Leveraging SG Arts Plan to Emphasise Importance of Arts Education

Mr Terence Ho Wee San asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what can the SG Arts Plan do to emphasise the importance of arts education not only for the purpose of grooming artists, but also for the creation of arts ambassadors, audiences, patrons, collectors and future chairmen/board members of arts and cultural agencies.

Speaker, strengthening arts education is an important component of the National Arts Council’s (NAC's) Our SG Arts Plan launched in October 2018. Not only does early exposure to the arts nurture creative thinking and help our children develop empathy and confidence, it also paves the way for arts appreciation and participation to be a way of life for them as they grow up. Therefore, strong arts education programmes will produce many future arts supporters and audiences, patrons, collectors, art ambassadors and leaders of arts and cultural organisations.

Together with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, NAC works closely with partners from the public, private and people sectors to enhance opportunities for our young people to engage with the arts. Some examples include initiatives like the NAC’s Artist-in-School Scheme, where arts professionals work with schools, including preschools, on specialised workshops or courses.

Ninety-eight percent of the Ministry of Education (MOE) schools participate in NAC’s Arts Education Programme (NAC-AEP) which aims to build broad appreciation of the arts and deepen knowledge. In 2016, over 3,000 NAC-AEP programmes were taken up by schools.

In 2018, museum-based learning was incorporated as one of the core learning experiences for Primary 4 students in MOE's primary arts syllabus. NAC also piloted a performing arts-based learning experience for lower secondary students in 2017, where over 5,000 students attended a concert programme which included pre- and post-concert learning.

The School of the Arts (SOTA) provides an immersive learning environment to realise students' artistic and academic potential. SOTA is working to broaden access to its high-quality educational experience to artistically inclined youths from all walks of life. While not all graduates from SOTA become practitioners, many go on to work in other professional fields while remaining strong supporters of, and volunteer their time in, our arts scene.

At the tertiary level, our universities and arts institutions, such as the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts, offer both undergraduate and postgraduate arts-related courses.

As part of Our SG Arts Plan, NAC will build on existing efforts to, first, further support arts educators and instructors to improve the quality of arts education; second, grow research to explore the impact of early exposure to the arts to improve programmes; third, continue to increase access to the arts; fourth, deepen its engagement with schools and nurture distinctive schools in the arts; and fifth, support early childhood arts education.