MOE Speech - ADDRESS BY RADM (NS) TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND SECOND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEW CAMPUS OF CHIJ ST JOSEPH'S CONVENT

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ADDRESS BY RADM (NS) TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND SECOND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEW CAMPUS OF CHIJ ST JOSEPH'S CONVENT, ON WEDNESDAY, 19 MARCH 2003 @ 7.45 PM.

Your Grace, Archbishop Nicholas Chia,

Ms Donne Aeria, Chairman, Infant Jesus Board of Management,

Mrs Dolly Chan, Principal, CHIJ St Joseph's Convent,

Distinguished guests, parents, teachers, pupils,

Ladies and gentlemen.

INTRODUCTION

1.           A very good evening to all of you.

2.           It is my pleasure to join you this evening at the official opening of CHIJ St Joseph's Convent's new premises. This occasion marks yet another milestone in the history of St Joseph's Convent since its establishment in 1938 by nuns of the Order of the Holy Infant Jesus.

3.           St Joseph's Convent began as a private school with 21 pupils and 3 teachers in a rented house in Flower Road. It then moved to its second campus at Hillside Drive at the beginning of World War II. In the 65 years that St Joseph's Convent was at Hillside Drive, the convent had some laudable achievements and produced three President's Scholars.

SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENTS

4.           Since moving to Sengkang in November 2000, the school has scaled new heights. It produced the 2000 GCE "N" level examination's top student as well as clinched a position among the top ten value-added schools in the 2002 GCE 'O' level examinations for both the Normal and Express streams.

5.           Besides these academic achievements, the school leveraged on its expanded facilities to gain its first Gold Award for the Trim and Fit (TAF) programme. The school also maintained its position in the top ten schools for Physical Fitness.

STAYING CURRENT AND RELEVANT

6.            I am pleased to note that St Joseph's Convent is not resting on its laurels but is striving to remain current and relevant to meet the new challenges and demands of society and the school's stakeholders.

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

7.           The knowledge-based economy is highly competitive and transcends physical borders and boundaries. For Singaporeans to compete and excel in such a knowledge intensive and global environment, we need our young to be world-ready. The clarion call is even more strident for them to be creative, enterprising and resilient. These attributes would position them to remain relevant and to take on new jobs and challenges as the economy evolves.

8.           Schools can provide pupils with a learning environment that develops their thinking skills and creativity. Our pupils need to learn to be flexible in order to ride the waves of changes brought about by rapid technological advancement and increasing globalisation.

9.           St Joseph's Convent has been responding to this challenge to stay relevant by reinventing their pedagogical practices. For example, it has explored creative ways of building a conducive environment for teaching and learning in order to meet the diverse needs and abilities of its pupils. It is trying out a "home room" concept. Existing physical resources and space such as pupil lockers, corners of corridors, and classroom windows are also optimised to provide for incidental learning.

HARNESSING IT

10.         The IT facilities in the new premises have made it possible for the school to bring new ways of teaching and learning into the classroom and tap on resources beyond the classroom more easily.

11.         MOE's IT MasterPlan has provided St Joseph's Convent with four fully equipped Computer Laboratories, and LCD projectors are mounted in every classroom in the school for teaching and learning using IT. All the classrooms and laboratories are wired up to allow teachers to gain access to the world via the internet. The classroom can be linked up with those in other schools and institutions, and relevant resources in the virtual world can be accessed during lessons at the click of the mouse. Learning in St Joseph's Convent has become borderless with pupils tapping into the latest information in their subject of study.

12.         I have been told that the staff are now experimenting with video-editing in the "Dream-Box", the school's own video production room, and the school has offered video-editing as one of the components in "O" level Art in 2002. Taking learning beyond the classroom, the school has participated in MOE's iTOPIA 2002 and in the Mesocyclops Project 2002 which involved collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and MOE in the study of dengue incidents.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

13.         The community is a rich resource which schools can tap into and work with to enhance their programmes. It is commendable that the school has collaborated with the community to provide opportunities for its pupils to contribute to society. The school has partnered Rivervale Community Centre in the National IT Literacy Programme to offer IT courses for residents, parents and even preschoolers in Sengkang since 2001. The students of St Joseph's Convent played an active role in handholding the participants in this IT literacy programme. This project has been well received by the participants and allowed the school to reach out to the community.

CORE VALUES

14.         Although it is important to meet the demands of a knowledge-based economy, education is also about imparting sound principles and values to our students. The measure of a school's success is not academic grades alone but how prepared pupils are to manage their own lives and to be responsible to themselves, their family, friends and country.

15.         Schools play a crucial role in preparing pupils to be responsible citizens through shaping their values and national instincts. They bear the responsibility of providing the appropriate experiences to engage the heart and mind of pupils and ground them in the right values. I am heartened to know that in its quest to equip students with the relevant skills, knowledge and attitude to succeed in the new economy, St Joseph's Convent has never compromised on imparting core traditions and values to its students. Its school vision, "Women of Integrity" celebrates character building. The whole school programme has also reflected the teaching of values as a guiding philosophy in their plans.

CLOSING

16.         In closing, with greater autonomy devolved to schools, principals have considerable latitude in deciding programmes that will best suit their pupils and in maximising resources that will bring out the best in them. We have a good education system. Our schools have raised achievement standards but our ability to succeed will depend on how flexible our schools are in responding to the changing demands of the global economy. I am confident that schools will be adaptive and continuously seek improvements to raise the quality of education in Singapore.

17.         I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the Board Of Management, the Principal, staff and pupils of CHIJ St Joseph's Convent on the official opening of the new school campus. It is my pleasure now to declare the new campus of CHIJ ST Joseph's Convent open.