Speech by RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State, Ministry of Education, at the NIE Teachers' Investiture Ceremony on Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 2.30 pm at the Nanyang Auditorium, Nanyang Technological University

SPEECH BY RADM (NS) LUI TUCK YEW, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, AT THE NIE TEACHERS’ INVESTITURE CEREMONY ON WEDNESDAY, 17 JANUARY 2007, 2.30 PM AT THE NANYANG AUDITORIUM, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

1. A very good afternoon to all of you. First of all, I would like to convey my heartiest congratulations to the 349 teachers here who have completed NIE’s foundation training programmes this semester. Today’s investiture ceremony marks your entry as full-fledged professionals into the teaching profession. On behalf of all your colleagues, let me take this opportunity to say “Welcome” to each and every one of you as you take your special place in moulding the lives of the boys and girls who will come under your charge.

The Work Of Teachers
2. Today is both a solemn and a joyous occasion. Solemn, because as of today, you are formally vested with the responsibility and, indeed, the honour of shaping the future of generations to come. Joyous, because we also celebrate the start of many years of fulfilling, engaging and worthwhile work, work that can be deeply meaningful and truly significant, as you embark on what I am certain is a most meaningful of careers.

3. Good teachers are at the heart of everything we do in the pursuit of educational excellence. You not only share their values, knowledge and skills but also in the process, fire the imagination of your students. You play a critical role in nurturing students to manifest the creativity and innovativeness they need to take Singapore forward. They will have to be strong yet flexible, confident yet humble, hard-headed yet soft hearted. They will also need to be resilient in the face of challenges and obstacles, be prepared to face crisis with fortitude and emerge stronger than ever. You face the challenge of helping to infuse these qualities in our students. It is an awesome responsibility.

4. Yet while acknowledging its demands, there are few careers quite as special or as emotionally rewarding as teaching. The historian Henry Adams once said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” To use an analogy of teachers being like gardeners—when we sow seeds, we need patience, toil and faith to help them grow. But once they bloom and flourish, they will continue to do so many years into the future, sowing their own seeds in time to come.

5. When the war heroine, humanitarian and teacher, Elizabeth Choy, passed away last year, we saw how her legacy lived on in the many lives she touched and influenced. When asked in the last years of her life what she wanted to be remembered for the most, she answered with no hesitation that it was as a teacher, because the act of moulding young people was to her, most noble and important. Interestingly enough, she also said that her best memories in her 40 years of teaching was when she was head of discipline at St Andrew’s School because she had the opportunity to counsel errant students and to turn them around. I know that for many new teachers, managing discipline is a difficult skill to master. I hope that Mrs Choy’s perspective will help you see it as not as a struggle, but as an opportunity to reach out to and bring about a transformation in your students.

Supporting Beginning Teachers
6. What I have just described is not easy, I know. On our part, we are committed to giving you the support you need to rise to the task. In MOE’s discussions with teachers and school leaders, the consensus was that systematic guidance and support was what helped beginning teachers best. With this in mind, the Structured Mentoring Programme (SMP) for beginning teachers was launched last January. Under this programme, every beginning teacher receives a structured induction process and is matched with a trained mentor who can share best practices as well as familiarize the teacher with the school culture. The feedback from beginning teachers who have benefited from SMP has been strongly positive and we continue to recruit and train school-level mentors.

7. On top of this, MOE works closely with NIE to provide additional training for beginning teachers in core areas. For example, beginning teachers in the W1 cluster took modules in classroom management and reflective practice, conducted by NIE at Fuhua Secondary. These are all skills that are immediately applicable to their work and practice.

8. NIE has achieved much in its continual review of its training and research programmes over the last few years. By recognising and anticipating change, and harnessing the findings of research undertaken, particularly by NIE’s Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice and Learning Sciences Laboratory NIE has been able to adjust and tailor its teacher preparation programmes, so as to keep pace with global advances in teacher education.

9. I am particularly heartened to see that the enhanced curriculum launched since 2005 has a strong emphasis on the teaching of values as well as skills and knowledge. Values add value to who we are and what we do. We need to help our students grow up to become caring and responsible citizens, understanding and empathising with those less fortunate, less able, less confident or less successful. Through serving the community, they will realise they can make a difference to someone’s life, where a small effort on their part can mean so much to someone else and that such endeavours can be highly satisfying and deeply meaningful. But this is not something that can be learnt through a textbook. It is something they emulate, it must be something they experience for themselves. I understand that as part of the enhanced curriculum you have all formed groups among yourselves so as to take part in community service projects. It is my hope that you will take this spirit of service learning, and imbue it in your students when they take on their own community projects.

10. Another example of how quickly NIE responds to the changes required in our educational system is in how to identify and help high-ability students who are not in the Gifted Education Programme, develop their areas of talent to as high a level as possible. To this end, this year NIE will start training teachers who are teaching top 5% pupils in innovative teaching strategies, supported by MOE with consultancy and teaching materials.

11. Going forward, MOE and NIE will continue to explore how we can better prepare our teachers for the profession, and also how to better harness the diversity in the make-up of our new teachers. This year’s valedictorian, Daniel Lim, shows us that mid-career entrants can have a great deal to share. An MBA holder, Daniel decided to make a career switch from banking and insurance to teaching and has proven to be an excellent teacher in his practicum, receiving the award for best performance for educational studies as well as the best performance in the teaching of history. We look forward to Daniel’s contributions and I wish him many enjoyable and rewarding years of teaching.

Professional Upgrading and In-Service Training
12. Looking ahead, I would encourage you to keep up a love of learning and self-improvement in your journey ahead as teachers. You have graduated from the general foundation of education theory, and had some practice with these foundation skills. Continue to experiment and to learn as you join your new schools and return from time to time to refresh yourselves through the professional upgrading courses. I urge you to explore fully the many avenues by which serving teachers can upgrade and develop themselves by attending in-service or NIE courses.

13. We plan to make it as convenient as possible for teachers to upgrade themselves. Under the Professional Development Continuum Model (PDCM), you will be able to take courses that accumulate credit towards an advanced certification. More recently, NIE launched its PDCM-Master course for teachers who wished to do their Masters degree while remaining in-service. I am pleased to note that the first group of in-service teachers began their PDCM-Master course, conducted in the form of night classes at Meridian JC and the Teachers’ Network, in July last year.

14. As you become increasingly experienced, consider the value of participating in pedagogical research. Research and teaching have a strong correlation, one strengthens the other immensely. NIE’s Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, its Learning Sciences Laboratory and various academic groups undertake research in areas ranging from teacher learning to the use of technology and learning environments. .

15. Aside from this, MOE also provides consultancy for school-based research and experiments in teaching. Research need not be complex. A good place to start is with your own areas of interest. There is a whole community of teacher-led research projects taking place in school with teachers using everything from computer games, mobile phones and blogs to teach their subjects. Start with something that you like and take steps to develop greater expertise in the field. Progress according to your aspirations and capabilities.

The core of teaching
16. Let me conclude by saying that I understand the enormous demands we place on our teachers. We live in a world of flux but amidst the constant changes, the core purpose of teaching remains unchanged. Our work is to stimulate the potential that lies in our students and to infuse in them the right values and qualities. Browsing through the over 12,000 tributes on the Teacher’s Day website: “teachersday.sg”, I observed that one common theme ran through many of the entries. What students, past and present, consistently remembered and appreciated, was a teacher who believed in them, and who expected good things from them. That is the very simple message that I want to leave you with.

18. Once again, congratulations to each and every one of you and welcome to the teaching profession. I wish you all a fulfilling career.