SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE 2004 TEACHING SCHOLARSHIPS PRESENTATION CEREMONY ON SATURDAY, 31 JULY 2004 AT 2.30 PM AT THE GRAND COPTHORNE WATERFRONT HOTEL

Good afternoon, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

1. It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon at the 6th Teaching Scholarships Presentation Ceremony. Let me first express my warmest congratulations to each and every one of our Teaching Scholars and Award recipients who are here this afternoon.  Today, we recognise and celebrate with your parents and your teachers an important milestone in your life.

2. This is the first step towards a challenging and fulfilling career of nurturing the next generation of Singaporeans. It is your ideas, your energy and your guiding hand that will help the next generation push and redefine the boundaries, and create new opportunities for themselves and for Singapore.

3. I am pleased to announce that we are awarding a total of 256 teaching scholarships and awards this year.  These comprise 8 PSC teaching scholarships and 248 MOE teaching scholarships and awards.  We are awarding 55 more scholarships and awards than we did last year. It is an investment worth making, in outstanding young individuals with the potential to shape new learning cultures in our schools and to become future leaders in the Education Service.

Diversifying the Education Landscape

4. We have been repositioning and reorienting the education system in recent years to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing future. We are moving, step by step, towards greater diversity and  flexibility amongst our schools and tertiary institutions, and providing greater  choice  to students. We are introducing a broader mix of programmes, and types of schools. Specialised independent schools, in Sports, the Arts and in Maths and Science, will cater to students with exceptional talents in these areas. We will see  two privately funded schools from next year, which will provide further choice and could potentially be added sites for innovation in educational practices. We are also allowing schools to adopt alternative curricula and examination systems. Already, one school, ACS(I), has implemented the International Baccalaureat programme.

5. However, a key addition to the new landscape has been the Integrated Programmes (IP), offering a seamless secondary and JC education.  The Integrated Programme frees up time for schools to provide greater breadth in both the academic and non-academic curriculum, and to spur their students in new ways. The Raffles and Hwa Chong families of schools, ACS(I) and National JC began their  IP programmes this year.  Temasek JC, Victoria JC and the new NUS High School for Maths and Science will offering their IPs from 2005.

Dunman High School to Offer the Integrated Programme

6. I am pleased to announce that Dunman High School will be joining these schools to offer the IP from 1 January 2005.  The Ministry of Education has approved Dunman High’s proposal to offer a 6-year IP from Sec 1 to JC 2, with its students taking the ‘A’ level examinations at the end of JC 2. With the addition of Dunman High, students will have a choice of ten IP schools in the secondary years.

7. Like the other IP schools, Dunman High will build on its strengths to provide a distinctive programme of education. As a SAP school, Dunman High aims to use its IP to take its students’ interests and abilities in Chinese Language and culture to a higher plane. Dunman High also hopes to teach its students in innovative ways aimed at nurturing in them an enterprising spirit. In addition, it intends to introduce an Enterprise and Investment Programme, aimed at exposing students to investment thinking and financial literacy.  

8. We do not expect or want our IP schools to mimic each other. They must each have their own characteristics. They will bring distinct innovations into play, reflecting their own traditions, the resources they can tap from the community supporting the school, and the imagination of the school leader and teachers.   The IP programme provides them this  latitude, to experiment and to enrich the learning of their students in different ways. This way, we stand a better chance of inspiring students with distinct interests, and of grooming more young Singaporeans with different ways of thinking and approaching problems.  

9. We have also taken a further, important step towards diversity by opening up admission systems. We are providing secondary schools, JCs and universities with greater room to select pupils with abilities and talents that may not be captured in their examination scores.  It will allow schools go further in developing niches and strengths of their own. And to reinforce schools’ desire to provide a holistic education to their students, we are broadening the school ranking system, and moving from ranking to a broad banding of schools.  This move will also give schools more room to innovate, to try out new teaching approaches and develop new skills, without feeling too constrained by their rankings.

10. These improvements are aimed at giving our young a more varied range of learning experiences, and providing them greater choice.  They are being matched by a continuing devolution of responsibility and decision-making to school leaders, and the empowerment of teachers within the school. Every school has to continuously reexamine its practices and norms, provide its pupils with more  broad-based experiences, and think of more innovative and effective ways of achieving its mission in education. Every school has to look long term, and develop its pupils holistically.

11. The new programmes and pathways, and new admission systems are a major step towards diversity and flexibility.  However, diversity only goes so far if it is just about different curricula or specializations, or taking one less set of examinations, without changes in how we teach and learn. The real shifts have to be in the breadth of experiences  we open up for our students, and how teachers interact with students. It is the student’s experiences and encounters in the classroom, playing field and performing stage, accumulated over the years, that ultimately shapes him.   It is the quality of these experiences, in every school, that will determine if we nurture future generations with the boldness to question, the desire to keep learning through their lives, the compassion for their fellow citizens, and the capacity to lead.

Professional Development for Teachers

12. As teachers, you will play the key role in preparing our young for the future.  You will have to provide students with a firm foundation of values.  You will have to encourage them to think for themselves and ask questions, without fear of embarrassment.  And to experiment and try out new methods, without fear of failing.  If they should take a fall, encourage them to get up, learn from the experience, and try again.

13. In order to do this well, you will yourself have to be innovative and often daring in the way you do your job.  Teaching will itself be an exercise in creativity  -  in developing new ways of sparking off ideas in a classroom, and getting students to discover knowledge for themselves.  We will have to tolerate occasional messiness in this, if we are to nurture students who can think and respond on their feet and take responsibility for their learning.

14. MOE has opened up a range of options for teachers themselves to broaden their experience and gain fresh perspectives as part of their development.  We have the Professional Development Leave Scheme where teachers can pursue further academic development, go for industrial attachments, or work with the community on projects that will help enrich the classroom experience. We have also introduced the Teacher Work Attachment programme. 

15. I am pleased that our teachers have also made full use of  training opportunities.  Our teachers are entitled to 100 hours a year to attend professional training courses to stay relevant in terms of content proficiency and pedagogy.  Every teacher is also expected to attend core courses related to content, pedagogy, and classroom and pupil management.  On average, each teacher had gone for 120 hours of training in 2003.  About 4600 teachers had attended courses conducted by the National Institute of Education (NIE) and another 4400 had attended workshops organised by Teachers Network. 

Scholars with a Diversity of Backgrounds

17. We have been able to attract talented individuals to join the teaching service with our teaching scholarships and awards.  Many past scholarship recipients are contributing significantly as school leaders and senior specialists.  They embody the qualities that we look for in our teaching scholars, and serve as good role models for all teachers.

18. We need protagonists of change.  These are people with a keen sense of how the world is moving and a tireless passion and determination to move others along with them.  They seize all opportunities to learn widely, to experience new things and explore new ideas.

19. Many of our teaching scholars are doing just that.  Take Mr Andrew Chong, a Singapore Government Teaching Scholar who has just completed his second year of studies at the University of Leeds.  Andrew signed up for a 6-week placement with Teaching & Projects Abroad.  He went to Romania to teach English to students from ages 7 – 16.  To show our support for his initiative, we granted him an allowance for his attachment.

20. We also select scholars with a strong sense of purpose and willingness to contribute to society.   I was heartened to hear of Mr Albert Tsui, who will be receiving the Education Merit Scholarship today and his strong passion for working with youth.  Together with his like-minded friends, Albert co-founded a youth theatre group, called Theatrix, to expose teenagers to new ways of expressing themselves and raise awareness of social issues.  He initiated a project called ‘Youth2Youth Theatre’ with a grant from the National Youth Council, and trained youth volunteers to run theatre workshops for students.  The programme was piloted and well-received in 6 secondary schools.  I understand that Albert was selected as a youth representative on the Film Censorship Review Committee.  He was commended for his contribution to the framing of the new guidelines for film classification. 

21. As we encourage our students to break new ground and create new paths for themselves, we must also be prepared to provide different paths for you to be selected as Teaching Scholars.  One of the Teaching Award recipients today, Mr Soh Joon Wei, did not take the traditional route .  He went from a JC to Singapore Polytechnic to pursue and graduate with a Diploma in Biotechnology (with Merit).  During that time, he discovered his passion for teaching when he mentored an introverted EM3 student.  He worked for a year before deciding to apply for a teaching award and pursue a university degree.  We welcome him into the teaching service.  I am sure as his drive and tenacity will make him a great role-model.

Investments in Talent through Exposure

22. Teaching scholars will be exposed to diverse cultures and perspectives as many of you will be pursuing your studies in another country.  This year, we are sending more scholars to China and Australia besides popular destinations like the US and the UK.  China is changing rapidly, and there is benefit for you to experience its dynamism.  I was told that, of the 6 scholarship recipients going to China, 2 of them would not be studying Chinese Language and Literature, but Chemistry and Economics instead. 

23. We have also linked up with overseas schools to offer attachments for our scholars.  This year, we have 7 scholars who will be participating in school attachments in China and the UK.  They will be able to observe how students are being taught in those schools and exchange ideas and strategies with the teachers and school leaders.  Such attachments will allow our scholars to gain greater exposure and enrich their own perspectives of education.

24. We also want scholars to learn how work is organised and value created in different operating environments.  Instead of pursuing a Master’s after have finishing your undergraduate studies, MOE will now provide selected top teaching scholars with an alternative option to take up to one year of “time-off” on bond suspension to pursue other developmental options.  We will allow you to seek attachments to overseas multi-national corporations or engage in other developmental activities like overseas research and internships.  Scholars would be encouraged to take the initiative, find their own attachments and seek endorsement from MOE.  This “time-off” option will allow you to gain a more diverse set of experiences that will help you to be more well-rounded teachers.

Conclusion

25. We have offered you a teaching scholarship to help you realise your desire to be teachers, to touch and influence lives.  Keep your passion alive.  It is your commitment to make a difference in the lives of your students that will pull you through challenges. By inspiring and spurring them on, and giving them confidence in themselves, you will help take Singapore into the future.

26. Once again, I congratulate every one of you on having received a teaching scholarship.  Make the most of the time and opportunity that you have to explore, learn and enjoy this new phase of your life. 

27. I wish you all the best in an exciting journey ahead.