Opening Address by RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State (MOE) at the Partners Award Ceremony on 18 Nov 2006 from 10am to 12.30 pm

OPENING ADDRESS BY RADM (NS) LUI TUCK YEW, MINISTER OF STATE (MOE) AT THE PARTNERS AWARD CEREMONY ON 18 NOV 2006 FROM 10 A.M. TO 12.30 P.M.

1. Let me begin by thanking all of you for being here on a Saturday morning to dialogue, network and strengthen opportunities for school and community bonding. Other than presenting the PARTNERS awards to the winning schools, this ceremony is a platform for COMPASS to acknowledge the efforts and work of all our stakeholders in education – the parents, alumni, ex-pupils, school advisory committee members, enterprise and the community. The theme of today’s ceremony – “Purposeful Partnerships – Nurturing the Future Generation” is about how schools and their stakeholders can help make partnership engagement more meaningful so that together, they produce positive learning outcomes for our pupils.

2. There are two key parts to my speech today. The first is to affirm the important role played by our stakeholders. The second is on the role of schools in this effort to strengthen our partnership with the community. Let me speak first on the role of stakeholders. As SPS Masagos had reminded us during his maiden speech in Parliament, “It takes a village to raise a child” - this Nigerian proverb purports that the upbringing of a child is a communal effort. The responsibility for raising a child is shared with the extended family. Even the wider community such as neighbours and friends get involved. Children are considered a blessing to the whole community. In general, this proverb conveys the African worldview that emphasizes family relationships, parental care, and hospitality, sharing and contribution from the community.

3. In Singapore, the aim of our education system is to develop individuals to their fullest potential, equip them with the skills set for employability and to nurture the right values to become good and active citizens who are conscious of their responsibilities to the family, society, and country.

4. We have a sound education system that is rigorous and demanding. We set high standards and we have even higher expectations. But not everything that needs to be learned by our students is taught within the classroom or found within the covers of the textbooks. They need to be exposed to and have an understanding of what is taking place in society, beyond the confines of the classroom. Schools cannot be independent, stand-alone entities in the community and lay sole claim to the teaching and learning of their pupils.

5. This is where our stakeholders can be of support to the schools. Indeed, over the years, we have been blessed with more of our stakeholders playing an active role in partnering schools to help mould the child’s character, to develop in them a spirit of service to the community, and provide support for learning in and out of the classroom. For example, Daimler Chrysler collaborated closely with 10 classes of NT, NA and Express pupils from Bukit Panjang Government High through project work, sharing with them marketing tips, presentation skills and preparation for the world of work. They also brought in the German school so that the pupils could learn and relate better to fellow students of a different culture. Through this collaboration, pupils have grown in confidence as they realized that their talents can be displayed in a myriad of different ways.

6. Let me cite another example, of a smaller scale, that is symbolic of what I believe is taking place in a number of our schools. In Dunman Sec School, 2 pupils from the Life Science Club, Vadali Raghuram and Tan Yen Kheng thought of a project on developing Bioplastics from Waste Paper through the Degradation of Cellulose. The pupils presented their project plan to Singapore Airlines to obtain funding to further their research. In the process, they also received tips and advice on how to improve and ‘sell’ their business plan. Such enriching experiences will stand the pupils in good stead when they venture out to the world of work.

7. We have many more enterprises in Singapore that through their vast expertise, experience and connections can indeed play a bigger role in the education of our students as part of their corporate social responsibility. By actively engaging these pupils, they get a first hand feel of their interests and inclinations, their skills and work ethics and help set the stage for their potential ‘future employees’, some of who may be inspired and equipped through such attachment programmes to one day bring these enterprises to greater heights.

8. Let me move from enterprises to parents and acknowledge the very important role they play because this is the largest and most diverse group involved in our school-community partnership programme. I would like to pay tribute to the parents who give of their time to support our schools in so many different ways. I was told that there are even a number of parents who continue to support the schools that their children had attended even after their children had graduated from the schools. In Canberra Primary, Mdm Lily Toh Lay Choon’s son graduated from the school 2 years ago. Yet every morning, she is there at the school at 6.40 a.m. to serve food and ensure that the children from the financial assistance programme get a nutritious meal and a slice of fruit to start the day. Mdm Lily Toh finds great meaning in the work that she is doing and to her, these children are her ‘extended family’.

9. I’m sure there are other parents like Mdm Lily Toh and grandparents who are out there in the schools contributing to the children’s well-being and growth. They do so because they recognise that parents and educators need to work hand in hand to better understand a child’s strengths and interests as well as the struggles he faces and to collaborate to find ways that will bring out the best in each child because ultimately, both parties have the best interest of the child at heart.

10. I want to also emphasize the important roles that alumni members and the school advisory council or management board play. In particular, former students can be wonderful role models and mentors when they return to serve the school, whether in CCAs, community work or merely to recount how they have been shaped by their experiences at school. They can be the real-life examples for the current students to look up to, can help imbue in the younger pupils the importance of having a sense of pride for their alma mater and how important it is to come back and make meaningful contributions.

11. Going forward, COMPASS will need to look into how we can strengthen the alumni structure in our schools as we had done for the Parents Support Group in years past. I am also mindful of the opportunities for attachments and internships to the local enterprises, which is widely practised in our polytechnics and ITE, and how beneficial these can be. We should therefore look at ways as to how we can expand these in a systematic way to include more of our schools and JCs.

12. This brings me then to the second part, which is the role of the schools in strategically harnessing community resources to bring about the desired learning outcomes for their pupils.

13. Schools play a pivotal role in leading community engagement. They serve as the catalyst to bring together the various stakeholders to meet pupils’ needs. Schools can identify the strengths and attributes of the different core elements and the ways in which they can best contribute. By developing a collective vision with their partners, they can set the direction for effective engagement with the various entities, build a comprehensive support system for all their pupils and help reduce the fragmentation of services provided by the different stakeholders. In short, schools create the environment for effective engagement to take place.

14. The leadership team in the school sets the tone and direction for this affiliation with external agencies. I can well understand why at the teachers’ level there may occasionally be doubts over where these partnerships are heading. They may have concerns over what they fear would be undue interference or whether the effort expended is commensurate with the benefits. It is important that the principals and school leaders take the time and make the effort to talk through these concerns with their teachers, encourage them and share examples and outcomes that help to dispel some of these misgivings.

15. Fortunately, there are many examples we can refer to of the happy outcomes from these partnerships. In Hougang Primary, the Principal, Mr Goh Ek Piang, and his staff work hard to share its vision with the community and to obtain buy-in from the parents. The school’s vision is ‘a vibrant institution of excellence in harmony with her community’. Education beyond the classroom is a key element of the school’s programme. One way is to expose students to the outdoors and to inculcate in them the ruggedness and resilience through expeditions and adventure training. Pupils spoke with great enthusiasm about their participation and involvement and how much they had learnt and discovered in the process. The school has done so in collaboration with its key partners like the parents. Parents are now firm believers in this effort because they subscribe to this vision and they see the positive changes in their children that have been brought about through these programmes. To the extent that some parents have even come forward and offered to help fund those children whose family circumstances may limit their participation in these programmes.

16. Let me conclude by saying that for successful school-home-community collaboration to work, it takes many hands to clap and for a joyful sound to be heard. If we truly believe that the children of today are going to be our leaders of tomorrow, then let us work together to mobilise the many talents, the vast experience, expertise and connections of our various stakeholders in purposeful partnerships for the benefit of our children.

17. I look forward to an engaging discussion that will touch all of us during the dialogue to come. Thank you.