Science in our schools with our teachers. This community of Science teachers with different expertise and experiences can then share best practices and cross-fertilise their ideas in science teaching.

19. We also want to bring in local partners and make use of their valuable knowledge and intellectual capital to give our students a richer exposure to Life Sciences. The staff of Singapore Science Centre and some of the professors in the Institutions of Higher Learning have been active in this respect. They have been organising science fairs and competitions for our students, and mentoring them through research projects. We will expand and increase these programmes to benefit a wider group of students. For example some school clusters are looking into setting up more Science and Technology Centres for students to carry out more sophisticated science projects.

20. While we are aligning our local resources to provide more exposure in Life Sciences to our students, we will continuously explore what more can be done, and learn from what others have done. The US is a hot bed of learning opportunities in this area. I visited the DNA Learning Centre at the Cold Spring Harbour Labs in October this year. It is the world's first science centre devoted entirely to public genetics education. I was impressed with the Centre's ability to distil the latest developments in Life Sciences into simple concepts which school teachers and students can understand. The staff design teaching packages and experiments and train teachers to use them. Last year alone, 10,000 students conducted experiments such as DNA extraction, bacterial transformation and human polymorphisms in the laboratories of the DNA Learning Centre.

21. The DNA Learning Centre has been very successful in enthusing both teachers and students. We are exploring how we can collaborate with them on the curriculum, resources, infrastructure, teaching approaches and activities needed to enthuse our students.

22. Our higher education sector has been responding promptly to the new demands of the Life Sciences industry. This industry needs a range of workers with different skills. ITE, our polytechnics and universities have been reviewing and introducing new courses, as well as restructuring departments to better equip our students for the job market.
Universities

23. The Nanyang Technological University will establish a College of Life Sciences in July 2002. The School of Biological Sciences within the College will train graduates to meet the immediate manpower needs of the Life Sciences industry; while the Biosciences Research Centre will train researchers for the biotechnology industries. NTU is marrying its strengths in technology and business disciplines with the biosciences to mount undergraduate, Masters, PhD and possibly MD/PhD programmes in the Life Sciences.

24. The National University of Singapore has geared up its Life Sciences programmes. It has put together a new undergraduate Life Sciences curriculum for academic year 2001. It will draw resources from its Science, Engineering, Medicine, Computing and Dentistry faculties to offer this cross disciplinary programme.

25. NUS has also set up a new Bioengineering Initiative in Education and Research hosted by the Faculty of Engineering with cross faculty cooperation. Students will soon be able to graduate with a BEng/BSc degree with a minor in Bioengineering, a Double Major in Engineering and Bioengineering, a Masters and a PhD in Bioengineering.

26. Other students not taking Life Science courses in NUS can also pick up some knowledge in the Life Sciences. For example Computing students can do a minor in Life Sciences; all Engineering students take a course on "Genes and Society" and all Science students take an integrated Science Foundation Module.
Review of Medical Education

27. Advances in the Life Sciences have a major impact on the health care sector. Singapore's strategic intent is to develop our country into a world-class hub for the Life Sciences with capabilities across the value chain of activities including medical R&D, clinical trials, and the manufacturing of drugs and medical devices. In line with this thrust, DPM Dr Tony Tan has announced that MOE will be commissioning a review of the medical education system in Singapore. The review will be undertaken by an international panel of experts chaired by Lord Oxburgh, the Rector of Imperial College. MOE will ask the review panel to look at 4 areas:

28. Our polytechnics are also stepping up efforts to train students in the area of the Life Sciences. For example, Temasek Polytechnic will be offering a new Diploma in Biomedical Informatics and Engineering from July 2001. Ngee Ann Polytechnic started the new Diploma in Biomedical Science in July this year. The curricula in existing Life Science courses offered by the polytechnics have been revised. As Life Sciences is an emerging industry, it is not clear in which sectors the demand for manpower will be highest. The polytechnics are doing the right thing by providing a broad foundation in the first two years, and options in the third year to better tailor training to market demand as soon as they evolve.

29. The Institute of Technical Education also plays an important role in the Life Science industry. It produces the skilled technicians and process operators. In addition to its existing courses, a Life Science specialisation for the NTC-2 Chemical Process Technology course will be made available in Jul 2001.

30. Our students will have a plethora of opportunities to pick up relevant skills and knowledge in the biological sciences. At the same time, as innovations in the Life Sciences will continue to draw on the physical sciences, engineering, IT and Mathematics, we should continue to hone our traditional strengths in these areas. The combination of our strengths in the physical sciences with our new emphasis on the biological sciences will create new opportunities in education, research, health care, manufacturing and business.

31. Let me commend the organisers of this inaugural Singapore Biology Olympiad for recognising this in a timely manner. With the introduction of this Olympiad, we now have an Olympiad for Biology, along with Physics and Chemistry. Who knows how the future will evolve as the various branches of science continue in new and exciting ways. These Olympiads provide an avenue for our best students to challenge themselves intellectually. The Singapore Biology Olympiad will also facilitate the identification and selection of the 4 best amongst you to represent Singapore in next year's International Biology Olympiad in Brussels.

32. I wish to congratulate all medallists for your fine performance. I also wish to encourage all those who took part to continue to nurture your interest and exploration in Biology. It is only with a lot of perseverance and hard work, and the spark of inspiration, that breakthroughs in Science can be made. Continue to pursue your interest with passion and commitment. I wish you success.

¹ $15,000 per primary school
² $13,000 per secondary school
³ $48,000 per JC (Note: CIs do not offer Biology)
⁴ Average of 1997-1999 figures
⁵ Average of 1997-1999 figures