Mr Mohamed Salleh, President, STU
Mr Mike Thiruman, General Secretary, STU
Ms K Thanaletchimi, President, NTUC
Leaders of the ASEAN Council of Teachers plus Korea delegations
Current and former Cabinet colleagues
Brothers and sisters from the Labour Movement
Friends, ladies and gentlemen
1.This evening, we celebrate the Singapore Teachers’ Union’s 80th anniversary, and warmly welcome educators from around the region to the 40th ASEAN Council of Teachers plus Korea Convention. I’m also told we have friends from further around the world, and we warmly welcome you to Singapore.
2.My warmest congratulations to the STU. For 80 years, you have been a strong and steady partner to our teachers and the Ministry of Education. From serving around 300 teachers in 1946, you have grown to represent more than 13,000 teachers today.
3.You have strengthened the profession and supported teachers’ development and well-being. From improving teachers’ terms of service in your early years to drafting Singapore’s first Code of Ethics for Teachers in 1966, you helped build the professional and respected teaching service we have today.
4.STU’s founders chose a torch as the Union’s symbol and the motto Bersatu Tegoh meaning “United We Stand”. Together, they reflect your belief that our teachers light the way forward and achieve more when they support one another.
5.That commitment to learning from and supporting one another extends beyond Singapore. As a longstanding member of the ASEAN Council of Teachers, STU is hosting the 40th ACT+1 Convention this year, bringing together educators from different systems to exchange experiences and learn from one another.
6.While our education systems may differ, they all depend on the skill and commitment of our teachers. With the pace at which technology is transforming, beyond the workplace and society, education must not only keep pace, but also think deeply and light the way forward.
7.In Singapore, teachers are at the heart of our education system. You do a lot more than transmit knowledge. You help students make sense of the world, discover their strengths, develop sound values, and grow in confidence.
8.In fact, before I came for dinner, I was at an Art Exhibition at Jurong West Secondary School, marking the end of their 25th anniversary celebrations. The school, along with others, has a strong focus on the visual arts. Today was not the first time I’ve seen their students display their work. Across the community, from National Day events to celebrations in the Western districts, you see students come out of their shells, sharing their perspective of the world, bringing all the disciplines they learn in the classroom into the art they weave with their very hands. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how some of these students have grown through teachers’ guidance in the classroom, and their mentorship in art as a form of expression, and how that contributes to the well-being and maturity of students. This is one of many examples of how, as teachers, you move the whole child.
9.Indeed, this work is becoming more complex and difficult. You support students with diverse learning needs and mental health challenges, work with parents whose expectations have grown, and navigate rapid advances in technology, including artificial intelligence. These changes are reshaping how students learn, and the world we are preparing them for.
10.We must therefore keep strengthening our education system for a more uncertain future. Beyond deep foundation and knowledge, our students need to think critically, apply what they learn, work well with others and take ownership of their learning all through life. This is why we continue to review how we can better support the holistic development of every child.
11.As teachers, you are at the forefront of this effort. It calls for professional expertise and judgement: facilitating discussion, observing how students think and collaborate, giving timely feedback, adapting teaching to different needs, and deciding when technology can best support learning.
12.Last month at Schools Work Plan Seminar, I announced that six schools would pilot new ways of organising teaching and learning, in order to strengthen holistic development of our students in a time of great uncertainty and change. To do this, to support holistic development more effective in this world, we must redesign our classrooms so that we can reimagine learning for the future. Let me briefly share with you some of the efforts we are going to explore over the course of this pilot.
13.We want to see how inquiry-based and collaborative learning can become a more integral part of everyday teaching, supplementing didactic teaching with more hands-on inquiry-based facilitated teaching, and my colleagues are revising our curriculum accordingly. We are also reviewing marking practices so that feedback is used more purposefully to support learning. And of course, we are facing the issue of whether technology can be a useful aid for teaching and marking. No easy answers.
14.We will support our teachers through these shifts. The pilot will explore how flexible learning spaces in traditional classroom and beyond, together with purposeful use of technology and better organisation of our teachers’ work can create more meaningful teaching and learning. We will keep simplifying routine and administrative tasks, and draw more deliberately on other professionals and non-teaching staff for our CCAs and student development. We have to right-size responsibility. This will give our teachers more time and space to do what they do best, and to perform your core mission, which is to teach, guide and nurture your students.
15.The pilot will also explore smaller classes where they can make the greatest difference. But smaller classes do not automatically mean lighter workloads; they may involve more teaching. But in turn, we have to recalibrate all the other things that we do. We must create the capacity and conditions for this, while balancing students’ holistic development with teachers’ overall workload.
16.In parallel, we will continue to recruit more teachers and allied educators while maintaining the quality of those entering the profession. We owe it to our teachers to keep it that way.
17.As the pilot proceeds, we will listen closely to our school leaders and teachers, and study students’ learning experiences. We will then assess whether the changes improve learning and are sustainable before considering much wider application.
18.As we take this work forward, STU remains a valued and important partner to MOE and a trusted voice for teachers. I rely on you to speak the voice of the teachers. Your candid feedback helps us see where policies are working, where pressures are building, and where adjustments are needed.
19.Eighty years ago, the STU’s founders lit a torch for a profession they believed in. Today, our teachers carry that torch as they nurture and inspire the next generation.
20.Let us continue to support our teachers, by listening to your experiences, strengthening the profession, and giving you the time and space to do your best work.
21.To our ACT+1 delegates, a very warm welcome to Singapore. As we try new things and explore new boundaries, building on the wonderful foundation laid by our predecessors, let us all collectively across the region look to the challenges we face in common and see how educators around the world can guide the way forward for the next generation. And to the Singapore Teachers’ Union, happy 80th anniversary. Thank you all.