Speeches
Speech by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Education, at the Joint DAS-ARC Certificate Presentation Ceremony for Special Needs Officers on Wednesday, 5 November 2008, at 2.30pm at the Civil Service College
Distinguished guests
Principals, Teachers
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to join you here at the Joint Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) - Autism Resource Centre (ARC) Certificate Presentation Ceremony for our third cohort of Special Needs Officers.
Developing a New Generation School Team
Teachers do not work alone in the education of our children. They receive valuable support from partners who, together with the teachers, form a strong school team in delivering quality education. These partners comprise school executive, administrative staff and allied educators that include Special Needs Officers, Full Time School Counsellors and Education Associates. As members of the team, you should work closely with each other and with teachers to enhance the holistic development of students with additional learning needs including Dyslexia and Autism. The good strategies that you have acquired in NIE, the Dyslexia Association of Singapore and the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) can benefit all students who have additional learning needs. We are growing the pool of allied educators as we recognise that you play a unique and specialized role in partnering teachers to raise the quality of interaction with every child.
By mid-2009, a total of 136 schools (105 Primary schools and 31 Secondary schools) will be staffed with 168 Special Needs Officers, who will be known as Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support) from January 2009. By 2010, there will be a total of 236 Special Needs Officers in our schools.
In addition, MOE provides training in special needs education for 10% of the teachers in primary schools and 20% of the teachers in secondary schools. This training gives teachers the skills to plan, adapt and differentiate the curriculum in their own schools to better support the learning needs of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and speech and learning difficulties. To date, around 1200 teachers have been trained in special needs and an additional 800 teachers are currently undergoing the training. An estimated 2900 teachers will be trained by 2010.
The Training of SNOs
Today I am pleased to present certificates to 46 Special Needs Officers who have completed their training with the Dyslexia Association of Singapore or with the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore). The Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) and the Autism Resource Centre (ARC) have been our partners in the training of our Special Needs Officers since 2006.
I understand that all DAS trainers have been groomed in-house. Their therapy work with dyslexic children and regular training of parents, mainstream teachers and educational professionals, enables them to train our SNOs in three specialist modules with an emphasis on practical solutions. DAS has also enhanced their teaching approach to meet the needs of multilingual dyslexic students and now delivers training content for these children.
ARC has developed an internationally recognised framework that focuses on reducing the potentially disabling effects of autism and provides a platform for positive teaching and support. The Special Needs Officer is a cornerstone in this support model. These officers are thus carefully trained to recognise the individual needs of students so as to build on their learning strengths and preferences. I am told that the Special Needs Officers have worked very hard during their course to learn the skills and strategies necessary to support the teaching of academic and inter-personal skills in an ‘autism-friendly’ way.
The Contributions of SNOs
SNOs are making significant contributions to the education of students with special needs. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the efforts of two of these officers. Ms Carmelia Arriola, the SNO of Seng Kang Secondary, introduced ‘journaling’ as a way for them to pen their thoughts and for her to understand how her students were coping in school. Other teachers have caught on and now more Seng Kang students are journaling as a way of expressing themselves. She also links up with various agencies and voluntary welfare organisations to engage students with special needs and those at risk .By working as part of the School Team, Carmelia has made a significant impact on her students’ lives and on the wider school population.
At Nanyang Primary, the SNO, Ms Wong Wai Keen, provides one to one intervention and in-class support for students with learning difficulties. She also helps those who are weaker catch up with their peers. In addition, she supports the teachers by giving them guidance on the creation of differentiated worksheets, scaffolding questions as well as visual prompts to help students with behavioural issues. She introduced an IT programme called ‘Earobics’, which emphasises on phonological awareness and use of phonetic strategies to assist students in decoding the language. Wai Keen has also uploaded resources onto the Nanyang Portal to help teachers and parents to cope with various learning disabilities. In so doing, Wai Keen has extended her influence beyond students with special needs.
Conclusion
I hope that the examples of these two SNOs will inspire you to make a difference to the students that will come under your charge. I congratulate you on having completed the specialist modules in dyslexia and autism and I am sure that you will find your new career challenging and rewarding. You are an important part of the School Team and I look forward to your contributions to the education of our children.