INTER-RACIAL MIXING IN SCHOOLS (Measures to encourage)

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Acting Minister for Education in view of the recent NIE survey findings that there is very little inter-racial mixing in schools (a) what measures have the schools and the Ministry introduced to encourage inter-racial mixing; (b) will his Ministry consider implementing further measures to encourage inter-racial mixing, and if so, what these are; and (c) if his Ministry will consider encouraging students to volunteer for community projects with multi-racial objectives at the Community Clubs and recognising these for Co-Curricular Activities points.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam asked the Acting Minister for Education (a) what courses are available to trainee teachers to equip them with skills to deal with the inadvertent racial prejudices among school children; (b) what is the content of these courses; (c) whether such courses can be made compulsory for all trainee and in-service teachers, principals and other support staff in schools; and (d) how will his Ministry further promote the use of the English language within schools as the common social glue for school children.

The Acting Minister for Education (Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam): Mr Speaker, Sir, can I take Question Nos. 3 and 4 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Dr Amy Khor referred to the recent NIE study on inter-racial mixing in our schools. The NIE study was a useful one, and its findings should not surprise us. The findings reinforce our schools' belief in the importance of racial understanding and racial mixing. They also illustrate that nation building is a long and continuing process.

Dr Amy Khor asked what we have done to encourage racial mixing and if we will consider further measures. Both MOE and our schools take this very seriously. Last year MOE set up a Committee on Strengthening Racial Harmony in Schools, chaired by Parliamentary Secretary for Education Mr Hawazi Daipi, to provide guidance to schools, keep up the momentum, and help them to share effective and interesting practices.

Through both the formal curriculum and a range of informal practices, pupils of different races interact with each other, work in teams, and learn first hand about each other's cultures. Besides the staple events which every child takes part in, like celebration of ethnic festivals, Racial Harmony Day, Heritage Tours, and so on, every school also organises and adopts its own programmes. For example, several schools have organised multi-racial team games, home visits and home stays in which students get a chance to live with each other's families. Others have introduced the learning of another mother tongue as a third language at the conversational level. And there are many other examples.

Co-curricular activities (CCA) programmes, such as sports, dance, uniformed groups, provide an excellent platform for students to play together, train together, and build friendships. In many instances, they allow for strong bonding experiences, especially when students have to overcome challenging tasks together. Not every sport or dance attracts pupils from all races, and we may have to do more to interest pupils in activities that they do not naturally gravitate towards. Many schools, in fact, take special effort to ensure a mix of pupils of different races in various CCAs.

Dr Amy Khor also asked if we encourage students to volunteer for community projects with multi-racial objectives at Community Clubs and recognise these for CCA points in our schools. Our schools are doing so. Pupils doing community projects, organised by the Community Clubs or the CDCs, are recognised as performing community service and are awarded CCA points.

Ms Braema Mathi asked if our teachers are equipped with the skills to handle racial prejudices. All our teachers are trained in a repertoire of classroom and pupil management skills which include handling racial prejudice, if it does occur. There are a number of pre-service as well as in-service training courses, forums and workshops which raise the awareness of principals and teachers and sensitise them to racial issues.

Ms Braema Mathi had also asked that we further promote the use of the English language within schools as a common social glue for children. I should first emphasise that the use of the English language and the mother tongues has to be seen in the context of our bilingual policy, and the complex home language environment that we have in Singapore. We have to provide adequate opportunity for students to use both English and their mother tongues in school, and not promote one to the exclusion of the other.

English is the predominant language of the classroom. In addition, schools use CCAs such as oratorical contests and debates and various other informal strategies to encourage students to use the English language, especially those students who are not confident in the language.

The language pupils speak in school naturally does have bearing on the ease of interaction between pupils of different races. But there is no one-size solution to this issue. We do not, for example, intend to impose common guidelines on our schools on the languages that pupils should be allowed to use outside the classroom. We have a spectrum of schools in our system, with pupils showing quite different language abilities and preferences. In schools where pupils speak mainly in their own mother tongue outside the classroom and have little opportunity to use the English language at home, teachers look for creative ways to encourage them to speak English in school as much as possible. But in schools where pupils speak English most of the time, sometimes all of the time, there are perfectly good reasons why teachers should encourage their pupils to speak their mother tongues, at least part of the time.

Depending on the profile of their pupils, schools will have to find the right balance, a sensible balance, between speaking English and their mother tongues.

Sir, we have made great progress over the last four decades. We have an integrated, national school system, vastly different both in structure and everyday experiences from the segregated, vernacular school system of the past. Our schools have reinforced this with a range of programmes and informal practices, through the year, aimed at increasing racial understanding and interaction.

Can we do more in our schools? Yes, we can. Many suggestions have been made by the public, the media and Members of Parliament, and we will look at them. But MOE does not intend to impose a common or fixed template on schools on how they should go about promoting racial harmony or racial interaction. We have to let the schools work out their own programmes. Our principals and teachers are the ones who are in the best position to devise innovative and interesting ways of encouraging this. And many schools are also getting their students themselves engaged in thinking through ideas, coming up with ideas, and how they can spur this and get an ease of interaction between the races.

But our schools are also mindful that we cannot force interaction or contrive a sense of comfort or friendship between students of different backgrounds. There has to be an element of self-motivation, a certain spontaneity, even a sense of discovery, in any activity that aims to promote racial interaction and racial understanding. Our children have to make friends naturally.

I would encourage our schools to redouble their efforts to promote inter-racial understanding and mixing among all their pupils. But schools cannot work alone. Parents and the community at large play equally critical roles. I cannot emphasise this enough. This is why schools have actively reached out to parents and the community to take on the shared responsibility of building a cohesive society. I hope they receive encouragement and support for their efforts.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, I would like to ask the Minister: would he not agree that the levels of promotion of inter-racial mixing in school can vary very significantly, depending on how much effort the school puts in for such programmes? This being the case, and judging from the NIE study, although I may agree that inter-racial mixing takes a long time, would it not be more effective if MOE plans a more coordinated approach and concerted effort in asking the schools to implement programmes to allow for more inter-racial mixing, for instance, through activities, say, in a particular period devoted for such projects? Would the Minister also not agree that students tend to mix amongst their classmates within a class and generally not with schoolmates from other classes? And this being the case, for instance in the case of streaming, would it not be better if you can actually promote activities which allow mixing across the races through school-wide activities?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: MOE does not have a hands-off policy on this. We are trying to spread best practices. When we see an interesting idea in one school, we publicise it within the cluster of schools. There is a fair bit being done so that schools learn from each other. They are also seeding some national initiatives. Some of the activities may be symbolic, but taken together they go quite a long way.

I think the basic point is that we have got to let the schools themselves come up with innovative ways. There has to be that spark of ownership and innovation in the schools, and it is happening. If you look around our schools, you will be surprised at the amount of innovation that is taking place, not just in general but on ways of encouraging racial interaction. I can give you many examples. For instance, Dunman High, teaming up with neighbourhood primary schools on reading programmes, involving them in celebration of ethnic festivals; Nanyang Girls High teaming up also with neighbourhood schools which have a high proportion of minority students, involving the girls in coaching and mentoring. Two weeks ago, Bukit Panjang Government High staged a Chinese opera at Victoria School. Out of the 30 students in the cast, 11 were non-Chinese. And the lead actress in this Chinese opera was a Faizah Samsudin. Her Mandarin was yi dian dian. But she recited her entire script. Her fellow actors and actresses helped her, told her what the meaning of each phrase or each sentence was, and she did it with aplomb!

Last Friday, I was at Bukit Batok Secondary School where it staged an Indian dance. Maybe one-third were non-Indians. And, in my opinion, the best dancer was a Chinese girl - style, and everything!

So, it is happening. And I think our principals and teachers have this at the back of their minds. They do not want to over-do it. They do not want to contrive it. But they have it at the back of their minds, encouraging students of different races to get involved in activities which they do not naturally gravitate towards. It is happening and I do not think we want to over-force it. But we should monitor it, spread best practices and encourage our schools on.

I do not think streaming is the issue. If anything, through streaming, we have allowed in both our primary and secondary schools a much broader range of abilities within the same school. And if we did not have streaming, we would have more segregation of the races by school, where you have some schools with a much larger proportion of minority students by virtue of academic achievement. That is the reality in some other countries that you can observe. So, through streaming, a sensible approach of being able to match academic courses to abilities of students, we have been able to get a broad range of students within the same school. Every Government school has more than one stream. The issue is how do we ensure that whatever stream you are in, whatever class you are in, you have ample opportunity for interaction within the school, within the clusters of schools, and across schools. It can be done, and it is being done.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam (Nominated Member): Can I please get greater clarity on the courses that our teachers and principals, including support staff, go for? That is the bedrock, and I would like greater assurance on that.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: There is a whole range of courses. For instance, at the pre-service level, there is a compulsory module where all our teachers go through, on the social context of teaching and learning. It is a compulsory module which includes issues to do with race and ensuring that they have a certain sensitivity towards racial issues. We have our annual principals' forum and National Education Forum. We have a monthly video which we call "News Teach". All of these deal with national issues, and they often cover issues which enhance awareness and sensitivity to race. So it is a whole plethora of courses. I cannot say whether it is enough. If there is any specific feedback on how we can improve a particular module or course, I am sure NIE will look at it.

Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines): Would the Minister agree with me that the understanding among different ethnic groups could be better fostered if students are given opportunities to interact on a daily basis, rather than on the occasional performances that they put up? In this regard, I was wondering whether the Minister would consider allowing SAP schools at the primary level to offer non-Chinese as a second language so that non-Chinese students can enrol into the schools, thus creating a better environment and providing better opportunities for children to interact on a daily basis, rather than on an occasional basis.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: We need both, I think. I take the point that daily interaction does lead to a certain sense of comfort that you cannot easily acquire from sporadic or episodic interaction. It is being done in most schools when project teams are formed, for instance, within the classroom or within a standard. Teachers bear this in mind, making sure that there is a good racial mix. More can be done probably.

On SAP schools, it may be precisely because they are SAP schools and they are aware of the fact that they have a very largely Chinese population of students, that they tend to think a lot harder about this issue than most schools. They think of all kinds of schemes they can get involved in. They are the ones who have taken the lead in reaching out to the neighbourhood schools - coaching, mentoring, involving them in ethnic festivals.

I visited one SAP school a few months ago, Kong Hwa Primary School. They had introduced sepak takraw for their students. While I was talking to a group of students and asking them about their ambitions in life, and so on, one young boy put up his hand and said, "I want to be a national sportsman." I asked him what sport. He said "sepak takraw". He may not become a national sepak takraw sportsman. But something has been planted in his mind. So this is going on all the time.

We can include a few more non-Chinese students in SAP schools, but we have got to make sure they remain SAP schools. We have got to make sure that they remain something distinctive, something that retains the diversity in our school system because that is our strength. Let us not go for uniformity, but within a diverse system, create bridges, create opportunities for interaction, where meaningful.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, I do not know whether the Government is too worried over the problem of inter-racial mixing in schools. Singapore is 38 years old. America is over 200 years old. I would like to ask the Minister whether our level of inter-racial mixing in our schools is just as good as in America.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: That will require another NIE study, Sir, and I am really not qualified to comment on this.

Mr R. Ravindran (Marine Parade): Sir, I would like to seek the Minister's clarification as to whether the Ministry's practice is to have a hands-on policy with regard to how teachers and principals encourage multi-racialism in schools, or is it something where they want to be proactive and continue to monitor what really happens in schools. I think the problem in many cases may be the principals and teachers who turn a blind eye to the problem in the schools for various reasons. I do not know the exact reason and many people have gone on to speculate.

I am just wondering, if such an instance that I cited is the case, whether the Ministry could be more proactive and also give avenue for parents and even students to highlight cases that such practices are condoned by teachers and principals and thereby lead to a lack of inter-racial mixing. Feedback seems to indicate that principals and teachers do contribute to the problem, because they turn a blind eye to the matter.

But, more importantly, I would like to ask the Minister whether the committee, that is headed by the Parliamentary Secretary, could come out with various ways of monitoring not only the measures but the results of some of these things that the schools have implemented, and not instances where a Minister or Member of Parliament visits the school, they put up a show as a model of multi-racialism, but when the Minister, MP or VIP leaves, what is the real situation in the school. We can find out whether this is what the Singapore population wants. Is it the reality, or is it that some policies or the principals and teachers in charge of the schools are the cause of the problem? So I would urge the Ministry to pay greater attention to the problem in school. It is no point that we start talking about nation building ---

Mr Speaker: Mr Ravindran, no speeches, please.

Mr Ravindran: I restrict that to my question.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Let me reiterate that we do not have a hands-offpolicy in this matter and we are not closing our eyes to the matter. In fact, we look at it very seriously. We spend time and energy trying to figure out new ways of enhancing racial interaction. The point is that the way to do it is not to impose on schools a set formula, a fixed template. It would not work. It would be artificial, and it would not achieve what we really want. If we want to achieve a degree of comfort that lasts between pupils, it has got to be bottoms-up, guided from the Ministry, encouraged by the Ministry, and our role is to ensure that best practices get exchanged quickly and innovation takes place that way. We will try and raise the water level. But the way to do it is not to pour a little bit into each beaker. The way to do it is to exchange best practices quickly.

Where there are egregious examples of prejudice, we take action. We look into it. There may be occasionally a case of a principal or teacher who does not pay sufficient attention to something and those are easily corrected. Because every principal I have met is aware of the issue, keen to address the issue and doing something about it. But we are not perfect. There will always be room for improvement. So when we get suggestions, we take it seriously and we pass it down to the schools. I really have to emphasise the fact, and this comes from teachers and principals that parents bear a considerable responsibility in this process. Pupils bring into the classroom and school values that they imbibe from their parents. They may be direct messages that their parents give or just indirect messages by way of behaviour. And I get this message all the time from the schools about how they have got to go out of their way to counter the biases and values that pupils sometimes bring into schools. So we have got to take this as a whole community effort, by involving everyone and trying to address the problem. If schools do it on their own, they will go some distance, but they cannot go very far. Everyone has got to be involved.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: Sir, I have to come back to the same question about teachers and principals. I feel that the question has not been adequately answered. Parents, yes, the key word I used in my question was "inadvertent". Parents may directly or indirectly bring in some prejudices into a child's life. It is imperative in the early childhood as well as in the lower primary that our teachers have good coping skills to deal with such prejudices and not turn away, because they are inadequately prepared for it. So I would really love to know what are the courses that they are equipped with. What are the skills? What can we learn from other countries? What can we introduce so that our teachers are better equipped to deal with such prejudices that do surface with young children, who do not even know perhaps what they are saying?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Sir, I have mentioned at least one course earlier on. There is a range of courses, not just pre-service, but in-service, forums, workshops. Training for Civics and Moral Education has as one of its key modules, issues to do with race, students of different social backgrounds, cultures and religions - how you deal with it, how you sensitise pupils to it, how you raise the level of understanding. I do not have the whole list and exactly how many hours are spent on every course right now. Can we improve? I am sure there will be scope for improvement. And I will be quite happy to take any suggestions on how any particular course or module can be improved. But a lot is being done. Our teachers are being prepared. They may not all be practising what you expect to equal degree. But, by and large, they are sensitive to this and they are trying hard. And they need the support of everyone else.

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, I am curious to find out whether the syllabus and the practices in school focus more on the differences amongst the various ethnic groups, or on the commonalities amongst the groups. Surely, with the heightened awareness of differences, people will be more sensitive to each other but they would also be more distinct as a group, and the reverse is also true.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I think we have to do both. We do not teach differences. But we do teach every pupil to respect the strength of the traditions that they each come from. When you learn about Indian or Malay civilisation, you are not learning it in order to understand how different an Indian is from a Chinese, or a Malay is from a Chinese. You are learning it so that you acquire a certain respect for the strength of these traditions, how they develop. You are also learning it in order to understand that they all share values and precepts in common. And if you look at our actual syllabuses, civics and moral education, social science, and so on, you see a fair bit of it there, emphasising the common values and precepts that cut across civilisations and cultures. So we are not trying to teach students how different they are from each other. We are trying to teach them to respect each other, despite the fact that they have different backgrounds, religions and cultures. We are also teaching them that there is a lot in common between our different cultures.