Integration of SAP Students

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr Fatimah Abdul Lateef, MP for Marine Parade GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education whether there are plans to further integrate students from the Special Assistance Plan schools into the wider, multicultural group of students from other schools in Singapore.

Response
 
1. MOE established the Special Assistance Plan or SAP schools, in 1979 for two purposes.  Firstly, to keep alive the best traditions and ethos of old Chinese schools in a few selected schools, so as to inculcate traditional Chinese values and social discipline in a number of our top students.  Secondly, to encourage a number of our academically able and linguistically talented students to study both Chinese and English at first language level.

2. Today, our SAP schools continue to play a key role in nurturing a core group of bilingual Singaporeans who are well versed in the Chinese language and culture, with a deep understanding of their heritage, and who are also well poised to grasp opportunities in the emerging China market.  This is a strength of our system that we will continue to preserve going forward.
 
3. SAP schools are keenly aware that they need to work doubly hard to create opportunities for their students to interact with students from other ethnic groups.  They do so in a variety of forms – from twinning with non-SAP schools with a multi-racial composition, to taking part in joint activities with non-SAP schools and community organisations which serve non-Chinese or multiracial communities.  An example is the twinning arrangement between Ai Tong School (a Primary SAP school) and Peirce Secondary School.  Primary 4 pupils from Ai Tong who are weak in Maths and English receive tutoring help from non-Chinese students[1] from Peirce Secondary.  Similarly, the Secondary 3 students in Chung Cheng High School (Main) run a Conversational Chinese Programme for Primary 5 non-Chinese students from Geylang Methodist Primary School.