SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF CAHAYA M ON SATURDAY, 2 APRIL 2005, AT 10.00 AM AT WISMA MENDAKI

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF CAHAYA M ON SATURDAY, 2 APRIL 2005, AT 10.00 AM AT WISMA MENDAKI

A/Prof Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment & Water Resources and Minister in-charge of Muslim Affairs,

I am very glad to join you this morning at the launch of Cahaya M. It is a worthwhile programme, one that makes a real impact. I take heart at seeing MENDAKI actively engaging parents, so that they can help their children succeed in education and prepare themselves well for life. MENDAKI's range of education programmes, and its new initiatives such as this centre for learning, reaffirm its role as a key pillar in the Malay-Muslim community.

Continued Progress in Malay Performance

2. MENDAKI's efforts have also contributed to real improvements in the performance of the Malay community in education. The basic facts are well known. Let me provide an update on the broadest indicator of progress - the improvement in the number of Malay students entering post-secondary institutions - into pre-U centres, polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs). Last year, 75.0^[1] per cent of the Malay cohort who had originally enrolled in Primary 1 went on to study at post-secondary institutions after completing their secondary education successfully. This is an improvement of over 32 per cent, or one third, compared to the 42.5 per cent that were admitted in 1994, just ten years ago.

Comparison with International Benchmarks

3. There is also robust data on how well our Malay students are faring against international benchmarks. In Dec last year, we announced that Singapore has emerged first in both Mathematics and Science, amongst students of Primary 4 and Secondary 2 age, in a 49-country study of our students conducted in 2002-03. The study, known as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, was administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), which is an international authority on the study of educational standards.

4. MOE took a look at the performance of our Malay students in this latest study. Not unexpectedly, we found that our Malay students, in both Primary 4 and Secondary 2, have performed very well. They ranked well above the International Average for both Math and Science. For example, in Maths, our Secondary 2 Malay students performed as well (in fact a little better on average) as students in Netherlands and Belgium, who were the top performing European countries in the study. They also performed significantly better in Maths than students in the United States, Australia, Sweden and Israel .

5. This is a real achievement It attests to both the high standards of education in Singapore and the drive of our Malay students. It also illustrates why our Malay students, like other Singaporean students, are a real asset in our future as an innovation-based society. The superior education of our students will open up opportunities for Singapore to create value in new ways, and open up opportunities for our young themselves, in diverse areas such as high-end manufacturing operations, finance, design, marketing, or in research activity.

6. But nothing stands still. We have to keep renewing our advantage in education, and keep pace with the new skills and attitudes required to succeed in an innovation-based world. We have to keep up our efforts to nurture in every young Singaporean a passion for learning that lasts through life, and the desire to find better ways of doing things, or to look for altogether new ways of doing things, regardless of what job you do or what enterprise you run. It is the spirit of innovation that has to permeate our society, and which will put us in the premier league of world cities.

Educational Mobility

7. Another angle to the progress we have seen in Malay educational performance is the tremendous educational mobility that has been taking place within Malay families - no less than what we have seen for other Singapore families. Amongst Malay youth who are 23 years old today (the Primary One cohort of 1989), almost three quarters (71%) have reached higher levels of education than their parents did^[2]. This is in fact a much higher rate of educational mobility than what we saw just a decade or so earlier, when just over half of Malay youth of the same age had gone further than their parents had in education^[3] . Educational mobility has actually increased. Malay students have been very much part of this great story of Singapore society, of students who surpass what their parents achieved in education, and who will very likely surpass what their parents achieve in life.

8. There are many inspiring human stories behind these statistics. Stories for example of students whose parents had limited educational achievements, but who were encouraged by their parents to work hard and achieve success. Take one of our top Malay students in the 2004 CEO 'O' levels, Azhar Bin Athy, who graduated from Bukit Panjang High Government with 8 A1s and 1 A2. Azhar's father had a vocational training background, and his mother received no more than a primary education^[4]. His story is one of determination and a hunger to succeed. But it is also a story, like many others, of how parents can support their children's efforts in education and encourage them on, regardless of their own educational backgrounds .

Community Support for Good Parenting

9. Parents hold the key to a child's motivation, and to providing an environment at home that is conducive to their child's learning. I am therefore heartened to see that in recent years MENDAKI has introduced a parent component for every one of its initiatives. These initiatives have helped parents to create a learning culture in the home.

10. I understand that Cahaya M was borne of this basic belief that parents have to be active partners in their children's education and development. Centre coordinators will act as advisors and consultants for parents. With Cahaya M, parents have access to resources with which to engage their children, and to stimulate them into thinking and questioning. Some of the thinking resources are not readily available, and the manipulatives especially can be rather costly. So the Cahaya M scheme will help.

11. I understand that part of the activities of Cahaya M will involve conducting parents' workshops and sharing sessions to familiarise parents with the wide array of tools and skills which they can use to engage their children in learning. It is part and parcel of Mendaki's strategy in the last few years of focusing its activities on enhancing the learning environment in the home. I'm told that most of the parents present today have in fact undergone the Tiga M or Maju Minda Matematika programme which seeks to encourage parent-child learning. Parents have been equipped with basic thinking skills on teaching mathematical concepts and reading skills to their children.

12. It is encouraging that in its pilot year, the programme has successfully reached out to 300 Malay/Muslim families. I was told of the example of Mr Rosli. He and his wife had attended the workshop on thinking skills organized by Cahaya M over three weeks and have learnt new strategies to enhance the learning potential of their children. He is a driver whilst his wife is a homemaker. Since attending the workshops he is more aware of the learning styles of his four school-going children and has been able to help them in different ways. His wife now spends quality time with them discussing schoolwork and asking thinking questions on the topics that her children are studying in school. She is able to use the mind-mapping techniques to help them in their learning. She wants to attend more of such workshops organized by Cahaya M in the near future.

A Win-win Partnership between MENDAKI and Schools

13. MENDAKI and our schools are working together in several areas. It is a win-win partnership. So far this year, 83 schools have been collaborating with MENDAKI in one way or another. I would like to highlight a recent initiative by MENDAKI to help families of students who are in the Learning Support Programme (LSP) in Primary 1 and 2. The families sometimes include younger siblings. MENDAKI's Students' Siblings Scheme aims to proactively approach parents so as to assist these younger siblings before they enter school. MOE supports this initiative. It seeks to tackle problems early, when children have to develop their inquisitiveness and an eagerness to learn.

14. Greenridge Primary and New Town Primary are two schools that have worked with MENDAKI on this Students' Siblings Scheme. Apart from opening applications to Malay/Muslim students, the schools also advise parents on the value of education and the need to put take the younger siblings' pre-school education seriously. MENDAKI has already identified several of such younger siblings by working with the schools and have helped their parents put them in pre-school. It is a valuable intervention, that will better prepare the children for school.

15. Ultimately of course, parents themselves are the key players in all of this. They have to be responsible, and more than responsible, they have to be proactive in their children's education. They must monitor their children's academic and non-academic progress, encourage them on, and support schools' efforts to broaden the educational experiences that our children go through. They must encourage their children to read, and participate in reading with them where possible. They must ask questions for their children to think about, and take questions, in the normal course of family life. And they can no longer take the easy route of plying their child with assessment books and study guides, in the hope that with exam-smartness the child will make it in life.

Conclusion

16. Let me conclude by expressing my heartiest congratulations to Mendaki on this occasion of its launch of Cahaya M. I applaud this latest effort to reach out to parents and provide them much-needed resources, and workshops and advice on how they can best help their children.
17. Together, schools and MENDAKI will I am sure continue their win-win partnerships. We can do better, and students and their parents will be the beneficiaries.