Holistic Approach to Education

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry aims to have schoolgoing children enjoy their education and derive happiness from their pursuit of knowledge and physical activities in schools; (b) whether character development, friendships, sporting pursuits and hobbies play an equally important role as results and grades in the development of children; and (c) if so, how will the schools achieve this.

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The Minister for Education (Mr Heng Swee Keat): Mr Speaker, Sir, Mr de Souza and the Ministry of Education share a common goal – to nurture each child holistically and to be the best that he can be. We want to develop our children in all domains – cognitive, moral, social-emotional, physical and aesthetics. Indeed, all of the things which Mr de Souza mentioned – character, making friends, sports, hobbies and the enjoyment of learning − are important.

We, too, want our children to be happy, but this happiness must be derived from something deeper, the satisfaction of having worked hard, to master the skills and knowledge of a new subject, and then the joy of deriving fresh insights about it. In short, learning should be a fulfilling experience, but not always easy.

How do we achieve it? I had outlined the key factors in my speech at the MOE Workplan Seminar in September. I signalled a clear emphasis on students' centricity and holistic education. First, we need to imbue in our children those character traits and dispositions that will set them right for life. These include resilience, respect for others, responsibility, integrity, care and harmony as the core.

Now, more than at any time in our history, we face unprecedented change. The more the world around us shifts and tilts, the more we need to be firmly anchored to a set of core values and to develop a quiet and well-founded confidence about oneself and our nation. We will strengthen the emphasis on values and character development. MOE has brought together the various content and skills to be learnt in National Education, Co-Curricular Activities, Civics and Moral Education under a Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) framework. We will work with schools to co-create a new CCE curriculum, comprising a national curriculum complemented by school-initiated programmes. This partnership is important because CCE is not something to be taught, but lived as part of the routine of everyday life in school.

We have increased curriculum time for PE by between half an hour to an hour across all levels. We have put in place new programmes such as the Programmes for Active Learning (PAL) for Primary 1 and 2 students which offer learning experiences that are active, hands-on, meaningful and fun. Beyond the curriculum and programmes, we need the steady guiding hand of our teachers. In recent years, schools have placed greater emphasis on helping students acquire social-emotional competencies, largely through the pastoral role played by teachers, especially form teachers. At the primary level, schools have put in place the Form Teacher Guidance Period which provides dedicated time within the curriculum for form teachers to form positive relationships with their students. At both the primary and secondary levels, we have advocated having a constant form or co-form teacher with a class for two years to guide their social-emotional learning. About 90% of schools are putting this in place in phases.

Second, we need to create the right condition for primary school to be a good school so that every child gets a positive school experience. It is worthwhile for me to restate what I said in September. A good school is "one that caters to the needs of the students well, given the diversity of students that cannot be a single ruler to measure success. A good school needs to know who the students are at the point of entry, study their strengths and needs, states what you like them to become when they leave the school, then exercises diligence and imagination to get there. A good school creates a positive experience for each student, allowing him to acquire the basics, but more importantly, making him a confident and lifelong learner. It provides a supportive and appreciative environment for teachers to experience the joy in impacting lives. A good school is student-centric and allows teachers to do their best for every child".

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Anyone who has been watching the education scene will know that schools are seeking to do just that and introducing different types of programmes that meet diverse needs. Some schools focus on turning around their at-risk students. Others work on ensuring their very able students are imbued with a strong sense of community service. Many provide the opportunities which the homes are less well-able to afford, be it the chance to play sports or musical instruments or to learn dancing. No two schools are identical. In fact in my visit to schools, I have met many of the students who have benefited from these programmes and you can see the sparkle in their eyes when they tell me about their experiences that they have been through.

MOE has also created new pathways and options for students. Primary school students no longer get streamed but have a choice of Standard or Foundational subjects at Primary 5 and 6 so that each student can learn at the pace most comfortable for themselves. This allows everyone to play to his strength and to develop confidence in himself. At the secondary level, the choices open up even more. There are overlaps in subjects offered in the Normal (Technical), Normal (Academic) and Express courses, plus bridges and ladders to move between courses. This has allowed learners with difficult inclinations, learning styles and abilities to find something which engages and motivates them.

School attendance is universal, dropout rates are low, the quality of students experience in schools is rising and nine in 10 get into post-secondary educational institutions funded by MOE. More than three quarters receive a high quality tertiary education at our polytechnics and universities. More places are being created at diploma and degree levels. Our system is one that caters to the large majority of students and not just for a narrow few.

Third, schools cannot do their important work alone. We need parents and the wider community to agree with us on the importance of developing each child holistically, and support our schools and partner them in our endeavour to do so. Such a partnership is even more important as we focus on values and holistic education because these objectives cannot be achieved by schools alone. Many teachable moments occur in activities outside the school and classroom environment, and values need to be augmented and reinforced by the community and parents. Indeed, the primary responsibility for values education is with parents even as schools play their parts.

We also need our parents to help their children discover their strengths, develop these and feel confident about what they are to become. At the same time, we hope parents would also teach their children to deal with setbacks and failures and to learn to persevere, to try again. By doing so, we help them to grow, achieve fulfilment and enjoy their childhood.

Almost as soon as they landed in MOE, my colleagues, SPS Hawazi Daipi and SPS Sim Ann who are the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Community and Parents in Support of Schools (COMPASS) have been engaging parents and stakeholders. Minister of State Lawrence Wong and myself have also participated in these engagement sessions. Over informal chats, we heard Singaporeans heartfelt concerns and feedback and we received many good ideas. Parents are understandably concerned about examinations and stress, and how they can help their children succeed.

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In my first few months in MOE, my team and I had spent much time meeting students, educators, school leaders and parents. The Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Education, with Mr Lim Biow Chuan as Chairman and Ms Denise Phua as Deputy, have also been hard at work, sharing their feedback, concerns and suggestions. I discussed my priorities with them and got strong resonance on key points. But they also challenged my team and I to make improvements. MOE officials are hard at work within several aspects of our policies and programmes. These cover a range of key issues. The reviews will take time to complete. Some of these issues like examinations and competition are complex and not amenable to quick fixes.

In the meantime, as one follow-up on my workplan seminar speech, MOE is working with schools to enhance our current guidelines on homework policy. When done well, homework serves to reinforce learning. Doing more is not always better. Once the guidelines are finalised, each school will communicate this to students and parents so that everyone will have clearer expectations.

Singaporeans invest a lot of hope and aspirations for a better society through our collective investment in our young. This is a precious asset. The support of the public motivates us to keep making our system stronger, our schools better. By doing so, we wll ensure that young Singaporeans can realise their dreams and aspirations and grow into confident and fulfilled adults who strive for excellence and also care for their fellow Singaporeans.

Mr Christopher de Souza: First, I would like to thank the Minister and all his teachers for their vision to create a nurturing life-giving and confidence-giving environment in our schools. Parents with whom I spoke to hold out a lot of hope for this vision to be realised. So, first of all, I thank the Minister. My clarification is this: the Minister talked about there being chances for sports, music and dancing. My appeal is that these areas for sports, music and dancing be areas where the students are not assessed and where they can cultivate and nurture into their own selves and within their own interests. When I was in school, I took part in four different types of sports and I did not need to be in the school team for them. Some parents have responded saying that, "my child can only play basketball if he gets into the basketball team". Would the Minister assure us that these areas he speaks of will not create the pressure to perform, but give the ventilation needed for children to reach their own goals?

Mr Heng Swee Keat: Mr Speaker, Sir, I am glad that Mr de Souza was such a keen sportsman and had all the opportunities to play sports. Indeed, I agree with him. First, let me say that the competition in our CCAs, the competition in sports and allowing students to do their best is not a bad thing. It teaches value of striving for excellence. It teaches value of being gracious, in victory and in persevering in defeat. Therefore, there will be a range of sports and other activities where there will be a competitive element. Having said that, I fully agree with him that in sports and other areas of music, arts and other areas of CCA development, there is scope for us to encourage greater participation, which is why during my workplan seminar speech, I also addressed this issue that the Ministry will be reviewing the system of assessing students' participation in CCA, moving it towards a focus on participation rather than just achievements. I have also announced a review of School Excellence model. Again, the purpose is to give our school leaders more resources, more flexibility to deploy their resources so that they may provide this student-centric holistic education that we have set out.

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Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Moulmein-Kallang): Sir, I want to thank the Minister for his very comprehensive reply and also to compliment him for the wisdom to lead in the right direction, for example, in inculcating values and holistic education as the key themes of the MOE workplan. A supplementary question for him, Sir. Does the Minister have plans and when will these plans be to look into practices such as high-stake examinations like the PSLE which create an unhealthy impact on or add to the stress of the students' learning and the stress of their families, but add to the coffers of the tuition industry?

Mr Heng Swee Keat: I thank Ms Denise Phua for the question. In the subject of high-stake examinations and stress, I fully empathise with the parents and students. I know that many working moms take leave during these high-stake examinations to help their children, and dads, too! Many of us have gone through examinations and gone through the stresses of high-stake examinations. Indeed, in our meetings with parents, many have given us the feedback on the issue of high-stake examinations and stress. We have given it much thought and I have had many discussions with our school leaders, and I have also spoken on this during the workplan seminar. Let me restate a few points.

First, the reason why we put the focus on student-centric holistic education is to recognise that each student is different, has different strengths and therefore it is important for us to develop those strengths. Indeed, our education system has over the years been moving in that direction. On the examinations, let me say that if you are doing badly in examinations, it is no longer like you are missing the last train, as it was during our generation. Then, when resources were much more limited, the system therefore had to be more broad brushed. Indeed doing badly in the key high-stake examinations may mean a big difference in one's life. But, over the years, successive changes have been made in our education system to provide a variety of pathways: whether it is going to the ITE, the polytechnics or the universities, or even across the different parts of our system. For example, in the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams there are different types of courses which students can take, even at a higher level, transfers between the different streams, whether it is Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) are available. Therefore, the system has many more bridges and ladders.

There will be more places at the universities, more pathways which the Minister of State Lawrence Wong is currently reviewing. To reduce some of these high-stake examinations, admission into secondary school, for instance, has been changed with the DSA. And so, a percentage of students can be admitted on the basis of their strengths. The universities and polytechnics too have the flexibility to look beyond examination results. So, when you look at the totality of those changes, there are indeed many more pathways that allow our students to develop at their pace, and I would encourage parents and students to develop at an appropriate path and take advantage of what we have in the system.

Let me also say that the parents whom I have met and the feedback that had been given is that nobody has suggested abolishing examinations. Examinations well done serve an important purpose which is it assesses the extent of learning and allows teachers and parents to gauge the extent of that learning. As a result of this, we have a rigorous system. Having said that, I have also been studying the experiences of other countries.

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When I was in Japan a few months back, I looked at what Japan was doing. They had, because of the stress in the system, also reduced the curriculum content a few years back. But within a few short years, standards had fallen so significantly that they had to reverse course. The principals and teachers, whom I spoke to when I visited the schools, told me that the text books have become even thicker and because they had made the change so quickly, teaching resources have been reduced and the teachers and principals are facing greater stress.

I also had many interactions with my counterparts from the advanced countries, seeking to learn from them but they were seeking to learn from us. They asked me time and again how do we maintain standards, how do we have such a rigorous system. And in many other countries, they are looking at how they can raise the rigour and achievements of their students. And if you look at many of the reports, whether it is in Europe or US, you will see many of that. So, what I like to reiterate is that I think we have a rigorous high-quality system, which should encourage and motivate our children to succeed to reach the standards but at the same time recognise that each student, each child is different and there are multiple pathways for us to develop them. The system has changed a lot over the years. Nevertheless, I would say that ours is not a perfect system and that the Ministry will continue to study ways to improve this. In my reply earlier, I mentioned about how teams of Ministry officials have been hard at work looking at various key issues and this is one of those issues that we will be looking at.

Let me end by saying that education is a long-term endeavour and whatever changes we make, let us recognise that we have a high quality, strong system. Whatever changes we make, let us do it systematically, thoughtfully and not be rushed into doing the wrong thing because the consequences would be hard to reverse. And the key focus for us in the coming years is this: Student-centric values driven education because that is really at the core of education. When we get that right, many parts of it will be right and I am just continuing the very good work that has been done by my predecessors to move the system. If you look at the system, over the years, it has changed very significantly and let us build on this and continue to evolve the system. I would also like to appeal to parents to continue to work with our schools, work with our teachers to bring out the best in every child.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yee Jenn Jong, last question.

Mr Yee Jenn Jong (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you to the Minister for clarifying. I would like to ask the Minister what he thinks of allowing students to take more than two CCAs if they so wish and if he thinks that the current trend of top schools allowing students to take nine or more subjects at "A" levels is something he wishes to encourage? Or would he rather encourage that they focus on taking more CCAs if they are academically able to cope with the subjects. I think that CCAs do develop the students.

Mr Heng Swee Keat: Sir, I thank Mr Yee for that question. First, the Member's question on whether a school should allow it if a student wants to take two CCAs –

Mr Yee Jenn Jong: More than two CCAs.

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Mr Heng Swee Keat: Well, I think in my comments on holistic and student-centric education, my key point is that everyone is different and, therefore, we should not be overly prescriptive about what that student should or should not be allowed to do. If a child is able to do three CCAs and enjoy it, it is for the parents, the student and the teachers to discuss and decide on this. I do not think the Ministry should be prescribing how that is to be done.

Now, on the Member's question about whether students should take more or fewer subjects: it is exactly the same philosophy. There are students who have done very well doing many subjects; there are students who are better off taking fewer subjects. So I think at the end of it, the heart of it, is that the student and his or her parents must think about this and think about how best to make use of the opportunities in our schools, in CCAs and in other areas to develop themselves.

Mr Speaker: Dr Ng Eng Hen, do you have a clarification?

Dr Ng Eng Hen: Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to make some clarifications on my previous reply. I think Dr Lim Wee Kiak had asked for Dr Patrick Tan's service during his operationally-ready national service, in other words, after national service, full-time national service. I was looking for the paragraph, and I have found it. Dr Patrick Tan served as a Laboratory Officer in one of the SAF's combat support hospitals. This is a standard designation in the combat support hospital. The role of the Laboratory Officer is to assist with blood and plasma storage and supply and to conduct clinical analysis of blood samples. I presume he was deployed there because of his qualifications.

My last clarification was in terms of what Mr Yaw brought up in terms of the "white horse" issue. I said that Mr Cedric Foo had answered the question previously and to refer to the reply. If Members checked the record of the reply, I think he made it clear the "white horse" policy was initiated to ensure that there was no preferential treatment given to anyone in regard to NS.