Opening Address by RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State, Ministry of Education, at the 2nd Outdoor Education Conference held at Republic Polytechnic at 9.00 am on 31 October 2006

OPENING ADDRESS BY RADM (NS) LUI TUCK YEW, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, AT THE 2ND OUTDOOR EDUCATION CONFERENCE HELD AT REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC AT 9.00 AM ON 31 OCTOBER 2006

INTRODUCTION
1 It gives me great pleasure to join you this morning to officiate at the 2nd Outdoor Education Conference. This is a useful platform for practitioners of outdoor education to interact with one another, share ideas, experiences and approaches about outdoor education, and also to provide the opportunity for professional development and stimulating conversations with fellow practitioners and researchers.

THEME OF CONFERENCE
2 The theme of this year’s conference is “The Classroom, Outdoors”. As we all know, teaching and learning has increasingly extended beyond the confines of the physical classroom. Many valuable lifelong lessons are made more vivid and real through the camps and outdoor expeditions we experience. These lessons in leadership, perseverance and teamwork remain with us long after we leave school.

3 Not everything that needs to be learnt is found within the four walls of the classroom or between the covers of a textbook. Through sports, we learn determination, teamwork and resilience. Through Community Involvement Projects, we understand what it means to give, to empathise with those less fortunate than ourselves. Learning Journeys make History, Geography, even Science and Mathematics come alive and relevant. “Adventure Learning” takes us beyond our comfort zones, allows us to know ourselves, builds self-confidence to test and push our personal boundaries. All these pursuits beyond the classroom, even beyond the shores of Singapore, help strengthen the mind, body and spirit. These activities add variety and spice to our learning experience.

4 The theme is very much aligned to MOE’s focus in the Teach Less Learn More initiative. TLLM aims to touch the hearts and engage the minds of our learners and prepare them for life. It reaches into the core of education – why we teach, the way we teach and how we teach.

TEACH LESS, LEARN MORE
5 With this shift in focus to encourage more active and engaged learning in our students, our teachers will be required to provide more guiding, facilitating and modelling to motivate students to take ownership of their own learning. Students need to be provided with opportunities to work collaboratively to solve problems, do authentic tasks, and share knowledge and responsibility so as to encourage a spirit of innovation and enterprise, nurture intellectual curiosity, passion, and the courage to experiment. Outdoor education plays a central role in creating many such opportunities for our young to grow and develop as independent learners.

6 Some values and life skills are best acquired through hands-on experiences in real-life situations, and the outdoor classroom offers infinite opportunities for presenting tasks that bear a close relationship to real world problems in the home, workplace and society In the outdoor setting, experiences are often packed with stimuli, both planned for and incidental and individuals placed in such conditions would need to decide for themselves what to make of these experiences and make the relevant connections. This process equips our students with important decision making skills and facilitates independent and creative thinking.

TOWARDS QUALITY OUTDOOR EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
7 Recognising the potential and importance of outdoor education, the first MOE Adventure Centre was set up in 1986. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of schools embarking on outdoor education and adventure programmes for their students. Today the 4 MOE adventure centres located at Jalan Bahtera, Pasir Panjang, Dairy Farm and Changi Coast allow about 70,000 pupils to benefit from the outdoor experience each year. While providing schools with good infrastructure and facilities is an important starting point, the next step would be to help schools enhance the quality and delivery of their outdoor education and adventure programmes. To that end, the Outdoor Education unit need to continue to enhance the competencies of our teachers by conducting professional development courses, ranging from challenge course instruction to expedition leadership courses.

8 Currently, a majority of the schools conduct 3-day 2-night camping programmes for their students by cohort/level. To encourage schools to explore more creative ways of engaging our students and try out a variety of approaches, from this year onwards, MOE has allowed schools to book the centres without restricting the programme to 3 days and 2 nights. We hope that by allowing schools the flexibility to decide on the programme and duration of their programme, they will in turn exercise creativity in the design of their outdoor experiences for their students. One good example of a school that has taken the bold step to break away from the norm to customize its programmes for the students is Christchurch Secondary School. Each class of students is provided with a unique camping experience in the school during their curriculum time throughout the school year. The school has also deployed a specialised teacher, dedicated to conceptualising and overseeing the design and conduct of meaningful outdoor education programmes for each class.

FORGING AHEAD
9 Moving ahead, MOE has embarked on study trips to explore the feasibility of closer collaboration and opportunities for partnership with educational institutions and organisations beyond our shores. This year, the outdoor education unit initiated several fruitful study trips and expeditions to West Malaysia, Sarawak, Perth and Hong Kong. In particular, plans are already underway to organise expeditions for our teachers to experience for themselves some of the programmes conducted in Malaysia. In the next few years, we hope to see more of our schools establish links with the various Pusat Ko-kurikular, or Co-Curricular Centres, in Malaysia so that they can also conduct outdoor education programmes for our students at these centres.

10 Besides putting in place more support systems to help schools embark on expeditions locally and overseas, we also encourage partnerships between our schools and overseas partners. The strategic link forged between Hougang Primary School and Scotch College, a premier school in Perth, is one such example. While Scotch College hopes to give their pupils exposure to the richness and diversity of our culture and deepen their students’ understanding of a multi-cultural society, we look to them for innovative teaching approaches in the delivery of their outdoor education programmes. Such exchanges and partnerships will go a long way in helping our pupils forge meaningful friendships with their overseas peers.

11 We will also continue to develop more partnerships with our overseas counterparts in neighbouring countries. Some of these programmes already in existence include the Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Programme camps and the Malaysia-Singapore camps that are held annually, alternating between Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Others such as the Singapore-Indonesia and Singapore-Brunei Camps are also in the pipeline and will create more opportunities for students and teachers in the region to share common experiences through the outdoors. We will also be exploring exchanges and opportunities with countries such as China and Australia. By reaching out to the region and beyond, and through the sharing of our practices, MOE hopes to establish Singapore as a hub where research and sharing can be done in the field of outdoor education to further augment and build upon the existing knowledge base in the region.

CONCLUSION
12 Prior to this conference, two pre-conference workshops were conducted yesterday. I am positive that those who have attended those workshops will have benefited much from them. In the next 2 days, I hope you will not only gain new insights but also draw inspiration from the experiences and sharing by our three distinguished keynote speakers: Dr Deb Sugerman from the States, Dr Peter Martin from Australia and our Director-General of Education, Miss Seah Jiak Choo, who is an avid believer in outdoor education herself. Besides the keynote speakers, there are also many presenters, both local and overseas, from various institutions and organizations here to share their ideas and expertise with you. This year, we are particularly delighted to have several schools coming onboard to share their success stories, best practices and strategies. As committed educators and practitioners, I am confident that you will be able to bring back some of these useful ideas and apply them in your own programmes.

13 On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all the distinguished speakers and workshop presenters who have come forward to share your ideas, insights and expertise with fellow educators and practitioners. I wish all of you a stimulating, enriching and fulfilling time at the 2nd Outdoor Education conference.