Debated in Parliament on 27 Jul 2021.
Mr Deputy Speaker, since the announcement of the Ministerial Statement on the River Valley High School Incident last Friday, several Members have filed related Parliamentary Questions (PQs) for subsequent Sittings. These include Ms Tin Pei Ling1, Mr Gerald Giam2,3, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim4, Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim5, Ms Hazel Poa6, Mr Darryl David7, Mr Desmond Choo8, Dr Shahira Abdullah9,10,11,12,13, Ms He Ting Ru14 and Mr Yip Hon Weng15. Given significant public interest, today’s Ministerial Statement will also address those questions.
With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to invite Members to seek clarifications on these issues after the Ministerial Statement. Should their queries be sufficiently addressed, it may not be necessary for them to proceed with their PQs for the future Sittings.
Yes, I give my consent.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. Today, I will speak on the incident that has weighed heavily on our minds and our hearts. On 19 July, a 13-year-old student at River Valley High School died. No amount of words can describe our shock and grief.
On behalf of the Ministry of Education (MOE), we would like to express our deepest condolences to the family for their immeasurable loss. Our thoughts are also with the staff and students of River Valley High School.
MOE has and will continue to provide all possible support to the school community, including the affected families. We are also closely monitoring the well-being of the students in River Valley High School and beyond River Valley High School.
Since the incident, many people, including several Members of this House, have stepped forward to offer their assistance in one way or another. On behalf of the school and our education fraternity, I would like to express our deep gratitude to hon Members of the House and the larger community for your support, encouragement and prayers.
I would also like to thank the mainstream media for exercising sensitivity in reporting this incident. They did so, out of respect for the families involved and to avoid further traumatising other students and staff.
I will share with the House a chronological account of the facts of the incident and describe the support that we are providing to the staff and students. I seek Members’ understanding that there are certain aspects of the incident that I cannot discuss as the matter is before the Courts.
I will also explain what MOE is doing to ensure the well-being and safety of our wider school community.
Finally, I will touch on the wider measures we must take as a society, so that we do the utmost to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, at about 11.35 am towards the end of lunch break on Monday, 19 July, a group of students encountered a 16-year-old student outside a toilet. He was holding an axe. He asked them to call the Police. The students returned to their classroom immediately and called their teacher. Subsequently, the 16-year-old student made the same request to another group of students in the classroom next to the said toilet. The students’ immediate response was to apply the emergency "Run-Hide-Tell" lockdown drill. They went into their classroom, locked the doors from within and quickly called their Form Teachers for help.
A teacher who first arrived at the scene instructed the 16-year-old student to put down the axe. He complied. He was then escorted away to a meeting room. Thereafter, other teachers called the Police and checked the toilet where the 16-year-old was found outside. Upon receiving the call for assistance, Police arrived within 10 minutes and took the 16-year-old student into custody. Police officers and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedics despatched to the scene found a 13-year-old student lying motionless in the said toilet with multiple wounds. He was pronounced dead.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the two students had not known each other before the incident and the axe was purchased online.
The 16-year-old student was charged in Court for murder the next day, on 20 July. He has since been in remand for psychiatric assessment.
Once the situation was under control, the Principal broke the news to the rest of her staff, before speaking to the students. She shared that a serious incident had happened and asked all students to contact their parents to assure them that they were safe.
Soon after, the Principal separately spoke to the group of students who were most affected by the incident. Other teachers also came together to support and render assistance.
For students who assisted the Police with the interviews, parental consent was duly sought and every student was accompanied by a teacher throughout the entire process.
Other parents were also informed via Parents Gateway that a serious incident had happened in school, so they could look out for their children once they were dismissed for the day.
From 3.15 pm, students were progressively dismissed, with teachers stationed at various gates to give students and parents assurance. By the same evening, parents were informed that a member of the RV family had passed away. The school advised parents to monitor the well-being of their child. Parents who were worried for their child’s well-being were encouraged to contact their Form Teachers to work out ways to support their children both at home and in school.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, MOE’s immediate priority was to render full support to the school. On Tuesday, 20 July, we set up a “Caring Actions in Response to an Emergency” or CARE Post at RV to provide psychological support to students and staff who needed immediate help, though it was a non-school day.
Since last Wednesday, a total of 98 MOE CARE officers and school counsellors, trained in psychological first aid and trauma management, have put aside their regular duties to provide much needed support at the CARE Post. Together, they reached out to affected teachers and students, who were encouraged to walk in any time they needed someone to talk to.
We know this incident has had a profound impact beyond River Valley High School. Together with my senior colleagues at MOE, I met with 350 Principals from Primary schools to Junior Colleges on 20 July, Hari Raya Haji. We discussed the situation with them and shared with them the resources they could tap on to identify students and staff who may display signs of distress so that they can be encouraged to seek help.
When school resumed on the morning of Wednesday, 21 July, River Valley High School teachers, supported by MOE CARE officers and counsellors, conducted check-in sessions with students to provide them with a safe place to share their thoughts and feelings. Students who wished to, could return home. Teachers called those who were not in school to check on how they were doing. Students and teachers who needed time-off were granted leave. Master teachers from MOE were deployed to take over some classes.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it will take time for the River Valley High School community to recover. Where needed, students and staff will be referred to healthcare agencies for professional assistance. Since the CARE Post was opened in the school, about 540 staff and students have sought support there.
Most heartening, within the school community, the students initiated their own small acts of kindness. Some distributed small gifts and snack packs; others sent encouraging notes and sweet treats. Students are looking out not just for themselves, but also their teachers and urging them to seek help where needed.
The School Advisory Committee, Parent-Teacher Association, parents and alumni as well as counsellors from social service agencies and community have also rallied around River Valley High School. This includes the counsellors on standby from Boon Lay. All these speak volumes of the compassion and strength of the River Valley High School community.
We have received many constructive suggestions, questions and feedback in the wake of this tragedy. They fall largely into two groups: mental health and the security of our schools. I will address these two issues next.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know our young people face pressures on many fronts. There are family and peer relationship issues. Some students impose high expectations on themselves, while others have parents who place high expectations on them. Some students also have difficulty coping with the rigours of our education system.
Over and above dealing with the problems of adolescence, they are all learning to cope with the pressures of a competitive, high-performing environment. Previous generations also faced their own considerable challenges, including poverty and war. But perhaps for our youths growing up in today’s complex and fast-paced world, their challenges are intensified by what happens online, where comparisons are incessant and unrelenting, adding yet another layer of social pressure.
This is why, as a society, we must continuously improve and strengthen our support system to better prepare our children to not only withstand the pressures they face but also thrive despite these pressures. We cannot shield our children from pressures entirely, any more than we can shield them from the common challenges of adolescence. But we must do all we can to help our children find themselves and find their footing in an intense environment.
Our approach should not only be to strengthen the overall system of support, but to engender a much more caring, much more nurturing environment in our society. I will share some of our support measures from upstream prevention, to the identification of and the intervention for those at risk. I will then touch on the whole-of-society efforts we need to support our younger generation.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, social emotional skills and resilience building form the foundation of MOE’s mental health efforts and have been part of our Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum for some time. This year, we began implementing the revised CCE curriculum, starting with lower secondary levels. It includes enhanced features on Mental Health Education, designed to develop our students’ mental health literacy. For example, they learn to differentiate normal stress from distress and mental illness, so that they can seek help before becoming overwhelmed. These CCE lessons also teach them to break negative thinking patterns, overcome social emotional problems, seek help when they need to and manage their emotions. Students are also taught how to actively stand up against stigma around mental health issues.
Peer support is another crucial pillar in our efforts. All our schools are putting in place a peer support system to encourage students to look out for one another. Our hope is for all students to learn to sit with a friend who is distressed, show empathy and care and encourage him or her to seek help from trusted adults like parents, teachers or counsellors.
Every school has a support network for our students in need. Beyond equipping our students with the basic coping mechanisms, our teachers keep a watchful eye over their students and provide a listening ear. If they notice something amiss, teachers reach out and guide our students to work on their difficulties as they are trained with basic counselling skills.
Students also have access to another group of teachers called the teacher counsellors. This is a special group of teachers who have received additional training so that they can help students who are dealing with more challenging social-emotional problems, such as grief and loss.
When students need additional support, they can see the school counsellor. And school counsellors are specialised personnel who provide dedicated counselling support.
When students need further intervention and help to access resources in the community, school counsellors refer them to professionals, such as those in the Response, Early intervention and Assessment in Community Mental Health (REACH) teams or social service agencies.
This support network works most effectively when the partnership with the family is strong.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, while much is being done, there is always more that we can, we must and we want to do.
COVID-19 has compounded the challenges our young people face. Much of their usual social support networks and routines have been disrupted, leading to prolonged periods of uncertainty, anxiety and loneliness for many.
COVID-19 safe management measures were implemented in schools so that our children can be physically in schools with their teachers and classmates for as much as possible. At the same time, however, we have had to suspend many interactive and community activities, like Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs), National School Games, Cohort Camps and Learning Journeys. These activities are avenues for our young people to build bonds and to grow up in a balanced way, emotionally, physically and psychologically. We plan to reinstate such activities in full as soon as the COVID-19 situation allows for it.
We want to create more time and space for students to pursue experiences that broaden their emotional and psychological horizons and strengthen their resilience. To this end, we want to work with parents and community groups to establish a caring and enabling society that gives greater attention to the well-being of our young.
Let me outline the measures that MOE will undertake in the near term.
First, we will strengthen the support network in our schools. All teachers will receive enhanced professional development on mental health literacy as a baseline. This will further strengthen our ability to identify and support students in need.
We also aim to deploy more than 1,000 teacher counsellors in the next few years. This is an increase from the over 700 teacher counsellors we have currently deployed in schools.
All schools now have at least one school counsellor, while some have two. Where feasible, we will recruit more school counsellors or re-role suitable educators to augment the counselling support network.
For our students, we will bring back CCAs for secondary schools and pre-universities within the next few weeks, as more students complete their vaccinations. We are currently putting our plans together on how CCAs can be conducted safely within national safe management measures.
We will also dedicate more time and attention to checking in on the well-being of our students regularly. Schools currently have orientation programmes for new students at the start of every school year. Henceforth, teachers will devote time at the start of every school term to check in on the well-being of their students and guide them to know how, where and when to get help.
Next, because of the disruptions to learning caused by COVID-19, we will remove the Common Last Topics (CLT) from the 2021 GCE examinations. Last month, we had announced the removal of the CLTs for the 2021 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has created much greater disruptions than envisaged and has affected the social and emotional well-being of our students. We are especially concerned for the graduating cohorts, so we will also remove the CLT from the 2021 GCE "O", "N" and "A" level examinations. While these topics would have already been taught in schools, removing them from the national examinations would help to relieve the revision load and examination stress for our students.
Finally, for the non-graduating students, given the COVID-19 disruptions, all schools will also reduce the scope of their 2021 end-of-year examinations to alleviate their revision load.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the mental well-being of our young also requires strengthening the continuum of support across schools, families and our community.
We are taking a whole-of-Government approach to address these issues. MOH and MSF have set up a new inter-agency task force, which transited from the COVID-19 Mental Wellness Task Force. Chaired by Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary, this task force brings together the capabilities and capacities of different agencies to develop an overarching national strategy and action plan on mental health and well-being. As a member of this task force, MOE will work with MOH and MSF to give focus to the youth segment.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, our students are also influenced by factors in and beyond schools. This tragic incident could have happened outside of school as well. We will, therefore, need a whole-of-society effort to keep our children, families and community safe to avoid such a tragic incident from happening again.
We need a communal safety net, underpinned by a caring and nurturing culture, for all our people, especially our youths, so that, collectively, we send them the unequivocal message that no one will ever be alone and no one needs to be going through life's toughest moment alone.
I am encouraged to see that community efforts have already been gaining momentum. Since February 2020, people from all walks of life have contributed to the Youth Mental Well-being Network. They have identified gaps around them that they would like to address and are currently developing ground-up solutions to improve youth mental well-being. These projects include creating programmes to enhance emotional resilience, bringing inspirational stories of hope to our youth and increasing parents' emotional literacy.
Since last Monday, the public outpourings of care and support have been overwhelming. We are deeply grateful that so many people want to help ease the pain of the RV family.
At the same time, I encourage all of us to look within our own social circles and start from here. As parents, we all want what is best for our children. As they learn to navigate and face tomorrow's challenges on their own, it is not easy to know when to nudge them, when to stretch them, when to help them, or when to let go.
Within our own families, we can all spend a bit more time listening to our children's thoughts and feelings. Let them share with us what they find stressful. Give them the space to process their emotions. Let us walk alongside them as they grow and learn to handle their new challenges.
We can have more frank conversations with our children and families on the definition of success. As a parent myself, I have come to realise that success must be defined by helping my children to realise their own potential, develop their own strengths and, ultimately, be confident in themselves. Success cannot, should not and must not be the constant need to be compared with someone else and having to live up to somebody else's image.
The greatest gift that we can give our children is to accept and love them unconditionally and help them be at ease with who they are. As parents, the greatest assurance that we can give our children is to affirm them and give them the confidence to find their own ways.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we can all help our children learn the right behaviour in the online and offline worlds. Do our actions and choice of words build people up or tear people down? As adults, let us set the right tone and example.
Let us work together to break the vicious cycles of negativity by standing up for others and responding with grace and compassion. We can stop toxic conversations online and amplify messages of strength, care and positivity through our online networks instead. All of us can be kind to each other. All of us can look out for one another, no matter how tough the competition might be or how intense the pressures can be.
To this end, MOE wants to strengthen our partnership with parents through the Parent Support Groups in all our schools. We hope that Parent Support Groups will not only support the school, but also expand their role to connect with one another and render help to parents whose children and families need more support. I will encourage every Parent Support Group to form a sub-group, focusing on the mental well-being of our children and families.
To the students and teachers who visited our CARE Post at River Valley High School, I know it took courage for you to step forward and seek help, and I encourage you to continue doing so. To those who are struggling still, I want you to know that we are here for you. Reach out. Let us know if you need help and we will do what we can to support you.
I appeal to everyone not to stigmatise those who come forward to seek help – be they students, staff, parents or families. Reaching out for help is a sign of strength and not weakness. Let this incident motivate all of us to take down our barriers and treat struggling individuals who step forward with care and compassion.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me turn to the issue of school security. I have discussed this issue with school leaders and they were unanimous in their responses. School is like a second home to our children and all of us. It is a safe place where values are cultivated, lifelong relationships built and a shared identity forged. It is a warm and supportive environment that allows students with different learning needs and aspirations to discover their passions and develop their strengths. And above all, it is a trusted space.
We have implemented various security measures in schools. For example, schools are secured with physical barriers, such as fences, roller shutters, CCTVs and alarm systems, that can trigger an alert in the event of an intrusion. Security officers also conduct spot checks and register visitors before entry into the school.
All schools have a School Emergency Structure to deal with emergencies, to respond, recover and restore the situation back to normalcy. They cover areas, such as first aid, search, trauma management, evacuation, handling of casualties and managing the emergency operations centre.
Teachers are trained to respond to different emergency scenarios. School leaders, staff and students take part in regular emergency training exercises to practise how to handle emergency situations in the school, including security incidents. The Police and SCDF are involved in such training exercises and drills which are part of the wider community safety net.
In our efforts to enhance security at our schools, we do not want to compromise the quality of school experience for our staff and students. I have asked myself this difficult question: what would it feel like if I must empty my pockets, be frisked and have my bag checked before stepping through my house door or school gate? Also, how would my fellow family members and students feel? How would we relate to one another in such an environment? Will it still be home? Or will it create in me a siege mentality? None of us wish to return to a home with metal scanners and bag checks.
But I can understand that parents are understandably worried. The security and well-being of our students and staff are critical and schools must continue to be safe places for students to learn, grow and play.
The real key to staying safe lies not with more intrusive security measures, but in prevention and enhanced community vigilance. We all have a collective role to play in looking out for potentially deviant or worrying behaviours and report possible threats in our midst. We do not want to turn our schools into fortresses, which will create unease and stress amongst our staff and students. We also do not wish to paradoxically engender a siege mentality amongst students and staff, causing them to take extreme measures to protect themselves, at the expense of a shared sense of security.
MOE will continue to update our security measures in a targeted manner and apply them sensitively to balance the security needs without losing our sense of safety, trust and homeliness of the school environment. With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I continue in Mandarin.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] In the wake of the tragic incident at River Valley High School, the Principal, teachers and students of the school have remained stoic; and parents and members of the public readily came forward to express their care and support. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of you. As our nation grieves, we have been reflecting on how to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. Such an incident could happen anytime and anywhere. Therefore, we must strengthen support for our youths on three fronts: schools, family and the society at large.
I will start with our schools.
At present, all teachers are trained in basic counselling skills and are able to offer counselling support to students.
Students also have access to another group of teachers called the teacher counsellors. This is a special group of teachers who have received additional training so that they can help students who are dealing with more challenging social-emotional problems.
School counsellors, who are specialised personnel providing dedicated counselling, are deployed at every school to meet the needs of students who require additional support. If students need further intervention, they are referred to medical professionals to ensure that they receive the necessary care.
It is important for us parents to form strong partnerships with the schools. As a parent, I fully understand the care and aspirations that we have for our children. We should spend more time listening to how they feel and helping them to realise their own potential. I also often remind myself of the importance of cultivating our children’s innate sense of confidence and not comparing them to others. This is because our sense of self-worth should not be defined relative to others.
As a society, we need a communal safety net, underpinned by a caring and nurturing culture. We must not stigmatise those who come forward to seek help, be they students or families. We must set positive examples and do our part in contributing to a warm and inclusive environment.
As a parent, I can understand the worries and concerns surrounding security in schools. Our schools are like a second home for our children. It is a place for them to learn, grow and have fun together. In our efforts to enhance security at our schools, we have to ensure that they remain trusted shared spaces. The real key to staying safe lies not with more intrusive security measures, but in showing care for one another and enhanced community vigilance.
Following this tragic incident, the alumni, students, parents and members of the public, have shown tremendous care and empathy towards the school. This is deeply heartening. On behalf of River Valley High School, I would like to express my appreciation to all of you. During this period, we have also seen how the teachers, students and alumni of the school have stood in solidarity through adversity.
May River Valley High School remain ever resilient and grow even stronger as they overcome this tragedy.
(In English): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me conclude in English. I visited River Valley High School on the day of the incident and spoke with the leaders, teachers, staff and some students. I would like to commend the school for managing the incident well and on their grace and confidence under pressure.
The students executed the “Run-Hide-Tell” steps exactly as they were trained to do in times of emergencies. To the students of River Valley High School, thank you for showing care and compassion to one another.
The teachers responded swiftly, demonstrating courage when engaging the 16-year-old and keeping the safety of their students as their utmost priority throughout. To the teachers, despite your own grief and shock, you attended to your students and are still helping them to cope with their difficult emotions. You put your students above you, always.
To the Principal, who was on medical leave, thank you for rushing back to the school to personally handle the incident. I know how painful it is for you, but I know how you have kept this to yourself while putting your students, teachers and staff's interests before all else.
All of us, especially as parents, are appreciative of the leadership and compassion shown by the school. It gives us confidence that our children are in good hands.
To all principals, teachers and school counsellors across the entire nation who have been looking out for our students in their own schools, thank you for your dedication, commitment and care.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, it takes an entire community to help look out for one another, to pick up warning signs that something may not be going well with an individual close to us, to provide support and comfort to those who may be troubled. May we stand united in this effort and be vigilant as we heal as a community and as a nation.
I would like to conclude with some words posted on the River Valley High School tribute page, which has since drawn more than 3,000 contributions: "Rest if you must, cry if you must, for when your eyes can finally see clearly, you will see all of us standing in solidarity." Let us all join hearts and hands, work together; give this our all – for our children are our future. My children, your children, our children, our future. [Applause.]
Mr Patrick Tay.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am a father of three children, one in Primary school, one in secondary school and one in junior college. And I have also spent considerable time with the staff and students in River Valley High School in my last five years as the Member of Parliament for Boon Lay constituency. My heart really goes out to the affected families as well as the staff and the students. As what the Minister has mentioned earlier, the response by the River Valley High School community in the face of this adversity has been commendable. In the face of this tragic incident, teachers, school leaders, staff, including parents and alumni, deserve our full support and encouragement.
I have a few questions for the Minister.
Firstly, whether any aspects of the incident management could have been improved upon and should we not have called for a time-out, such as in the SAF or in the workplaces, when such incidents happen.
Second, in light of this incident, whether MOE will take cognisance of students who are patients at IMH or even various public sector child guidance clinics, including those seeking psychiatric treatment, for example, at private hospitals and clinics, so that the educators will be sensitised and better prepared to support and prevent trigger events?
Thirdly, whether MOE can consider doing regular surveys with students at all levels to assess their stress levels and also the challenges they face growing up and, especially, if they are depressed?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Patrick Tay for his questions and also his support for the River Valley High School community. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are still conducting a review of the conduct, the way which the incident unfolded and how it was managed.
Our preliminary sense was that the students have applied their drills as they were taught, they maintained their composure, locked themselves in their classroom and sought help immediately. That was well done. To the teachers who responded to the incident, I must say that I was very touched by how they calmly led away the 16-year-old, while protecting the rest of the children in the events that unfolded.
So, there are many positives that I think we can take away from this incident, despite the tragedy. I would like to thank the Police and SCDF for responding swiftly to our call for help.
On the first issue of a time-out for the school, we had considered this and discussed with our professional colleagues if this was the best way for us to manage the incident. The consensus amongst the professional colleagues was that we should try to let the school come together, take stock of the situation and support one another, rather than to let individuals grieve alone in their homes. But we also recognise that some students and staff may need additional support or may wish to have time and space to make sense of what has happened and grieve. That was why we adopted the posture to continue school on Wednesday, while allowing those who require the additional support to take leave of absence away from school.
In the last few days, we have seen positive responses from the River Valley High School community. We were encouraged to see both students and staff progressively regaining the daily rhythm of their school life and it is a healthy sign. But having said that, we know that the implications from this particular incident may still take some time to unfold. That is why, be it in River Valley High School or beyond River Valley High School, we have asked all our staff, teachers and principals to take extra precaution to be more alert to those individuals who might be distressed and need additional help.
On the second issue, yes, MOE, to the extent possible, within the ambit of the medical-in-confidence rules, we work closely with MHA and MOH, particularly, if there is a threat that the person in distress might pose to the community.
But it is a fine balance. We want to respect the medical-in-confidence. We want to encourage people to come forward and seek help. We do not want people to put off seeking help because they think that they might be stigmatised or that their medical records will be shared with other agencies.
And this is why we will always respect the medical-in-confidence record of the students and staff unless they agree to pass it over to us.
But having said that, in situations – and that has happened before, including in recent weeks – where if the agencies from MHA to MOH make an assessment that a particular distressed individual might be of harm to the wider community, then we would work with the community partners to manage the situation together.
On the third question that Mr Patrick Tay asked, yes, that is why we want to institute regular check-ins with our students and staff to make sure that if and when they need help, they know where to go, they know how to manage the situation. But having said that, we are fully cognisant that for distressed individuals, coming forward to seek help may not be something that they may be comfortable with or know how to do. In fact, beyond those who come forward to seek help, we are constantly on the lookout for people who might be troubled but do not come forward to seek help, maybe because they fear being stigmatised or they fear that they will not be accepted.
And this is why we want to send out a message to everyone that if you need help, come forward. Let us, as a community, embrace them with care and compassion, so that they need not fear that they will be stigmatised or rejected by us. And we will continue to do that.
Ms Sylvia Lim.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have a question for the Minister on school security in general. I am aware that many schools hire an Operations Manager, who is usually someone with military or law enforcement experience. And certainly, I think we can see that this is helpful if the school has to manage any security or other incidents. So, I would like to ask the Minister whether this is a baseline requirement for all schools, that they need to have an Operations Manager with such experience.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, all schools have an operations security personnel. As to whether it is a prerequisite for them to be trained previously in the security agencies, be it the SAF or MHA, that would be useful, but it is not a prerequisite because there are also other operational managers that bring with them security experiences, organisational experiences, beyond the SAF and MHA.
Dr Wan Rizal.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for the heartfelt and reassuring Statement. The incident has hit many of us hard. As a parent, I share the sadness, the fear and the disappointment. As an educator, we wear many hats. We are not just the curators of knowledge, the choreographers of behaviour. We are not just disciplinarians, we are their friend, we are their confidant. When things go south, it is very easy to pinpoint the teachers and the staff. For the past week, thoughts of doubts, what ifs, maybes, have filled many of our heads, but, fundamentally and rationally, I know that schools must remain a safe space. The security within our schools goes a long way in instilling confidence in our students, parents, teachers and staff.
Thus, my first clarification is, while we do not want schools to be made into fortresses, what security preparedness drills and initiatives are our schools equipped with? And, fundamentally, are our teachers prepared for major incidents? How else can we strengthen our school security so that schools remain a safe space for all?
Inevitably, mental health is the talk of the town. My worry is that this talk will equate to fear and resets our efforts in destigmatising mental health. We want our students, teachers and staff to be able to easily and readily step forward to receive support whenever they need it. Thus, my second clarification is, how would the Ministry ensure that while we relook into mental health in schools and the approaches that we are going to take, it does not increase the stigmatisation and prevent people from stepping forward and asking for help?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for his kind words for our teachers and educators. Indeed, it is not easy to be a teacher. Today, the role of a teacher goes beyond just imparting knowledge to our younger generation. They take on many responsibilities, including the guidance of our children in their social-emotional development, in their career choices and so forth. In my short time in MOE, I have seen the determination in our teachers to want to do the best for the children under their charge, no matter how hard it might be or how tough or how varied the challenges might be.
On the drills for the students, when we did the drills with the students, the baseline scenario was in the event of a terrorist incident, an external threat. How to lock down the schools, how to keep the boundaries of the school safe, how to shutter down to have safe spaces for our students and staff such that we can buy time until reinforcement or the security forces arrive.
Having said that, in the response to this particular incident, I think the students and teachers all showed the presence of mind to be able to apply their drills, albeit learnt for a different scenario, into this scenario to safeguard one another. So, I think we will need to continue to have a variety of scenarios to alert our security managers, students and staff to the range of threats that might happen.
Despite that range of threats, some of the basic fundamental drills, the principles behind the drills, are applicable. And that has been demonstrated in this particular incident.
I have discussed with my school principals as well. We would, of course, like to have more of our teachers cross-trained in security incident management. We will want to do that. And going forward, we will want to expand the group of people who are trained in such incident management so that every school can have the confidence to respond adequately should such an incident happen.
Today, teachers and staff do get posted and rostered to different schools. At any point in time, the schools have a responsibility to make sure that they have an intact incident management team and they have sufficient trained people to execute the drills with the students. Because of the posting cycle, in the event there is a shortfall, we will quickly remedy that by making sure that the necessary people are trained to execute the actions accordingly.
On the second point, it is something that concerns us as well. We have asked ourselves, that through this incident, will our wider community, instead of embracing and helping those in distress, end up rejecting them, ostracising them or stigmatising them? That is why today, I want to make an appeal to everyone to not do this. To be able to step forward to seek help is not a sign of weakness. It takes courage to step forward and seek help. Let us help those people in distress in our own ways by, first, not stigmatising them, but by accepting them as part of our community.
Maybe, very importantly for us to remember, is that the mental distress that some members of our community go through can happen to anyone of us. Anyone of us. And that is why we need to be conscious that this can happen to anyone and, therefore, we need to adopt a collective attitude to help one another through this. It does not mean that people who suffer from mental distress will not recover. Given the right support, the right care environment, there is every chance that we can help one another go through the dark valleys of life.
Mr Murali Pillai.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I join the hon Minister in expressing our sadness to the affected families and our wishes for them to overcome their grief, as well as our wishes to the affected students, teachers, staff and Principal of River Valley High School in overcoming the tragedy that befell them.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the hon Minister for his personal leadership in handling this tough incident. I know that I speak for a number of hon Members of Parliament as well. He can be assured that he has our full support in his endeavour to make River Valley High School emerge stronger and the rest of the school system stronger as well.
Sir, I have a question in relation to making mental resilience a desired outcome of education for all students. As the Minister mentioned, already, certain subjects or certain programmes in schools are geared towards this. He had also shared that if he were to just target those students who are susceptible to mental issues, there would be an issue of stigma, they may not come forward.
So, why do we not put mental resilience as a strategic objective in school and ensure that our children, when they emerge from the education system, are mentally resilient to deal with the challenges of the future? This will resonate throughout because when they enter the workforce, they will be mentally resilient; when they become parents, they will be mentally resilient; and so on.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we fully agree with Mr Murali Pillai that mental resilience is one of the outcomes we want from our education system.
Indeed, perhaps this is even more important than ever before. I have described the kind of new challenges that our young people have to go through growing up nowadays. The world will become more uncertain, more turbulent. Success in the future will not just depend on our technical competencies. Success in the future will very much also depend on the resilience of our people as individuals and as a society. That is why we fully agree with Mr Murali Pillai.
This is the reason why we want to balance our curriculum. Despite COVID-19, we want to bring back CCAs for the older students as soon as possible. This is part of character development. This is part of the process for them to build social bonds and to develop their emotional and psychological resilience; and we will do this as soon as we can.
We will find ways to do this, notwithstanding COVID-19, because the school is not just about academic pursuits. School is about the holistic development of our children. We definitely want to do more for our students in this turbulent world and we thank Mr Murali Pillai for his support.
Dr Shahira Abdullah.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank Minister Chan for the Statement. I would also like to express my sadness over the incident. I have a few clarifications.
Number one: preliminary investigations revealed that the 16-year-old was already assessed at IMH before. What is MOE's strategy with suicide prevention and post-self-harm and suicide attempts for students?
Number two: what is MOE doing to raise awareness in not just teachers but students as well? Because such a shock could easily render a student and teacher helpless and not knowing that he or she actually needs help.
One last question: should there be students or teachers who are deeply affected by the incident but are afraid to seek the counselling services that MOE has set in place due to entrenched stigma, what are the alternative platforms they might be able to turn to and are they actually aware of these?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, to Dr Shahira's first question, this is, please excuse me, I cannot speak about this particular incident in specific, because the case is before the Courts. But I will speak in more general terms of how we deal with the medical records of people who seek help.
I would just like to assure everyone that when someone comes forward to seek help, we respect the medical-in-confidence information. This will not be passed around to different agencies. Only in the exceptional cases where there is a real threat, the agencies might then take actions to work with other agencies to pre-empt this.
I give an example. If somebody steps forward and seeks help, we will keep the information in confidence. But if somebody, in the process of seeking help, exhibits behaviour or expresses an intention to harm somebody else in a certain context, then the agency has a responsibility to verify and see if further actions are required to safeguard the well-being of the distressed individual and the well-being of the community.
On the second issue, indeed, that is why, today, we make a call for us to adopt a whole-of-nation approach, for all of us as Members of this House to go forth and help us spread this message, that it is okay. It is okay to seek help. It can happen to any of us. It is okay to seek help. It is okay to seek help early and there is no stigmatisation to seeking help. We should not, in our own behaviour, in any way, ostracise or stigmatise people who come forward and seek help.
On the third point, we are very aware and I am very concerned. It is not just that some young people do not know how to seek help or where to seek help. We have also come across cases whereby parents are unsure how to seek help and where to seek help. That is why it requires us as a community to reach out to students, to youths, to families in distress to encourage them to seek help. And it need not go through the school. There are community services available. There are professionals available. But the important point is to help the distressed individual or family, to point them in the right direction so that they have the confidence that they are not alone. This is an ongoing challenge that we must all undertake together as a community.
Ms Carrie Tan.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Firstly, my condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.
I am heartened that the Minister has taken a very decisive step, amidst this tragedy, a step to decelerate the pace and to scope down on our major examinations when it is needed to prioritise the mental health of our students and teachers.
At the same time, I would like to ask the House and our people to avoid knee-jerk reactions, but allow the death of this precious young life to be a beacon of light for us to ask the right questions and the deeper questions to seek the answers on what is needed to protect and nurture the mental health of our people.
To that purpose, I ask the Minister how are we strengthening our mental health discovery and support measures? Does this currently involve a systematic way of tracking incidents across the system to shed light on the current condition of our youths' mental health and what may have led up to its current condition?
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. The Member Ms Carrie Tan has raised very important and valid points. The mental wellness of our society is something that we must take seriously, both at the individual level and at the community level.
At the individual level, for the children who are still in school, we have a system to watch over them, to understand their challenges and to provide them with the support. But as Ms Carrie Tan suggested, we need to do more on two fronts.
One, how do we systematically help a distressed individual over time? This is why, in some schools, when the distressed individual has been identified, we assign dedicated teachers to help the individual, even though the teacher may no longer be the form teacher of the class. Because one of the key things about individuals seeking help is that it requires trust for a distressed individual to open up, to share with someone they can trust. The trust required to help someone in distress requires time to build up.
That is why I am encouraged by the actions of many of our teachers who take it upon themselves to monitor and help students even when the students are no longer under their direct charge. It is this very intricate trust relationship that allows our students to open up with their problems. Because it is not always that our children feel comfortable opening up to even their family members. Sometimes, they need someone else and we are here to provide them with that additional channel.
On the other hand, we are also concerned with the younger people who have left the school system. They might be starting work. They might be pursuing other aspirations. They do not necessarily have the same formal structure of support that we are able to provide in the school. This is where, as a community, we must also find ways to reach out to these distressed individuals and let them know that, even beyond the school system, there is help and there are resources available in the community to help individuals and families in distress.
It is not easy to pick out someone who is in distress but may not be prepared to open up. It takes a certain depth of relationship to understand the individual, to know that something is wrong and then be able to gain the trust of the individual to seek help and go for professional help, if need be. So, these are things that, I think, we need to do better as a community. It goes beyond individuals, it goes beyond agencies, but it does require all of us to be extra vigilant to distressed individuals who might be among us.
Ms He Ting Ru.
Thank you. I have some clarifications for the Minister. The first is how are we going to address the stigmatisation that may occur, that mental health issues do not equate to a propensity for violence, particularly given what has just happened? How do we make sure that these messages and these erroneous messages do not end up being propagated and what sort of attention is being paid to this?
Secondly, just now, the Minister actually mentioned that the CCE curriculum for lower secondary has been updated. I would like to know what is actually being done at the Primary School and lower levels, for example, pre-school, and what support and resources are available to parents of younger children who are worried about the mental condition or mental health of their younger children.
Thirdly, the Minister mentioned earlier that 540 students or individuals have sought help in the wake of this incident at River Valley High School. Given that there are 98 counsellors available, would this actually lead to a waitlist? For example, I understand that there might be a couple of months of waiting list for counselling services or mental health support services at Universities like NUS. So, I just wanted to know how is the waitlist being managed?
And then, finally, just a word on the workload of teachers. I understand that a lot of teachers are feeling very stressed out because, apart from teaching curriculum, making sure that they are giving the counselling for careers, they are now also expected to look out for their students' well-being. This is a good thing, but I just wanted to know what sort of support is going to be given and available to teachers to make sure that they themselves are not stressed by the extra workload?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we agree with Ms He Ting Ru that we must not stigmatise people who come forward to seek help. We also agree and we hope that the House will help us spread this message: not every distressed individual is a violent individual. The distress can be expressed in various forms. It could be expressed in being withdrawn, it could be expressed in self-harm and, perhaps, in extremis, and only in extremis, it expresses itself in harming others. So, I think we all can help to spread this message.
Second, having done the review of the CCE curriculum, for the secondary schools – and in the process of implementing it – MOE will continue to comb through and update the rest of the CCE curriculum, including for the Primary schools.
Third, yes, while over 500 have come forward to seek help, I want to share with Members that not all 500 require the same level of intervention. And that is why there is a protocol for us in the system to triage the needs of both the students and the staff. For example, I have explained the support structure in the school and, that is, in a sense, a way for us to triage the needs of the students.
At the more fundamental level, perhaps the teachers or the teacher-counsellors will be adequate. At a different level of help required, then, we have the school counsellors and the professional counsellors beyond the school system.
This is how we work the system to triage to make sure that the respective individuals get the appropriate level of help for them to overcome their challenges. And we will continue to do this.
The Member brought up a valid point. That is why, in the River Valley High School incident, we are most concerned with both the mental well-being of our students and staff. In fact, many of the staff who responded to the incident, they might require some assistance. We will continue to provide the necessary assistance for them.
But Ms He Ting Ru also raised this point that perhaps all of us can also do our part to support our teachers. All of us, as parents, we can do our part to support our teachers. Bearing in mind, as what has been shared, that the load on today's teachers has heightened, because of the need to take care of many other matters, including the emotional well-being of our children beyond their academics. As parents, let us work together with our teachers. Find ways that we can support our teachers as well, in peacetime and in crisis.
Let us work through the Parent Support Group, so that the Parent Support Group not only supports the school, but also supports one another and be an added avenue for parents or children who require additional help, to have an additional channel of support.
Miss Cheryl Chan.
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Let me begin by expressing my sincere condolences to the family of the deceased. Sir, it seems to be that the incidence of bullying in schools is on the rise.
So, I would like to ask the Minister if this particular tragedy and also those students who have come forward to seek help or counselling, could it also be related to bullying? And what is MOE doing to address these cases of bullying, as well as cyber bullying in schools?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this particular incident, the preliminary Police investigations suggest that the two individuals do not know each other beforehand. So, the 13-year-old and the 16-year-old did not know each other prior. It does not suggest that bullying was the cause of this particular incident.
Having said that, we recognise that, in today's environment, be it physical bullying, or cyber bullying, it is an issue that we must grapple with.
MOE's stance is very clear: we do not stand for such behaviour in our schools. But we are also cognisant that, in today's society, perhaps the cyber bullying is an even greater challenge compared to the physical bullying, because this takes place away from what most of us can see around us. It takes place in the cyberspace; it takes place in the social media that our teenagers and children are exposed to.
And I think we need to do two things as a society to manage this challenge. On the one hand, we need to send a clear message to the perpetrators of the bullying, be it physical or cyber, that this is not what our society stands for, that bullying is actually a sign of weakness, that you are not confident of yourself, that you have to try and tear down someone. This is not what we stand for in Singapore. This is not what we will tolerate in Singapore, that all of us, as adults, have the opportunity and responsibility to amplify the positivity, both in the physical world and in the cyber domain, to be good role models to our younger generation; that be it in our choice of words or actions, that we seek to edify, we seek to build, rather than to seek to destroy.
I am sure Members will agree with me the cyber bullying issue is causing distress, not just only to our young. Even adults, grown-ups, suffer from the consequences of such actions. It could be unkind words on the social media, it could be the incessant and unrelenting comparison to make someone feel, perhaps, less adequate. These are all actions that tear down rather than build up. We have a collective responsibility and we all have the agency to do something about this as a society.
On the other hand, we need to better equip our younger generation to deal with this, to manage this, because it may not go away anytime soon. And that is why we need to build the confidence in our people, in our young, especially, that they can be confident in themselves, that they can accept themselves as who they are. They do not need to seek affirmation from their social media feeds or feel that they must be pressurised to only show that perfect image of themselves, as if the whole world is perfect, except us. That would be a very sad state of affairs.
In fact, I always remind the students that I meet that the only reason why those posts are on the social media feed is because they are not the norm. People post when they find something that is out of the norm. The artificial image that everything is perfect in the social media world is unreal.
Most of us wake up every day feeling average. Most of us, definitely for me, we all look average. So, there is no need for us to feel that we must live up to somebody else's image and be held ransom by such a psychology. And this is what we need to equip our people with.
For the rest who have seen their friends or other people around them being cyber bullied, we all have a right, a responsibility, to stand up for one another so that we are not torn apart, one by one. This is a new challenge for a new generation. We must learn to come together, support one another, nurture one another, build up one another, not to tear down other people just to make ourselves feel relatively superior. No, that, itself, is a sign of weakness of the perpetrator, of the bully.
Ms Hany Soh.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. This pandemic has brought much stress to our students, especially those who are taking their major exams this year. It is heartening to note from the Minister's speech that to alleviate these students' stress and revision loads, the common last topics for PSLE, GCE "N", "O", "A" levels, will be removed.
I also understand from what the Minister had shared earlier in relation to strengthening the social-emotional skills amongst our students, the CCE curriculum on mental health literacy has been introduced for lower secondary levels and it is in the midst of reviewing for Primary schools. In this aspect, I wish to suggest or recommend that, perhaps, it is the right juncture to consider implementing it, for a start, for our Primary 6 students onwards and also involving their parents' participation.
I recall during a motivational talk which I conducted last year in my capacity as a school advisory chairman – I have been doing such talks for the past few years for Primary 6 students – unlike the previous batches, this batch of students looked pretty worried. I observed that some of them were in tears and worrying that they might disappoint their parents as a result of the less desirable results that they may get from their final-year examinations.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will definitely take on Ms Hany Soh's suggestions for us to see how we can implement earlier the revision to the CCE curriculum for the upper Primary level first.
Ms Hazel Poa.
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. This incident, as well as the incident at SJI, has thrown the spotlight on the importance of mental health.
Last year, the number of suicides among boys aged 10 to 19 was at a record high. I echo Mr Patrick Tay's call, which the Minister did not specifically address, and urge the Minister to consider implementing measures to regularly and systematically monitor the mental well-being of our students, like how we monitor their academic achievements and physical fitness. This can be in the form of questionnaires that measure stress level, anxiety and depression. I understand from mental health professionals that such questionnaires are already available. The outcome of these questionnaires will allow us to proactively reach out to students who need help. Without measurement, we act and react with a blindfold.
The second question that I have is based on earlier exchanges. There is recognition that the workload on our teachers is heavy. Such being the case, why is the enrolment at NIE dropping?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will respond to Ms Hazel Poa's two points.
First, yes, today, we do track our students' mental health. It may not be through the survey that she mentioned. We will certainly take a look at the kind of surveys possible. I want to highlight one point from what we understand. Surveys, questionnaires can be helpful, but beyond looking at trends, I think we need to build a relationship of trust that can allow our youths to seek help. It is not just measurement alone that we should be concerned with. What is perhaps even more important is to build that trust, that relationship, that allows, encourages and not impede our people seeking help. So, we will do both in this.
Second, we will continue to recruit teachers based on the cohort requirement. At the same time, the way we are structuring the work in the school now is that there are teachers, there are also teacher-counsellors, there are also counsellors and there are also operational managers, admin managers, so that certain people specialise in certain functions, rather than exactly like what was suggested that, perhaps, many, many years ago, that we would put all this workload – from administration to operations to teaching to counselling – all on the shoulders of our teachers.
The NIE numbers do not reflect the overall support structure that we are putting in place to execute the various operations in the schools, including the teaching and the social-emotional health monitoring of our students.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. In my Meet-the-People sessions (MPS), I do encounter a few cases of requests or school transfers where parents, who have children studying in the so-called more competitive schools, find their child unable to cope with the pressures or unable to fit into the school environment. So, their child's emotional well-being, the learning developments are all affected.
Can I ask the Minister if MOE can be more sympathetic to such requests to facilitate transfers? I know there will be some administrative arrangements, the matching of the request to the places in the schools and there is also a transition programme needed. But the change of environment could be what the child needs to reset and to start afresh.
Mr Deputy Speaker. Sir, two responses to Mr Liang Eng Hwa's question and comment. First, I would like to reassure Mr Liang Eng Hwa that we will certainly look at all requests for transfer of school sympathetically, compassionately, especially if it helps us to improve the well-being of the child. The well-being of the child is our foremost consideration in enabling parents to help their child find a more suitable environment.
Which then comes to the second point I want to make and this is key. I think all of us, in our MPS, would have come across parents who desire their children to go to a certain school: sometimes, a school nearby for logistic reasons; sometimes, a school that is deemed to be more popular. I always have this advice and suggestion for the parents who appeal for their children to go to some school, sometimes quite far away, but perhaps deemed to be a more popular school, and my suggestion is this: in choosing a school for our children, we must all try to start from the perspective of the child. Every child has different strengths and weaknesses. Every child has different potential. Our job as parents is to help our children realise their potential; for them to go to an environment where they can feel confident and comfortable developing their potential, finding their footing.
And it is always very sad, very sad, to see a child come home from school without any sparkle in the eye, that they are just being made to feel that they are living up to someone else's expectations on them and it destroys the confidence of the child.
So, it is important for us all to remember that the best gifts that we can give to our children is to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses, be confident, be comfortable with who they are, as they find their footing in this uncertain world. It is not to live up to the expectations of someone else or it is not to be constantly measured according to someone else's yardstick.
We all want to nudge our children, we all want to stretch them a bit, as part of their development process and there is nothing wrong with that. But we all need to be careful that we do not inadvertently erode the confidence of the child or, worse, to destroy the sense of curiosity and desire to learn in a child because they are not in an environment that they are comfortable with. Not all children are the competitive type. Some perform well in a competitive environment, others perform well in a more nurturing environment. And it is best for us to start from the basis of our child's interest first.
Yes, I thank the Members for their interest in this important topic. I hope to close the debate at 2.45 pm. I call for four more clarifications. Mr Gerald Giam.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to express, as a parent of young children, including a 13-year-old, my deepest sympathies to the family of the 13-year-old student and the River Valley High School community.
Sir, it is important that mental health services are easily accessible to students. Can I ask if the school counsellor is a dedicated resource or also an educator with teaching responsibilities?
Second, can schools schedule all students to have a short meeting with the school counsellor at least once? This will dispel the mystery and stigma of seeing a counsellor and will be similar to how all students are scheduled to see the school dentist regularly.
And, lastly, regarding school security. Can the Minister confirm that all classrooms can be locked from the inside and students, including very young Primary school students, are taught how to do so? This is so that attackers will not be able to easily enter classrooms where students are hiding.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the first clarification for Mr Gerald Giam, I have mentioned that we have teacher-counsellors and we have school counsellors. School counsellors are dedicated counsellors who have no teaching responsibilities. Teacher-counsellors are teachers with teaching responsibilities but we reduce the teaching load on the teachers so that we can have them take on some counselling responsibilities.
At this point in time, every school has at least one school counsellor; some have more because of their higher needs. In total, in the system today, we have trained more than 1,000 but we have deployed about 700 of them as teacher-counsellors because part of it is the posting cycle. We want to reach a deployment of 1,000, which means we would have to train much more than 1,000 in order to deploy 1,000 teacher-counsellors.
On the second clarification, at this point in time, we are in the process of updating the security infrastructure for all of our schools. A lot of them are done in tandem with school renovation under the PRIME programme. Today, at this point in time, not all schools have classrooms where they can lock from the inside. The newer schools, those which have undergone the upgrading programme or the renovation programme, have already done this. We will progressively do so for the remaining schools.
For those schools that have yet to have this type of doors installed, the teachers and the students are also taught the drill to barricade themselves, working with what they have at this point in time.
Mr Alex Yam
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his Statement.
I think the Minister's Statement was very reassuring in terms of the number of counsellors and the number of students that have come forward. I lived through a somewhat similar incident in school almost two and a half decades ago. My best friend took his own life and, until today, for all of us who were in the class, we do not know what happened. There was no counsellor. All that happened was we received a phone call that morning; we came to school; our form teacher spoke to us; we went to the wake; we went home; and that was it. Quite a number of us were affected for a long period of time.
So, I am very heartened that the Minister has shared the numbers and the experience for this particular incident. I understand that there are currently about 700 school counsellors, teacher-counsellors and we hope to deploy 1,000 in the next few years.
The second clarification has to do with this impression that when you talk about education in Singapore, the word "stress" accompanies it at all levels. In the last few weeks, parents were stressed because they were applying for school admissions. That process has evolved over the years, but as you listen to parents, you find that stress still comes up very often. When I talk to my peers as well as to residents, their comments are often also about stress in school.
I always recall one of my earliest bosses saying that stress is good because it tells you that you are alive. But more often than not, I think we are in a society where we tend to ignore somewhat the pressures of stress and how it builds up over time.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me first touch on the topic of equipping our teachers. Our current system of equipping our teachers comprises the following levels.
First, in pre-service training at NIE, we equip all our trainee teachers with the basic modules of how to help their students by building a relationship of trust so that the students can confide in their teachers if they need help; how to look out for tell-tale signs whereby a student might be distressed, either in school or via events outside school. So, this is the baseline emotional well-being literacy that we seek to share with all our teachers, so that we have a baseline to work with.
Once the teachers are in service, some of them will volunteer and some of them will be identified to take on additional training to become teacher-counsellors. So, if you can imagine, instead of teaching two subjects, they may reduce the load on teaching two subjects or reduce to even one subject but they take on additional responsibilities within the school to help in the counselling services provided by the school. So, that is the next level of training for our teachers, where they will have greater depth of training in how they can intervene to help students in distress. They will also be equipped to see how they can work with parents because working with parents is key to this whole journey of ours to provide the best support for them.
Then, at the next level, there are two ways which we identify school counsellors. School counsellors, as explained, do not have teaching responsibilities. They are full-time counsellors in the school. If you like, the equivalent of this is the orientation officer in Basic Military Training (BMT) where his job is to make sure that people settle in well.
There are two ways which we can try to recruit full-time counsellors. One, as part of the wider community of people who are interested in full-time counselling. These could be fresh entrants, fresh graduates, or these could be mid-career people who want to do a career switch. That is what we consider from the external system to reinforce the school counselling community. There are also occasions whereby some educators, having been in the system for a while, decide to dedicate time to do full-time counselling. That is where we will re-role them into full-time school counselling duties. So, this is how we build up the community of support.
Having said that, what we can do within the MOE system is also part of a larger whole-of-society system, where MOH and MSF also come into play, so that, together, we build a community of support with different capacities at different levels to allow us to apply the appropriate help to the individuals in distress.
If I may move on to the second issue of stress, yes, we agree with Mr Alex Yam that, in any system, there will be some amount of stress. Too little, it does not stretch our people sufficiently. Too much, it might break our people. Where is the optimal point is a careful calibration that we must do judiciously and study consciously in every step as we evolve our education system.
But how to reduce stress at the aggregate? I will be saying more of this to the school community in this year's workplan seminar, but I just want to raise two points for consideration, for all of us, so that we can perhaps think about this and, in our own way, help to carry this message.
The first is this: the definition of success. It is already hard enough for our young people to try to excel and do better than what they had done yesterday. That constant striving for excellence, in itself, is a positive stress for them to aspire to achieve more. But we must be very careful. You must be very careful that this strife for excellence to better themselves does not turn into a situation where the definition of success is dictated in someone else's image; that it is an incessant and unrelenting comparison with somebody else. So, this is one dimension.
The second dimension which we believe in MOE and which I hope to share from my previous experience in NTUC and MTI with the school communities, is this: remember that we have a broad definition of success. It is not just only about academics. People do well in life across many dimensions and we all do not have to go after the same yardstick. We all can strike out in our own ways, contributing in different capacities to the development of our nation.
I would like to just share one story I learned from the Israelis. They also have a National Service system. They also very often have their people going on what they call a "gap year" or some "gap months" after their National Service for both boys and girls before they perhaps enter universities or go on to work. One Israeli told me that they have a very common question that they would ask amongst themselves: what do they do during the gap year or gap months?
They like to ask this question. It is not where my friends have been to and, therefore, I want to go. They ask this question: where have my friends not been to? And I will want to go and explore the place and bring back something different for my country and my society.
This struck me and left a deep impression on me because it tells me that this nation is not all going after the same definition of success. They all believe in that diversity of ideas that can come from all around the world, that they would travel to different parts of the world to try to learn something new, something different, something that will enrich their society, something that will allow them to distinguish themselves, something that will allow them to cross-pollinate ideas and create new ideas.
I thought it is a powerful idea. I thought if all of us can take a leaf from this, we will be a much more resilient society with diverse capabilities and perhaps much less stress in all trying to pursue the same objective. Those are my two humble suggestions for consideration.
Mr Dennis Tan.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. My heart goes out to the parents and family members of the two children at the heart of the incident. Sir, may I seek the Minister's assurance that sufficient psychological support is being offered and given to the parents and family members of the two children?
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to assure Mr Dennis Tan that the well-being of the two affected families is uppermost on our minds as well. So, we are, indeed, extending our care and support to the two families.
Last clarification, Mr Darryl David.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. As a parent of two young children – my son is 13 years old – my heart broke when I heard the news on Monday. It is still, in a way, breaking. So, my sincere condolences to the families who have been affected by this. I do not think we can say that we understand how you feel because we do not; but our prayers and thoughts are with you during this difficult moment.
I would like to take a moment, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, to also send a note of support to our educators who are also mostly affected by this incident. I have been an educator for 20 years and, very early on in my education career, one of my students passed on. When that happens to you, you have a troubled young man and his challenges, it is not something you forget very easily and, for a while, you are stuck between the two torments of "if only" and "what if".
It took us all a while to get through that.
So, I am heartened to hear the Minister say that there is support being provided right now for our educators who are affected by this. Because, as we have heard, our educators are very much more than just imparters of knowledge. They are caregivers, they are sometimes surrogate parents, they are older brothers, they are uncles, aunts and so on and so forth. So, I would like to just tell all our educators right now, especially those who are affected by this incident, thank you for all the good work that you have done and that you, no doubt, will continue to do and we all stand in solidarity with you.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I know it is the final clarification for this afternoon, I thank you for that privilege. When this incident first happened, I think many people were asking the questions: how did it happen, how could it have happened? We heard the matter being debated and clarified quite extensively.
My question is: the Minister had talked about a whole-of-society approach and the Minister used the phrase "communal safety net". I think the message the Minister was giving was that everybody has to work together collectively in this. I would like to ask the Minister if he can advise or comment if there is some way that all of us, as a community – parents, students, community leaders, policymakers – and I know this question sounds very naïve, but what can we do to ensure that something like this does not happen again? I would appreciate if the Minister could provide some guidance in that area.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Darryl David for his comment and question. Mr Darryl David's final question is a very important one. How do we minimise the chance of this ever happening again? And perhaps, we should start on the premise that this can happen again, but the chances of this happening again will be much diminished if we all come together to support one another. If we all can take small steps to look out for our younger ones, to give them a listening ear, to help them grow up in their own ways, find their footing; if all of us, as parents, can come together and give our children the assurance and the confidence that we believe in them, trust them and love them in spite of, so that our children will grow up confident in themselves and confident that, in any setback, they will have someone beside them.
We can all come together as a community to spread the message that we should not stigmatise anyone who is in distress. That it takes courage for people to come forward to seek help. That we will not ostracise them and we will still accept them as who they are.
It takes all of us to look out for one another to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again. At the individual level, at the school level, at the family level, at the community level. It takes all of us to build that caring and nurturing environment that seeks to build up our people rather than to tear them down. It is our responsibility as adults to lend our shoulders to the next generation to stand taller, see further and have greater confidence to pursue their dreams in their own ways.
Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I may conclude today's sharing with a poignant story that has been etched in my mind since last Monday when I visited River Valley High School in the aftermath of the incident.
I saw two things. When I first arrived in the school, Mrs Teo, the Principal, received me. I knew she was in pain. She was in pain, not just physically but emotionally. Then, I saw the teachers. They were also in pain and in shock. But none of them thought about their own pain, shock or grief. They were all busy running around, making sure that each and every child under their charge was well taken care of first. They did not even have time to think about themselves nor grieve. Such is the dedication of our educators.
And the final incident that I would like to share with this House. I spoke with some of the students while they were waiting to be interviewed by the Police. Some of them were the classmates of the 16-year-old. Amidst their pain and their confusion as to what had happened, how it could have happened, two of them told me the same thing, separately. They just had one simple request for me. They told me, "Minister, please help our friend, the 16-year-old. Please take care of him." They know it is a cry for help.
In that moment of darkness, I saw grace, I saw compassion, I saw solidarity amongst the students and staff of River Valley High School. The way they carried themselves, the way they responded to the incident, will be etched in my mind forever. And it is they who will inspire us to do all we can for the next generation, for the distressed members amongst us in our community, regardless of age. That we will do our utmost so that this incident will never be repeated. Let us work together on that. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. [Applause.]
Order. End of the Ministerial Statement. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.
PAPERCUTS