Speech by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Finance, at the Official Opening of St Andrew's Village on Saturday, 26 August 2006 at 4 pm at the Cultural Centre, St Andrew's Junior College

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND SECOND MINISTER FOR FINANCE, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST ANDREW'S VILLAGE ON SATURDAY, 26 AUGUST AT 4 PM AT THE CULTURAL CENTRE, ST ANDREW'S JUNIOR COLLEGE

Principals of St Andrew’s Village, Mrs Lim Chye Tin, Mrs Belinda Charles, Mrs Wai Yin Pryke and Mrs Jenny Kwek

1 This is a great day for the St Andrew's Schools as you celebrate your coming together as St Andrew's Village together with Ascension Kindergarten and the three congregations that for decades have supported these schools spiritually as well as financially.

2 This is indeed a unique gathering of institutions and people, who recognise that the education of a whole child cannot rest on the schools alone. It needs the help of the whole community, the whole village - represented at this august gathering of parents, alumni and spiritual leaders.

3 The Anglican Diocese, in particular, put aside other plans they had and gave land for St Andrew's Village. They have also contributed significantly to the building of the new schools, both as a Diocese and as individual congregations.

4 In addition, the housing of St Andrew's Lifestreams, a counselling centre, and the Early Childhood Training Centre in the Diocesan Centre shows the importance this Diocese has placed on bringing up children in a state of wellness and wellbeing.

5 The St Andrew's Fundraising Committee under the able guidance of its chairman Mr Koh Boon Hwee has also achieved much. They raised an amount beyond what they thought was possible and fully met what the building of the Village needed. I am told that on your Donors' Board are at least 400 names, the majority of whom are alumni of the School or College. The electronic Donors' Board on your website that lists everyone that has donated is double that number. You all deserve a hearty show of appreciation for the loyalty you have shown to your old School.

6 I congratulate the Schools' Governors, the Alumni and the parents of the students for the faith they kept with the School. Yours was a vision built on the values of a School that gives those who pass through its portals good memories, and the determination and ruggedness to pursue their dreams. It was a vision that did not falter even when your inclusive policies from the primary school to the secondary school saw other schools move ahead in academic results as they kept the quality of their intake higher.

7 You kept to your beliefs in all your three schools - that no one is here by chance, that all have a destiny to make and meet under the portals of your school. Through almost 30 years, you saw your junior college go off to Alexandra Road and the large enrolments in the school saw a necessary separation of the secondary school from the primary school. Yet you never gave up the dream of One Family Unbroken. And today, we can all see your dream, a reality.

8 I encourage the Village to push the boundaries in education. You can show how the interdependence of school and community can lead to a new, enriched model of education. You can also find new ways of developing student loyalties to the Village, and to the people they grow up with here in the Village. Many of us here today will I’m sure agree that the most lasting loyalties come from going through happy times together in our school days - doing tough things together, sweating it out together, laughing and playing together.

9 Our schools have all levelled up to a level of competence and quality that most countries see only at their top end. But we are keen that schools go further to develop their own identity. Grow a distinctive culture that makes their students feel they belong. You have already started doing that. Your former students, especially those who graduated in the 70s and earlier, are infuriatingly proud of their school. They spent many years together, and experienced happy and memorable times together.

10 In an interconnected world, where business crosses boundaries as a matter of course, and where the family cannot always afford to be physically intact, the St Andrew's community has understood that children need some constants as they grow up, the stability of friends and teachers . I look forward with great expectation to what your Village can do to bring up the children placed under your care.

11 My next invitation to the Village is for you to embrace the spirit of a global world. You can create unique educational opportunities by twinning with schools in other countries. It will help nurture the cultural flexibility that young Singaporeans will need in this new environment - whether to do business, to seek professional opportunities, or to generate trust and understanding in a troubled world.

12 Finally, I congratulate you on the opportunities you have created for yourselves and for your students with this unique coming together in the Village. May I urge you to look then at the total school experience that the Village is uniquely positioned to do. Most schools and junior colleges are independent entities with little relationship with each other, and few experiences to share. Your close proximity is an opportunity to develop over ten to twelve years a St Andrew's brand of education that will be unique.

13 The opportunities will be there in both the academic and other areas. Take rugby, which St Andrew’s evidently cannot live without. This year, all your three schools won the Rugby Championships. This was not something that was achieved overnight. It came from a five-year plan that saw your coaches teach up and down the levels while older and younger players freely mingled both in friendly camaraderie and tough training.

14 I am confident that as you adopt this model for classroom teaching, many artificial barriers will fall away and learning will be in all directions. Not just from teacher to student but from student to teacher as well as between teachers and between students. This is what the village of learning must be like in the 21st century - to keep learning from each other, with an open mind.

15 May I wish all of you at St Andrew's Village a great future as you fashion a learning experience that is happy, and made strong by the bonds of community.