Speech by Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance and Minister for Education, at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) Graduation Ceremony on Saturday, 29 December 2007, 3 pm at the Spring Singapore Auditorium

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM , MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE DYSLEXIA ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE (DAS) GRADUATION CEREMONY ON SATURDAY, 29 DECEMBER 2007, 3 PM AT THE SPRING SINGAPORE AUDITORIUM

Introduction
1. It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon to celebrate the progress and achievements of the students graduating from the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) learning programme. My congratulations to all graduating students and your families, and for those receiving special achievement awards, keep up the good work!

2. The ability to read and write fluently is the foundation for learning successfully in all school subjects. The speech we’ve just heard from Lee Li Er and Paul Alban Mrowczynski gives us great encouragement and says something about the success of students now graduating from the DAS learning programme. In spite of dyslexia, Li Er and Paul have made such tremendous progress on the programme that they are currently reading and spelling above their age-appropriate level. I understand too that Li Er could have graduated from the DAS programme in 2006 but chose to stay on for an additional year. Her determination to achieve even greater success is to be admired. What each of them demonstrates is that with determination and effort, and the support and guidance of both their schools and organizations such as the DAS, dyslexic students can achieve success academically and in life.

Support for Children with Dyslexia in Mainstream Schools
3. On our part, the Ministry of Education will continue to enhance our efforts to support pupils with dyslexia. At one level, support is given through specialised remediation, which is conducted outside of school curriculum time and helps the child to acquire the skills needed to overcome their specific difficulties in reading, writing and comprehension, so that they can catch up with their peers in school. This specialised remediation is provided through classes conducted by DAS, as well as by schools which are resourced with MOE’s special needs officers (SNOs).

4. DAS has been MOE’s active partner in the training of the SNOs, with 47 SNOs having successfully completed the DAS Diploma in Dyslexia for Special Needs Officers to date. I know several of these SNOs are here today to show their support for the dyslexic students from their schools who are graduating this afternoon.

5. Aside from the specialized remediation however, another key component of our strategy to help children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities belongs in the school classroom itself. A large portion of a child’s learning activities takes place during curriculum time, in the regular classrooms, and it is sometimes in these classrooms that the child with dyslexia faces significant challenges; for example, when the class teacher teaches a new concept or explains new ideas to the class. The child with dyslexia may also struggle with assignments that require a lot of independent writing. This is why, in addition to SNOs, MOE is committed to the training of TSNs, which stands for Teachers trained in Special Needs.

Teachers Trained in Special Needs (TSN) Initiative
6. Since September 2005, we have made Special Needs a compulsory (12-hour) module in the initial teacher training course for Beginning Teachers. This ensures that all new teachers have awareness and a basic understanding of the main types of learning disabilities that are commonly seen in mainstream schools, such as dyslexia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

7. There is also a need for a pool of teachers who are able to go beyond an awareness and basic understanding, to demonstrate specific skills and knowledge to support children with special needs.

8. With this in mind, we established the TSN initiative in 2005. It involves the training of mainstream teachers through a part-time course conducted by the National Institute of Education. Mainstream teachers who take this certificate course receive 108 hours of further training in special needs, including dyslexia. Our aim is for every school to have a group of teachers who possess a deeper understanding of the nature of these learning disabilities, and who are able to apply a range of strategies to improve teaching and learning for these pupils in regular classrooms and to help their colleagues in doing so where possible.

9. By 2008, there will be 1125 teachers in primary and secondary schools that would have completed the TSN training. Many of these teachers have started to apply their skills and knowledge in their daily work on pupils with special needs in their respective schools. Let me just share with you the experiences of a teacher, Mdm Tracy Choo, and a full-time school counselor, Mrs Florence Ruth Loo, who have both completed the course.

10. During her TSN training, Mdm Tracy Choo from Seng Kang Primary School learnt the different ways a teacher could contribute to the success of special needs pupils in the classroom. Something simple such as helping pupils to organize their work routines in class could result in much more effective learning and teaching, she realised. After the course, she also found herself more confident in communicating with the parents of these pupils, and was able to support them better in helping their children excel in school.

11. In her school, Tracy has become a key figure in bringing together other school personnel such as the Learning Support Coordinator, Special Needs Officer and other teachers in the area of special needs. This year, she created a system for key information on each special needs child to be passed on from one teacher to another, such that the good strategies used by previous teachers are not lost, but carried on at the next level.

12. While the majority of those attending TSN courses are teachers,, some school personnel have found the training useful as well. Mrs Florence Loo, who is a full-time school counselor at Mayflower Primary School, focused on transmitting what she learnt to help her colleagues in school better understand children with special needs. After the course, she guided new and beginning teachers in her school, mentoring them with advice on how they could differentiate their teaching methods to support their pupils with special needs. A strong believer in parent-school links, Florence also brought about a collaborative effort with parent volunteers, who come into the school before the start of every school day to provide reading support for children with reading difficulties.

Expansion of TSN Training
13. Having seen the positive outcomes of our TSN initiatives in schools, we are now re-looking our end targets for TSNs. We started with the target of training up to 10% of all primary and secondary teachers in special needs. We will be about half-way there by next year. However, having watched our TSNs in action and studying the potential impact that they can have, we have now revised our targets for secondary schools. We now aim to have up to 20% of our mainstream secondary teachers undergo the TSN training. We should be able to achieve this in 5 years time (2012).

14. Pupils are generally taught by more teachers at the secondary level, as compared to when they were in primary schools. With a larger pool of teachers trained in special needs, the pupil with dyslexia is more likely to receive support for his or her learning in the classrooms.

15. From 2008, we will also be including some teachers from the junior colleges in the TSN training. We will customize their training to meet the needs of JCs.

16. This will allow us to provide a school environment that is supportive of special needs at all levels from primary through to post-secondary education. It will complement what we are doing together with our special schools to enhance the quality of teaching for students with significant or severe special needs.

17. We are on the right track in improving access to quality teaching of children with special needs. Our approach is holistic, to address children with both mild and severe special needs and to enable both the mainstream and special schools to play their roles effectively. The key is in training teachers. First, in training all new teachers with a basic understanding of special needs children; second, training some teachers in all schools in more advanced skills in special needs (the TSN programme); and third, to develop deeper pools of specialist skills in selected schools targeted at specific learning difficulties like autism, both within the mainstream schools (selected mainstream schools with specialist units/satellite classes for children with disabilities) and in the special schools sector. We are making progress on each front, and will keep up the momentum of this effort to improve quality in special needs education.

Support for dyslexic students by the DAS
18. Here, I wish to commend the DAS for its unstinting efforts to increase awareness of dyslexia in schools, pre-schools and the community and to help create these supportive environments for children with special needs. Since its founding in 1991, the DAS has built a strong professional reputation in the management of dyslexia with services that include specialist assessment and diagnosis, teaching, training and support for parents and teachers.

19. More children with dyslexia are being identified and given the appropriate intervention. I understand that this year the DAS conducted almost 600 psychological assessments for children at risk of dyslexia and student enrollment on the DAS learning programme has crossed the 1,000 mark this year for the first time. Certainly this has been a year of milestones for DAS.

20. I am delighted too that the DAS is increasingly viewed as the expert in the field of dyslexia in this region and has, in the past year, conducted talks and training courses in a number of other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Support from the community
21. Last but not least, community support is invaluable for any cause that seeks to make a difference. In this, the Rotary Club of Raffles City has been a stalwart supporter of the DAS. As I viewed the LEGO Competition entries of dyslexic students earlier, I was reminded of how important it is that we recognize and nurture the many gifts and talents of our children, just as we strive to help them overcome their learning difficulties. Community partners like the Rotary Club play a part here in introducing avenues for the creative and social development of these children, helping them to grow up into confident and civic-minded individuals.

Conclusion
22. MOE, DAS, parents and community partners will continue to work together to help dyslexic children overcome their challenges and make a difference in their lives, their future and for Singapore.

23. Finally, in conclusion, to the boys and girls here, you can and will succeed if you put your mind to it and always adopt a positive attitude towards overcoming obstacles. Much like climbing a mountain, it’s an uphill challenge. But there is no mountain too high to climb, with the right attitudes. And once you’ve surmounted it, you will look for a new mountain to climb. Once again, my congratulations to you and your parents, and I wish you every success in your future pursuits.