8 March 2002

SPEECH BY MR HAWAZI DAIPI, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, AT NIE'S TALK/DIALOGUE ON NATIONAL EDUCATION VALUES ON FRIDAY, 8 MARCH 2002 3.00 PM AT NIE

Good afternoon. I am happy to be here today to have a discussion with you on National Education (NE) and Values.

1. September 11 and the ensuing war on terrorism led by the US has had a profound impact on the world, both in terms of security as well as the global economy. It has also had an impact on inter-ethnic, inter-religious and even inter-state relationships. The ongoing violence in Gujarat, India is also a reminder that race and religion are visceral forces and that we cannot take the racial and religious harmony that we enjoy in Singapore for granted.

2. The slowdown in our economy and the detention of the 13 suspected terrorists last December have brought home the fact that Singapore is not exempt from what is happening to the rest of the world. Singapore is plugged into the global economy and we have to operate in this rapidly changing and uncertain external environment.

3. Apart from the political, security and economic concerns brought about by the shocking terrorist acts, in Singapore we have to come to terms with major on-going issues and trends which could affect our well-being and sense of statehood. Among others, these are :

4. While the environment we are faced with is demanding, we have good reasons to remain optimistic. It is not all gloom. Singapore has strong fundamentals. We have a good government and strong leadership that pursues rational policy-making. While we have prudently built up strong national reserves, we have also invested heavily in our people through education. We are currently looking into remaking Singapore, in economic, social and cultural aspects. Whether we are looking at creating jobs for the masses in the 1960s, or making a living in the 21st century, the quality of people has always been key.

5. How each generation turns out depends critically on education. Whether our young have the skills, drive and entrepreneurship to make a living, whether they uphold the principle of meritocracy, whether they love Singapore and are prepared to give their lives in her defence are shaped by the education they receive during their formative years. And the people who make this possible are our teachers.

6. Our generations of teachers and teacher educators like you have helped us built up a good education system. As we move into the future, we have to continuously adapt and refine the system to prepare our young better. To do this well, our teachers have to be equipped with the knowledge, skills and tools so that they can in turn educate our students. Our teachers have to internalise our national values and the survival instinct for Singapore so that they can in turn help to transmit these values to our students. The heavy responsibility of helping these teachers rest with NIE and teacher educators like you.

7. Today, I would focus on national education in schools and how you can help our teachers do better in this critical aspect of education.

8. For our students, we have adopted a two-pronged approach that aims first, to develop an awareness of facts, followed by a sense of emotional belonging and pride in Singapore. National Education provides the knowledge, experiences and tools for our young to know and understand Singapore, to acquire a well-founded confidence about the Singaporean way of life, and to critically think about how they can shape Singapore's future.

9. As citizens, each of us would want to learn the facts about our own country - what is our history, what is our geography and what is the relationship we have with the region and the rest of the world. Understand the facts and the context. This is true for teachers as well. Teachers also need to actively build up their own knowledge and understanding of Singapore so that they can help our students if they have questions or doubts.

10. To impart head knowledge about Singapore's constraints and vulnerabilities, and the milestone events in our brief history, the syllabuses of selected subjects have been revised to cover NE, from giving our students a broad sense of our roots to presenting the concepts of citizenship and its attendant rights and responsibilities. Ours is an integration model where knowledge and values are integrated into the different subjects. While History, Geography, Social Studies, Civics and Moral Education (CME) and General Paper are subjects that lend themselves most naturally to NE, teachers teaching any of the other subjects also need to be able to infuse NE into their lessons.

11. To complement the academic curriculum, a range of other programmes has also been implemented to provide opportunities for students to experience what they had learnt. The rationale being that values and attitudes thus obtained are more likely to be internalised. This includes the commemoration of four key events like Total Defence Day; National Day; International Friendship Day and Racial Harmony Day.

12. Besides these, each students are required to perform a minimum of 6 hours of community service under the Community Involvement Programme (CIP) and go on a Learning Journey (LJ) each per year. Through CIP, we help to instil in our students a conscience to give back to society and develop them into socially responsible adults. Through LJ, we hope our students would be able to complement their learning in class of what makes Singapore tick.

13. Teachers have to understand the rationale behind the programme and be able to deliver it in a way that will help us achieve our objectives. NIE can help out teachers through the training courses that our teachers go through, to help them appreciate the need for and rationale behind our curriculum objectives.

14. NIE is the sole training institute for our teachers in Singapore. Each year, thousands of teachers pass through your hands. The influence that you as teacher educators exert is tremendous and will have an indirect impact on future generations of Singaporeans. What you teach our teachers and how our teachers learn, will in turn shape how they teach the students and how our students will learn in future. I would thus like to highlight 2 areas where NIE can help our teachers better.

15. First, social cohesion and racial harmony in schools. Teachers graduating from NIE have to appreciate the school environment that they will go to. Our schools help Singapore to develop Social Capital - the connections between individuals or the glue that binds us together, and strengthen the social networks and norms of reciprocity and trust among Singaporeans. Schools remain a vital and common meeting point for many in the community. Schools are where our future is built. Where our children learn to play with each other, live with each other, and work together to achieve common goals; where we seek out the basic goodness and humanity which are common to all our faiths and cultures, to bring our children together.

16. We have been successful in having an easy and relaxed relationship among our communities in Singapore. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States, and the heightened sensitivities to race and religion that have followed, we need to further enhance racial and religious harmony in our schools. I am chairing a committee that will look into how we can strengthen Racial and Religious Harmony at our schools.

17. My Committee will look into how schools can enhance inter-racial mixing, and how we can leverage on the Racial Harmony activities to bring the different parents and the community together.

18. NIE can help MOE to ensure that our teachers are aware of and have internalised this during their training stint with you.

20. I have outlined the NE programmes and processes that are currently in our schools. Through your training courses, NIE can help to prepare our trainee teachers better in delivering NE in schools.

21. For NE, the starting point must be that teachers believe in the cause for NE in our school system. To educate is more than imparting book knowledge and producing academic results. Education is about instilling in the pupils a set of values that will guide them and stand them in good stead in life. Teachers must have the instinct and passion for Singapore before they can have a multiplier effect on our students. In order for our teachers to be effective in delivering National Education, they must keep up with developments in Singapore and the world, and understand the fundamental principles, such as meritocracy and incorruptibility, racial and religious harmony; and justice and equality which we hold fast to as a nation. The challenge for NIE would be to shape these attitudes in our trainee teachers.

22. NIE can also help to equip our teachers with the skills that they will need to facilitate NE. The first challenge would be for NIE to define the skills that are needed. The profile of our students is changing. With an increasing proportion of students coming from English-speaking homes, and a greater inflow of permanent residents and foreigners in our schools, we will find a student population that is more cosmopolitan and critical. How do we, for example, "soft-sell" citizenship education?

23. Our teachers will need to go beyond merely carrying out NE programmes, for example, to interest our students to want to know more about Singapore. Teachers will need to explore how they can leverage on other approaches to engage our students to think through and discover for themselves what nationhood means.

24. Before our teachers can engage our students on NE issues, they will first have to build up a corpus of knowledge on NE. I have been told that NIE has embarked on the infusion of NE into the NIE training modules. NIE is also working closely with MOE to develop a compendium of NE materials to help our teachers on this.

25. All this if done well, will help our teachers do their jobs better in school.

26. The key question is: can NIE pass on to our trainee teachers, a love for our nation, and a desire to contribute to its continual survival and success? I am confident that as you strive to move NIE to be an Institute of Distinction, so too you would give of your best to ensure that the teachers whom you train and educate are prepared to play the vital role of transmitting sound values to our young. 27. I look forward to hearing your ideas and reactions to what I have shared with you during our dialogue.

a.	The more intense competition for investment, market and talent;

b.	The rapid changes in technology;

c.	The aging population;

d.	The slower economic growth as our economy matures and faces keener competition from other countries.