Speech by RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State, Ministry of Education, at Victoria School National Education Web Design Competition (NEWDC) and Natiional Education Video Competition (NEVC) Prize-Giving Day, on Saturday, 21 July 2007, at 10am, at the Victoria School Auditorium

SPEECH BY RADM (NS) LUI TUCK YEW, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, AT VICTORIA SCHOOL NATIONAL EDUCATION WEB DESIGN COMPETITION (NEWDC) AND NATIONAL EDUCATION VIDEO COMPETITION (NEVC) PRIZE-GIVING DAY, ON SATURDAY, 21 JULY 2007, AT 10AM, AT THE VICTORIA SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

1 National Education (NE) is crucial to our education system – it is key to nurturing in our students a sense of belonging, instincts for survival as a nation and confidence in our nation’s future. Given the greater opportunities for Singaporeans to live, work and study abroad, it is especially important for NE to grow our younger Singaporeans’ emotional attachment to Singapore - so that you will regard Singapore as your home regardless of how far you journey and how long you are away. Home is where your heart is – home is your family, your friends, your community and the familiar places.

2 I commend Victoria School for initiating the National Education Website Design Competition and the National Education Video Competition, which makes NE fun and engaging. I understand that the website design competition was first started in year 2000 with 20 teams from 20 schools participating. Into its eighth year now, the competition has attracted 122 teams from a total of 82 schools this year.

3 The enthusiastic response from schools is encouraging and suggests to me that schools find such activities worthwhile – as they engage students in exploring and expressing their own private thoughts on NE. Students who take part in these competitions pick up useful skills at the same time. I understand that quite a number of students who took part in the competitions underwent training in website design and video production.

4 The theme chosen -, “I love SG ”, is apt – and I hope it has engaged your hearts and minds and will continue to encourage you to express your appreciation for different aspects of Singapore. I believe you have taken pains to craft websites and videos describing in detail the places you love in Singapore, Singapore’s heroes, your favourite local dishes, and many other things you appreciate about Singapore, including the clean air and water that we enjoy.

5 Increasingly, many agencies are making an effort to make NE an interactive process, rather than a one-way communication. The “Singapore Soul” Youth Mentorship Programme is an example of this. The programme is a MICA initiative and teams up 400 students with professionals from the arts industry. Over the next two months, with the help of their mentors, these students will be putting together performances and artwork to express their Singapore identity. NE will continue to move in this direction to actively involve students in exploring their own roots and national identity, rather than just telling the Singapore story through textbooks.

6 Another platform which actively engages students in the exploration of their heritage is Yesterday.sg. Recently nominated Best Educational Blog, Yesterday.sg is an initiative by the Museum Roundtable and supported by the National Heritage Board. It is a blog about heritage and museums in Singapore and features stories and pictures by heritage enthusiasts. The advent of Yesterday.sg and other Web 2.0 developments such as MySpace, Second Life and YouTube show increasingly the tremendous opportunities open to us to take advantage of New Media to promote NE.

7 History and identity and other such issues should not be the preserve of some central authority or government agency. It must be the result of exchange and interaction among communities. The mutual exchange of images, music, sounds, ideas and opinions is the essence of what makes a group of people who they are. For example, many Singaporeans may have an affinity for a particular place, song or food, although they are from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. This makes infocomm technology a truly unifying force. We need to look at New Media as an opportunity for all sorts of things and not focus our minds only on the negative things we hear so often being said about it. I am glad that our schools are harnessing New Media to make NE come alive and engage and captivate our young.

8 We live in very challenging times. Technology is changing the world so rapidly. I am heartened to see that so many younger Singaporeans are making the effort to tap on the many opportunities it offers to make our world a better place.