Plans for Teachers and Students to be More Equipped to Deal with Online Harms

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin asked the Minister for Education whether there are plans to equip teachers and enhance the curriculum in schools for students to be more equipped from a young age to deal with online harms, such as hypersexualisation of women and girls on social media and predatory online behaviour.

MOE’s Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum has been refreshed and is being progressively implemented from 2021. The refreshed curriculum gives further emphasis on developing in our students healthy self-esteem and positive self-identity. Through the CCE lessons, our students are taught about personal safety and how to recognise and protect themselves from sexual abuse, both online and offline.

For example, Primary students are taught online dangers and how they can proactively protect themselves. They are also made aware of the laws that protect them. In Secondary schools, students learn more about online risks, such as cyber flashing, as well as dealing with relationships and differentiating between healthy relationships and sexual grooming. At the Secondary and pre-University levels, students are also taught to evaluate their self-perception, calibrate unhealthy expectations on themselves and develop positive self-worth. In doing so, students recognise the importance of having a sense of healthy self-esteem that is not unduly affected by external influences, such as social media.

Students also learn to look out for one another, both online and offline, and to seek help from trusted adults, such as their parents, teachers and school counsellors should they or their friends require support or guidance on well-being issues. This includes issues, such as online harassment and online grooming.

Teachers, school counsellors and student welfare officers are trained to look out for signs of distress in students so as to support them where necessary. MOE also trains dedicated key personnel in schools who look after student well-being to strengthen supportive peer network and manage cyber issues.