19 November 2002

SPEECH BY DR NG ENG HEN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER, AT THE OPENING OF WECAN THIRD ANNUAL BEST PRACTICES CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2002 AT 9.00 AM, AT SPRING SINGAPORE AUDITORIUM, BUKIT MERAH CENTRAL

1 Thank you for inviting me to be with you this morning to open the Third Annual Autism Best Practices Conference of WeCAN. I am indeed impressed with the 500-strong turnout at this conference; the outstanding panel of speakers from the United States, Britain and Australia, as well as our own Singapore-based experts.

2 Like many success stories that one reads about, the Autism Best Practices arose from passion borne of need. The 1st Autism Best Practices Conference held here in 2000 was originated by a group of volunteers who called themselves WeCAN describing its 'worldwide collaborations on autism needs' to assist those involved with helping individuals with autism in our community. The passion of the organizers, as I understand it, was met with an equal enthusiasm from parents and professionals in the field. So much so that WeCAN decided it should find a permanent home and became formally the Training Division of the ARC. Its signature programme, the Annual Autism Best Practices Conference has proven to be a most popular public forum on special needs. Since WeCAN's formation in Year 2000, more than 2000 professionals, caregivers and teachers have attended the forums and are making positive contributions to the autism community

3 ARC is a young Voluntary Welfare Organisation. It evolved from the Reach-Me Project, founded in 1997 by a group of parents and interested professionals in response to a growing need for services to help children with autism. ARC's mission is to raise the quality of life for persons with autism and their families. Through its 4 core services - assessment and diagnosis, information service, training services and outreach service - it endeavours to empower individuals to identify, develop and manage those with autism.

4 Despite its youth, ARC has made significant strides in fulfilling its mission and in the process enriched not only those with autism but society at large. Fuelled by passion and driven by need, the ARC is a model of not only "WeCan" but also "WeDo". Currently, ARC is collaborating with MOE in providing support to pupils with autism in mainstream primary and secondary schools. In addition, last year, ARC was engaged to train teachers of the special schools to develop capability to teach pupils with autism. The target is to train 144 teachers in 4 years. The first course ended in August this year and I am pleased to know that 34 teachers have completed the course. The teachers have benefited tremendously from the course and now are equipped to better teach pupils with autism. More importantly. this collaboration with ARC has enabled 11 special schools to come on stream to offer programmes for children with autism. This means that 168 more children from the waiting list can be admitted by January 2003.

5 Not one to rest on its laurels, I understand that ARC, together with the Rainbow Centre, is moving on to further challenges by way of developing a centre of excellence in diagnosis; professional and parent training; education and job coaching of this group of pupils with autism. This centre will house an autism-specific Special School which will run, amongst other educational services, a structured programme for moderate to severe autistic children with the cognitive ability to access the mainstream curriculum but need the support of a special school setting. I wish ARC and its partner, the Rainbow Centre, all the best in bringing to fruition their vision of developing this centre of excellence for individuals with autism in our community. Given, ARC's track record so far, I am confident that this vision will become a reality in the near future.

6 Let me end by commending the organizers of this conference. This is a wonderful opportunity to build on the progress you have made, to break new grounds and discover new avenues of possibility. I am certain that participants in this conference will benefit a great deal from the discussions, led by consultants who have brought with them much experience and different perspectives from their own countries. I wish all of you an enriching time. It is now my pleasure to declare the conference open.