21 August 2000

SPEECH BY DR. ALINE WONG, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION,
AT THE OPEN MINDS 2000 OFFICIAL LAUNCH HELD
ON MONDAY, AUG 21 2000 AT 4:00PM
AT THE RAINBOW CENTRE, MARGARET DRIVE

I am happy to be back here again with the employees of Procter & Gamble and the children of Rainbow Centre for the second year. I would like to begin by congratulating all of you for a job well done last year. I commend the management and staff of Procter & Gamble for their enthusiasm and stamina, and their commitment to bringing hope to children with special needs.

2 Through Open Minds last year, Procter & Gamble exceeded their fundraising target and raised over S$360,000 for the Rainbow Centre. I understand that part of the funds were used to purchase two container classrooms which cut down wait-list problems at the Balestier Special School, allowing about 30 more students to have early special education. The rest of the money is being used to support the Rainbow Centre's specialised programmes and services for children with disabilities.

3 This is the result of the teamwork and dedication of all parties involved and testament to the success of the National Council of Social Services' Corporate Community Involvement Programme which has brought P&G and the Rainbow Centre together.

4 When Open Minds - "Educating all of our children" was launched last year, the government welcomed the involvement of the private sector in helping the voluntary welfare organisations meet the needs of the less fortunate. This initiative is specially significant to those who are involved in providing an environment, which allows children to develop at their own pace and realise their own potential.

5 My Ministry and NCSS have worked together tirelessly to accelerate and increase the provision of facilities and resources for disabled children. Since early last year, MOE has increased its provision of facilities and resources for disabled pupils in both mainstream and SPED schools. These include the fitting of more schools with full facilities for the physically handicapped, the provision of assistive learning devices as standard items for mainstream schools with hearing-impaired and visually-handicapped pupils; the provision of IT facilities as standard items for the 3 SPED schools for the sensory impaired; and increased provision of recurrent votes for the other SPED schools to purchase IT-related facilities and their maintenance costs. We are making very good progress on all these projects. In addition, NCSS and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) have signed an MOU last month to enhance further the IT infrastructure and assistive learning technology for SPED children, and to help students of SPED schools from low-income families to own computers. A total of $1.8m has been secured for these 2 NCSS-IDA initiatives from corporate sponsors.

6 I am honoured again to be here as Patron of P & G's very meaningful corporate initiative to raise funds for the education of the multiple-handicapped as well as for other children with special needs. I am delighted to hear that P&G is once again providing financial support and employee voluntary services at the Rainbow Centre. This year, Open Minds will raise S$200,000 to be donated to the Balestier Special School Building Fund. This Fund was approved by my Ministry recently in line with the government's Master Plan to redevelop all special schools by year 2010.

7 Open Minds will be the first contributor to the Balestier Special School Building Fund. I am certain that the students of Balestier Special School will benefit greatly from a purpose-built school made possible by this Fund and its contributors. I urge other private corporations, caring individuals and voluntary organisations to follow P & G's lead to do their bit for the special children in Singapore.

8 In closing, I would like to wish all of you another successful fund-raising year. With that note, it is with great pleasure I officiate Open Minds 2000.