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4 August 2005

PRESIDENT TO LAUNCH STUDENTS’ GIFT TO THE NATION

1           Student representatives from primary, secondary, junior college as well as Special Education Schools will present a gift to the nation on its 40^th birthday. The gift, a book entitled “Today In History : Singapore”, is a colourful compilation of students’ research and reflections on past events in Singapore for every day of the year, coinciding with their own birthdays. All schools, including Special Education schools, took part in the project. 366 entries were selected from 4000 contributions, which cover every day of the year, including 29 Feb. The book commemorates Singapore’s growth from a fledging nation to the modern cosmopolitan country of today.

2           President S R Nathan will launch the book at the Opening Ceremony of Carnival@Marina at Marina South on 6 August (Saturday), and will be signing a special edition of the book as part of the launch. This special edition incorporates 40 pieces of students’ work, representing Singapore’s 40 years as a nation. The 40 student contributors will also take part in the launch, to be witnessed by some 3500 school representatives who will be present at the ceremony. 

A National Day gift for Every Student and Teacher 

3          More than half a million students and teachers in our schools will receive a copy of the book from the Ministry of Education (MOE) as a National Day present.

4          Apart from using it as a colourful history book, students and teachers can also personalise the book with the space set aside on each page for journal entries. This allows them to record their own personal events as their own history, and in effect ‘grow’ with the book.

5           Mr Koh Boon Long, Chairman of the Today In History : Singapore Project Committee, notes: “Our students not only had fun while participating in this project, they also got an opportunity to learn more about Singapore’s history and realise their place in it. It is indeed a meaningful gift to the nation and we hope its significance for each individual owner of the book will grow with the years.”

Sale of Today in History: Singapore

6           The books will be on sale at MOE’s Customer Service Centre from 8 August 2005, at $18 each. Profits from the sale of books will be donated to the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund.

Today in History: Singapore Website

7          Background information on the Today in History: Singapore project and the nation-wide effort that went into its production can be found at Annex A. More information can be found at the Today in History: Singapore website at www.moe.gov.sg/todayinhistory.

Annex A

Background

1           The Today in History: Singapore project was a nation-wide school project to encourage students to find out what happened in Singapore on each day of the year.   More than 4000 students researched events that spanned the whole of Singapore’s history, covering Singapore’s 40 years as a nation and extending to the founding of Singaporein 1819. 

2           It aimed to help students rediscover Singapore’s history in a fun way and nurture a greater sense of belonging to Singapore  in the process. Linking students’ research to what happened on their birthdays was another way to motivate them in their research and to help them identify with past events.

3          Some facts about the book:

·        A total of 363 schools participated in the project, involving all primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges, including 8 Special Education (SPED) schools.

·       The book has a total of 466 student authors and illustrators but the project is the collective effort of many more students and schools than those represented in these pages.

·       The Today in History: Singapore Project Committee received more than 4000 entries from schools. 

·        The research, submissions and revisions of selected entries for 366 days took place over a full year, from Dec 03 - Dec 04.

4           Each school was presented with the task of submitting a minimum of 11 entries (1 assigned date and 10 best entries on any date). Some schools assigned the project to a specific level, e.g. Primary 4 students, while other schools chose to implement the project through subjects such as History, Social Studies and English Language.