|
OPENING
ADDRESS BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINISTER FOR
EDUCATION, AT THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE 2004 ON “THE TEACHER AS
EDUPRENEUR: EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS” ON TUESDAY 8 JUNE 2004 AT
9.30 AM AT SUNTEC CITY BALLROOM 2, SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL
CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE
Good morning Colleagues,
Ladies & Gentlemen
1
First of all, let me extend a very warm welcome to all of you at
the Convention Centre here in Suntec City and also to the
participants at the Serangoon JC Auditorium, who are watching the
proceedings and will be engaging in video-conferencing at various
points during the next two days.
PUSHING THE
ENVELOPE IN EDUCATION
2
The theme of this year’s conference, “The Teacher as
Edupreneur: Exploring New Frontiers”, is timely. It gives
impetus to our efforts in schools to experiment with new teaching
and learning processes, so as to foster a spirit of Innovation and
Enterprise in our students, or I&E, as it is now more
familiarly called.
3
We have in recent years entered a new phase in education that
promotes diversity, choice and flexibility. These will be
essential features of an education system that seeks to groom new
generations of Singaporeans to take on new challenges, challenges
that will be less defined than those of the past, and always
shifting.
4
We are no longer in a phase of catching up with the developed
world, where we can set simple goals and targets, with the
predictability that all that implied. In several
areas, we have reached the boundaries of best practice. We
will now have to create value by pushing the envelope, doing
something new and in some areas taking the lead. We have to
do this in education as in all areas of life. We have to be
willing to experiment in education, give schools and tertiary
institutions more autonomy and flexibility, try different methods,
and make intelligent adjustments as we go along. We have to
create diverse paths, give young Singaporeans more choices in
education and encourage them to run with their passions.
That way we stand the best chance of nurturing a generation of
diverse talents, able to push and redefine the boundaries, and
able to create new opportunities for themselves and for Singapore.
5
We are not taking a leap in the dark. I&E is not a new,
standalone programme, and nor does it replace existing programmes.
I&E gives emphasis and momentum to a process of change and
innovation that is already part of the Singapore education system.
We have a system that is focused on the future, with professional
leaders who are never content with past successes, and teachers
who are keen to adapt and innovate. So as we sail into new
waters, we know that we have the vast experience and good sense of
our crew to tap on. We move forward with confidence, not
trepidation.
6
This vast base of shared knowledge, skills and good judgement
amongst our educationists provides the foundation for the changes
that we are implementing in our education system. It is a
base of experience that will anchor the education system as we
move forward. It will allow us to experiment carefully and
thoughtfully, with new pedagogical methods, new curricula and new
systems of assessment, without rushing headlong in one direction
or another. It will allow us to retain the key strengths of
the system, as we experiment with new methods.
7
At the heart of what we are trying to achieve in I&E is not a
new set of activities or programmes, but a set of mental attitudes
amongst our young, a new culture or outlook on life. We want
to nurture in them the mental traits that will serve them well in
a future full of challenge and opportunity – a robust
spirit of inquiry, a willingness to take untried paths, and a
certain ruggedness of character. These are the intangible
factors that will make the difference for Singapore in the future.
8
Schools play a key role in engendering a culture where inquiry,
passion, teamwork and leadership are an ongoing, everyday matter
for students – in short, a way of life. Every school has
to continuously re-examine its practices and norms, and look for
effective ways of providing their students with a
broad-based education. Every school has to look long term,
and develop its pupils holistically. At the systemic level,
we have made refinements to the education system to support this
emphasis on a balanced, broad-based education. We are
widening and blunting the school ranking system, and opening up
room for schools, JCs and universities to select students who have
distinguished themselves in their examination scores. We are
expanding choices by allowing for new curricula in secondary
schools and JCs. We are also introducing new, specialised
educational pathways in the sports, arts and maths & science,
and encouraging more peaks of excellence across the mainstream
school sector.
TEACHERS ARE KEY TO
INNOVATION
9
However, what ultimately makes the difference in education is not
the diversity of pathways and curricula or the incentives.
The real difference is in the way teachers interact with students,
in the classroom or lecture theatre, the playing field, the drama
hall. It is the quality of daily interaction between
teachers and students that will determine if we nurture future
generations with the boldness of mind, the willingness to think in
original ways, the compassion for their fellow citizens, and the
capacity to lead. Teachers are the catalysts for this
change, in education and ultimately in society.
10 To
do this well, teachers must themselves be guided by an innovative
spirit. We must be constantly playing with new ideas and
approaches to teaching and learning. It is teachers who are
themselves fired with passion who inspire their students to dream,
and to explore new possibilities.
11 It
is a spirit that is already there across our school system, and is
catching on. Schools and teachers are breaking down
traditional boundaries, and experimenting with classroom
environments that encourage collaboration and inquiry. For
example, four teachers in Anglican High, Tampines Primary and
Junyuan Primary schools took the initiative to break down the
traditional primary/secondary school divide, to work out a way to
help students make better sense of Algebra with the help of model
drawing. Teachers from these three schools are sharing this
innovative approach to teaching Math at one of the concurrent
sessions at Serangoon JC.
12 There
are numerous other examples. This conference celebrates the
efforts of these and many other teachers, who have pushed the
frontiers in teaching and learning methods. These
teachers are our edupreneurs. We will experience in the next
two days a sampling of their innovations.
SUPPORT FOR SCHOOLS
13 The
Ministry will support teachers and their schools on their I&E
journey. We will seek to provide more time and space for
teachers to step back and reflect, to think of new ways of
teaching their classes and sparking off the culture of inquiry
that we want amongst our students. They must have the time
to collaborate with their peers. We will also enhance the
opportunities for teachers to obtain exposure and insights from
the workplace outside the school and overseas.
14 We
have been recruiting more teachers over the last three years.
It has allowed us to deploy more teachers into schools, into
selected areas. We will be providing 700 more teachers into
primary schools, to enable the reduction in class sizes that we
announced last year - to 30 students in P1 from 2005,
and for both P1 and P2 from 2006. It will mean a reduction
in the ratio of students to teaching staff from 25.2 in 2001 to
21.5 by 2006. At the JC/CI level, we have also deployed 100
additional teachers, in order to support the implementation of
project work and to prepare for the implementation of the revised
JC curriculum from 2006. Going forward, we aim to continue
recruiting as many good teachers as we can from the top one-third
of each cohort. We will have to do so prudently, so as to
ensure that we recruit men and women with the right aptitude and
an interest in teaching.
15
We will allow schools greater flexibility in deploying resources
to meet their specific needs, and see how we can help schools to
leverage on additional resources from outside the school.
Schools can for example engage Voluntary Adult Leaders,
professional coaches, relief or part-time teachers, to run
enrichment programmes. This will ensure that we reap maximum
educational benefit for our students with available resources.
16
Another focus is in staff development. Our professional
development activities are part of our effort to evolve a teaching
force that is more diverse in experience and expertise.
Besides in-service courses in content and pedagogy, teachers are
given opportunities to attend courses in soft skills, creativity
and innovation tools. Two innovation tools developed by the
Ministry that teachers can pick up to enable them to look at
problems from different perspectives are the Learning Circles and
Innovation Protocol.
17
The Teachers’ Conference (over 2000 teachers) itself, and the
annual Teachers Lecture (5000), give several thousand teachers the
opportunity to listen and interact with renowned speakers from
around the world. Besides participating in overseas study
trips organised by school clusters, teachers are also given
opportunities to attend short courses overseas such as immersion
courses in Chinese universities and Life Science courses at the
Dolan DNA Learning Centre in Cold Spring Harbour, New York.
18
Teachers can also tap on various sources of funds to support
innovations. For example, the Cluster funds, the School
Innovation Fund and also the MOE Innovation Fund. Typically
the funds that clusters allocate to support school innovations
range from $5000 to $15000. To further encourage schools, a
‘seed fund’ was given in March this year to each school to
support its I&E efforts.
SCALING UP TEACHER
WORK ATTACHMENTS
19
The Teacher Work Attachment scheme which we started 6 months ago
is yet another approach to help teachers broaden their experiences
beyond the school environment. It places teachers in a
different operating context, and lets them experience the varied
demands of the business or community workplace. They return
to schools with fresh perspectives in teaching, and a more
authentic sense of the work environment that they seek to prepare
their students for. The work attachment scheme bridges the
traditional boundaries between industries and education.
20
In the pilot run of the Teacher Work Attachment programme in
November and December last year, 28 organisations offered
attachment opportunities for 72 teachers. Feedback from the
pioneer batch of teachers showed that they had benefited from
their work attachments. They commented that the attachments
did not just acquaint them with business innovation, global
competitiveness and continuous process improvement, but made them
leap out of their personal comfort zones. The work
attachments also highlighted for them the importance of
networking, and the need for passion in modern work environment.
I was told that Thomas Low, a teacher from Radin Mas Primary who
was attached to DSTA (Defence Science and Technology Agency) last
year through MOE, found the experience so enriching that he has
taken the initiative to arrange for his own attachment this year
to the same DSTA Knowledge Management Team.
21
We are seeing an increase in both the number of organisations
offering attachments and teachers interested in the scheme.
We already have 61 organisations offering attachments and 283
teachers who have indicated interest, of whom 30 have gone on work
attachments this month. With more publicity and discussions
in progress, we expect to scale up the Teacher Work Attachment
scheme.
22
We are building up a network of organizations comprising both
private enterprises and public sector organizations to partner us
in work attachments. The Ministry is working towards
enabling at least one teacher per school in 2005 and at least two
teachers per school from 2006 to go on work attachments.
Some schools may have three teachers on such attachments.
Overall, this should mean about 1000 to 1200 teachers a year going
on work attachments.
23
I am heartened to note that 90% of the pioneer group of
organisations that participated in the pilot run in December last
year are continuing to provide attachment places this year.
In a sense they are the founding alumni of the TWA network.
To grow the number of attachment places, we are also tapping on
the resources of industry organisations, associations or
federations which have an existing network of organisations under
them. One example is the healthcare sector. We are
working with SingHealth and the National Healthcare Group for
attachment places across the primary, secondary and tertiary
public health institutions in their clusters. Another
example is the People’s Association that is assisting us with
attachment places across the Community Development Councils.
Partnership with such umbrella organizations will enable us to
effectively scale up and sustain the attachment opportunities for
our teachers.
24
Some schools, are also actively engaging their School Advisory
Committee/School Management Committee (SAC/SMC), Alumni or Parent
Support Group to assist in providing learning opportunities for
their teachers with industries. Queensway Secondary, for
example, has worked with the school’s SAC and St Gabriel’s
Secondary is tapping on its Old Boys’ Association. The
Raffles group of schools has initiated a 3-week attachment for
seven teachers to the Institute of Bioengineering Nanotechnology (IBN)
in February.
25
Even more heartening is the fact that some teachers have taken the
initiative to arrange for their own work attachments. This
year, ten teachers have indicated that they are initiating their
own attachments. In March, Ms Ong Lay Hua, a teacher from
Hwa Chong Junior College, arranged, on her own, a 10-day
attachment to the Institute of Bioengineering Nanotechnology (IBN).
26
Other than attachment to local industries, to broaden teachers’
experiences we are also involving school clusters and MOE HQ
Divisions to provide attachment opportunities.
School-to-school attachments and cross-level attachments such as
JC teachers being attached to secondary schools and vice versa
will enable teachers not only to learn from best practices but
also to appreciate different challenges in different settings.
Attachments to MOE HQ will enable teachers to gain a wider, macro
perspective of policy intent and application. Each of these
opportunities will help teachers to provide rich and authentic
learning environments for their pupils.
27
While most of the work attachments will be local, we are also
looking into providing teachers with opportunities for overseas
attachments - in industries as well as in schools overseas.
For example, we are working with NUS Enterprise to implement a
scheme where between 7 to 10 teachers a year can join their
start-ups locally and continue with overseas attachments with the
start-up teams through the NUS Overseas Colleges. This
collaboration will offer opportunities for our teachers to work
and learn in teams in authentic start-up environments, alongside
tertiary students, their lecturers and industry partners locally
and overseas. We are also exploring overseas attachments
with other industries with networks overseas. Citigroup, for
example, is looking into attachment for our teachers with their
set-ups overseas. For a start, it has offered an attachment
at either its Shanghai or Bombay office this year.
28
Overseas teaching attachments will offer benefits that are
different from those gained from industry work attachments.
Teaching attachments will provide teachers with the opportunity to
gain wider professional perspectives and also enable our teachers
to exchange ideas and network with teachers outside Singapore.
Like our students, teachers can benefit from exposure to another
culture and environment.
29
We will also seek to attach some teachers to schools overseas, in
Asia and elsewhere. We will leverage on existing school
networks, and the new linkages that we will grow between Singapore
schools and those in China for purpose of providing our students
with immersion in China. School-to-school links for student
exchanges can be used to facilitate attachments of our teachers
with the overseas partner schools. MOE will partner with IE
Singapore to assist in building these school linkages abroad.
In China, Network China, the Singapore business network, is keen
to foster these school linkages.
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
AND SHARING
30
Learning through work attachment outside the school does not stop
with the work attachment itself. The teachers from the
pioneer group at the end of last year have shared their
experiences at the school, cluster and zonal levels and extended
their learning through the discussions that ensued. Some of
the teachers are so fired up by their experiences that they are
considering setting up a Community of Learners to discuss issues,
share their work experiences and tap on the knowledge repository
accumulated in an interactive manner.
31
This knowledge sharing process was witnessed in yesterday’s
pre-conference strand held at the Singapore Zoological Gardens and
Qianhu Fish Farm where the pioneer group of teachers who went on
work attachments last year shared with conference participants
their insights and learning experiences.
32
I am told that the teachers from the pilot group have not only
shared their experiences with their colleagues, they are also
applying their learning in their school work. Thomas, whom I
mentioned earlier, is contributing his learning from DSTA to his
school’s strategic planning process. Ms Harejah Beevi from Pei
Tong Primary is making good use of her experience with SPH to add
value to the school’s newsletter. She is also planning to guide
a group of students in producing a monthly e-news for broadcast in
school.
33
Schools will therefore benefit from having teachers go on work
attachments. The schools can tap on the Professional
Development Leave scheme, which has been enhanced, to release
their teachers. Each school is given up to 24 months per
year to manage such leave for teachers. Schools can also
make use of the manpower grant to employ additional teaching
service when necessary.
34
A few teachers have also taken advantage of the Ministry’s
Professional Development Leave Scheme to go on longer work
attachments. Hajerah took up a 3-month attachment to Singapore
Press Holdings. Ms Wee Siew Bee, an economics teacher from
Tampines Junior College has taken one of the boldest steps.She is
going on a 6-month overseas work attachment in Silicon Valley, US,
assisted by the NUS Overseas Colleges. Ms Wee reflected on this
decision in an email.Having taught economics for 10 years, she
felt that a stint right at the heart of the new economy in, would
help her to gain valuable practical insights and knowledge that
she can impart to her students.
SENIOR TEACHER
PROGRAMME
35
Let me now mention another dimension in the support we will
provide schools in their I&E efforts, and that is the role of
Senior Teachers.A constant inflow of new officers into the
Education Service helps bring fresh ideas and innovative
suggestions, and is essential for a forward-looking system.
However, successful innovation in education requires a blend of
both new ideas and experience. The wisdom of our more experienced
officers, and their instinctive sense of what may or may not work,
is an invaluable asset and complement to the zeal and enthusiasm
of our younger officers.Senior Teachers, as mentors and guides to
fellow teachers, have a critical part to play in bringing fresh
and workable ideas into the classroom.
36
To prepare Senior Teachers for their larger roles and
responsibilities, a milestone programme, called the Senior
Teachers’ Programme, will be introduced this year. This
one-month full-time programme will equip Senior Teachers with the
skills and competencies to be enablers of innovation in the
classroom and school, as they carry out their roles as
instructional leaders and coaches to their colleagues,
particularly the younger teachers. The milestone course will
also bring STs up to date on issues, trends and developments in
learning and teaching and provide them with adequate opportunity
for discussions and experiential learning. There would also
be time allocated for self-directed learning and reflection, as
well as working on innovative projects.
CONCLUSION
37
Our education infrastructure is strong. Not many countries
can speak of the advantages we have - a capable and
well motivated teaching force, well-run schools, a rigorous
curricula and students who by and large take their education very
seriously. But our most important advantage in Singapore
must be our willingness to change, and change ahead of time, in
education as in all other fields.
38
Our changing education landscape will provide the diversity and
flexibility to encourage students to do what interests them most.
They must follow their passions. And we are redoubling our
efforts in schools to provide a balanced education for very child,
aimed at nurturing a spirit of inquiry, a ruggedness of mind and
the desire to serve others.
39
Your passion as teachers and commitment to making a difference for
our young will enable us to achieve this shift in culture in our
schools. By inspiring and challenging your students,
spurring them on and giving each of them confidence in themselves,
you will help take Singapore into the future.
40
May I wish all of you a fruitful and enriching learning experience
at the conference.
Source: Ministry
of Education Media Release 8 Jun 2004
|
Government Speeches
