SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT LUNCHEON SESSION ON “STRENGTHENING MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE PARTNERSHIP  -  BUILDING BRIDGES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS THROUGH EDUCATION” AT THE MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE ROUNDTABLE ON MONDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2004 AT 12 PM AT GRAND HYATT HOTEL, SINGAPORE

Your Excellency Dato Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Onn,
Minister of Education, Malaysia,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

        It is my pleasure to join Minister Hishammuddin and all the guests here today at the luncheon session of the Malaysia-Singapore Forum 2004.

2      Creating bridges between Singapore and Malaysia, through the minds of our young, is of considerable importance to both countries.  It is also a matter close to our hearts.  And I hasten to add that whether crooked or straight, the bridges in education are all in the mind.

PREPARING FUTURE GENERATIONS
3      Education is a key focus of both our Governments.  Both Malaysia and Singapore allocate a large part of their government budgets  -  almost a quarter  -  to education.  Both countries place great store by education, as a way to secure our futures in a new global environment, an environment characterised by continuous innovation and intense competition.  We know it is an environment that presents greater uncertainties than before for each of us, but also immense opportunities that are opening up across Asia.  And we know that, more than ever before, it is the quality of human resources  -  the skills and inventiveness, as well as determination of a country’s people  -  that will shape its future in this environment.

4      We have been reorienting our education system in Singapore, step by step, to help the next generation to meet the demands of the future.  There is no one way of preparing our young for this future, a future much more complex than the world we have known in the last few decades.  That is why we are moving towards a more diverse education system, and seeking to give our children a more varied range of learning experiences.  That why we stand a better chance of nurturing Singaporeans with the different skills and different ways of thinking and sensibilities that we will need to thrive in a more complex world, even as we instill in each citizen a sense of commitment to his country.

5      We are introducing greater choice and flexibility in our school landscape, through the Integrated Programmes (IP) which offer a seamless secondary and Junior College education, specialised independent schools in Sports, the Arts and in Maths and Science, and privately funded schools which will open next year.  We are allowing mainstream schools to adopt alternative curricula and examination systems.  We are also providing them further autonomy and resources to develop their own distinct strengths, whether in particular field of study or in co-curricular activities and character development.  We want our schools to develop their own, school-based programmes that give students opportunities to experience learning in new ways, both in and out of the classroom.

6      More broadly, we are also redoubling our efforts to provide students with a holistic education, focused on both academic and non-academic domains.  We have to give every student a range of experiences from young, so that they can develop the robustness that enables them to retool and rebound from setbacks, and the confidence to build and cross bridges they will inevitably encounter in their lives.

7      To reinforce this broader approach in education, we are allowing for increased flexibility in 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 encourage our young to spend time on the things that interest them and which they have a talent in besides their studies.  It will also encourage schools to go further in developing niches of excellence of their own.

8      Finally, we are also reviewing how our children learn the Mother Tongue Languages, so as to ensure that our bilingual approach to education continues to succeed in the years to come.  We have completed a major review of Chinese Language learning, and are embarking on similar reviews for Malay and Tamil.  We are seeking to bring greater flexibility into language learning, and taking recognition of different language learning abilities.  Above all, we want to do all we can to help students to learn the languages so as to use them and keep them part of a living culture, not just learn the languages for their exams.

9      In sum, we are seeking to provide more diverse options in education, and giving students greater choice and ownership in their learning.  We hope this more diverse and flexible system that we are evolving will provide our children the opportunity to find their own, distinct talents and take them seriously.

10     But we know that there is no approach or solution in education that is right for all time.  So we have to strive to keep an open mind in education, keep learning from experience, stay open to ideas from outside, and always avoid being boxed in by past assumptions.

MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE PARTNERSHIP IN EDUCATION
11     There is considerable scope for Malaysia and Singapore to cooperate in education.  We share several challenges and opportunities in common, as we prepare our children for a common future in the region and globally.  And as neighbours, we have a strong interest in maximising our prosperity together, and building bridges in the minds of our younger generations, so that they have the confidence to collaborate with each other in future, as equals.

12     Older generations of Malaysians and Singaporeans recall with great fondness their experiences of studying together in school and university.  They developed friendships that have lasted till today.  They had an understanding of each other that came not from studying the history of each country, but from knowing each other, from their experiences together and their lasting personal ties.

13     We have to find new ways, in our new national settings, to recreate the sense of familiarity, the first hand understanding and the personal ties that the older generations had.  We have to build bridges now, and not leave the relationship between future generations of Malaysians and Singaporeans to chance.

14     Dato Hishammuddin and I have discussed and agreed that we have to build on past relationships and open new opportunities for collaboration and partnership between Malaysia and Singapore in education.  As Ministries, we are keen to share experiences in curriculum design and reform, in teacher training and in school management practices.  We will create more opportunities for our students to get together more often through regular visits, and by participating in camps, activities or projects together, and even by attending lessons in each other’s schools.

15     We will start by pairing up selected Malaysian and Singapore schools, so they can work out joint activities and exchanges involving their students.  They can also work on projects together using ICT.  Strong school-to-school links can also mean greater exchanges among our teachers.  Such experiences will expose teachers to different teaching practices and systems of school management, which they can then adapt for use in their own schools.

16     We also felt it would be useful to organise annual leadership development camps for students from both countries.  Such camps and the intense experiences they provide can lead to special friendships between students, particularly if they meet on more than one occasion during their school career.  Singaporean students will also, of course, benefit from being exposed to the beautiful natural habitat that Malaysia is blessed with.

17     There is considerable potential for collaboration in co-curricula activities.  Dato Hishammuddin suggested brass band and sports competitions as an example.  Another way we agreed on is to get our Uniformed Youth Organisations in Malaysia and Singapore to do more joint activities together.

18     Dato Hishammuddin and I agreed that we should start with these initiatives, get them working, and build on them over time.  Our staff will be working out the details of these schemes so that we can start some of them off next year.

19     By cooperating in education, we hope to provide opportunities for better understanding among the younger generations of our two countries, and for friendships to develop.  It is the type of informal and intuitive understanding of each other that provides the glue for closer business, social and political ties in the future.

20     Thank you.