ADDENDA TO PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF THE THIRD SESSION OF THE SEVENTH PARLIAMENT ON FRIDAY, 22ND FEBRUARY, 1991 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

DR TONY TAN KENG YAM Minister for Education

The quality of education will be further improved by providing good educational infrastructure and facilities, training enough teachers and fine-tuning the education system to meet the needs of our people.

Single Session Schools

By 1999, all secondary schools in Singapore will be single session. Ten primary schools will take part in a trial in 1992 on extended single session day schools. If successful, the system will eventually be extended to all primary schools. With additional staff, we will change the school hours to provide children with a fuller and more varied education.

Teachers

The key to better education is more and better trained teachers. The National Institute of Education (NIE) will be established as part of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). It will offer degree level teacher training courses and diploma courses in specialised fields. To attract enough good teachers, salaries must be competitive. In addition, because of limited local manpower, we will have to rely on some overseas recruitment.

Preparatory Year

The Preparatory Year Programme launched in 1990 provides children with a firm foundation in the mother tongue. Eventually all 5-year olds will attend the Preparatory Year Programme. All children will receive at least 10 years of general education before they decide whether to pursue an academic or a vocational/ technical career. Secondary Schools and VITB

Secondary schools will offer a technical stream to complement the existing academic stream. Students in both streams will have the opportunity to progress to institutions of higher learning, including the universities. As at present, children will be allowed to transfer from one stream to another as they mature and discover where their talents lie.

The Vocational and Industrial Training Board will be revamped. It will take in only students with secondary education. Its courses will be correspondingly upgraded.

More independent schools will be established. Government and Government-aided schools will have more autonomy to run their own operations and structure their educational programmes to suit the needs of their pupils.

Tertiary Education

Temasek Polytechnic will be completed by 1995. We will study the need to establish more polytechnics and possibly a third university by the turn of the century. Our target is for 40% to 50% of each cohort to receive tertiary education. This must be done without lowering standards.

Resources

These improvements require more investment by Government in education. We will raise the percentage of GDP devoted to education from the present 4% to 5%.

The Government will establish an Edusave scheme for every child from the age of 6 to 16. Every year, a sum will be paid into the child's Edusave account to help meet his educational expenses. What is not used will be transferred into the CPF when the child becomes an adult. The Edusave scheme will give parents more choice in the type of education they want for their children.