1. Good evening to everyone. I'm delighted to join you at this closing ceremony. Let me start by applauding all participants for the effort you have put into the Reinvent for Good Challenge. I am excited to hear about your projects later and how your ideas will contribute to building future-ready youths in our society.
Singyouth Hub's Reinvent for Good
2. I would like to congratulate SingYouth Hub for its success in engaging young people in community work. Since its establishment as a charity in 2008, SingYouth Hub has tirelessly championed youth development and social engagement in Singapore. Through its efforts, there have been multiple meaningful community initiatives carried out over the years. An example is Charity Pushcart, a platform for youths to sell items to raise funds for various social causes. This has enabled participants to apply their entrepreneurial skills to benefit the community.
3. Reinvent for Good, SingYouth Hub's latest initiative which started last year, is an interesting one to get our youths to brainstorm innovative and impactful initiatives to prepare their younger counterparts in secondary schools to be future-ready. The challenge received 11 entries from 30 youths, covering areas that range from the teaching of skillsets to the inculcation of social and emotional competencies. Such exposure will stand our students in good stead as they confront a future that is fast-changing and unpredictable.
Being Future-Ready
4. So, what does being future-ready entail? I think helping our students to develop what we describe as 21st Century Competencies is key. It's not just about what you learn in schools and institutions. These are values, dispositions, and skills that are acquired from projects that you do. These are precisely the attributes that our youths have sought to promote through the Reinvent For Good initiative. Let me highlight some of these attributes.
5. Firstly, it is about being equipped with the skills to function effectively in this complex and diverse world, including being able to interact and work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds as you try to solve complicated problems together
6. Secondly, for our young people to thrive in an increasingly dynamic environment, they will also need to be mentally resilient. In MOE we spend a lot of time talking to our educators about this. We have also recently revised our Character and Citizenship Education curriculum, and paid attention to create peer support structures in our schools and institutions.
7. One of our greatest concerns is the 'silent vulnerables' in our midst. I think we also need to engage with our young people to understand what their challenges are. By connecting with one another more at an emotional level, we can encourage people to talk more about their feelings. And if there are any issues, we can try to overcome them together. Through working together, we can also find opportunities for the young to develop skills which will allow them to be more resilient in life.
8. Thirdly, coming back to the point about being future-ready, it is also about learning to help one another in times of adversity. During COVID-19, there have been many occasions where we have been tested in various areas, not just in the community, but also in schools, and in our national response. I think in the process we have all learnt a little bit more about each other, and hopefully at the end of the day we can come out stronger. Because when a crisis hits, it can make us weaker or stronger as a community. It really depends on what we do and how we help each other – I think that defines us as a country.
9. The attributes that I have spoken about earlier are the same attributes that our participants in Reinvent for Good have been promoting through the challenge. One of the participating teams, Mastery of Direction, came up with a proposal to teach students future-ready skills in the digital domain. Another team, Project Lit Vibes, looked at teaching life lessons and ways to be more mentally resilient through creative workshops on trending online platforms like TikTok.
10. These are just some examples and there are many more projects and ideas that teams have come up with that complements the nurturing of 21st Century Competencies. And with each run of Reinvent for Good, our students benefit from the rich ideas from their seniors.
11. Through Reinvent for Good, our youths themselves exemplify a future-ready mindset, by coming together to develop creative solutions, address students' learning needs, and deepen their passion to help others in the community.
Appreciation to Singyouth Hub and Participating Teams
12. Tonight, we recognise the youths who have stepped up to make an impact to the community. I congratulate them on these admirable efforts and I look forward to seeing even more of their ideas come to fruition. I hope that even after this competition, they will continue to contribute proactively to social causes, to make Singapore a better society and home for all of us. And I hope through this process they also make friends, even though we are socially distanced.
13. Once again, my heartiest congratulations to SingYouth Hub and all the participants, for the successful completion of the meaningful Reinvent for Good Challenge. Thank you very much.