Debated in Parliament on 3 Nov 2014.
Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Education (a) what are the considerations adopted by schools when engaging external vendors for enrichment workshops; (b) whether schools are able to conduct such workshops using their own teachers or resources; and (c) whether schools have appropriate feedback policies when receiving feedback from their students on such workshops.
Mdm Speaker, schools conduct enrichment activities to broaden the school's curriculum according to the different needs and interests of their students. The type and frequency of enrichment activities may vary according to the students' needs. For example, schools may offer enrichment activities in the areas of self-management and social skills, sports and fitness, aesthetics and enterprise. These activities help to develop 21st century competencies in our students, such as communication, leadership and collaborative skills.
Schools engage vendors to conduct some of these workshops when there is value in tapping on the external expertise of those with requisite professional training or relevant life experiences, to complement the teachers' role. For instance, to promote an active lifestyle and a love of sports in students, external trained personnel are engaged to conduct enrichment programmes aimed at exposing students to specialised sports, such as
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rollerblading and kayaking.
MOE provides schools with guidelines to assess the suitability of external vendors and the basket of criteria include their ability to deliver the programme objectives and their qualifications and experience. Schools may subsequently have the teachers conduct the enrichment programmes and workshops when they have built up their own expertise in the defined area or they may continue to use external vendors.
Students' feedback is sought on vendor-run enrichment programmes and workshops, usually through evaluation forms filled in by students. Teachers also conduct a review and reflection session with the students. Students' feedback and comments enable the school to evaluate the effectiveness of the enrichment programme and consider whether to engage the vendor for future programmes.
MOE will continue to work with schools to ensure that school programmes, including those run by vendors, remain relevant to the needs of our students.
I have received feedback from teachers who said that, if they are asked to conduct such enrichment classes, they are concerned about how the school would manage the feedback. Because if students are unhappy with the way the teachers conduct their enrichment workshops, then the teacher does not want to have to face the publicity of adverse social media reports and face embarrassment of having to deal with the students. May I ask the Minister what better way can we encourage students to go back to the school to provide feedback instead of publicising it on social media platforms?
I thank Mr Lim for his supplementary question. First, our teachers conduct a wide range of classes, including what they have to do in academic lessons, as well as in CCA. Indeed, there is a feedback mechanism even for existing classes. In terms of your question about social media, we discourage students from providing comments on social media on this because there is an existing channel for students to provide their feedback to the teachers to see how the classes can continue to be improved.
I thank the Minister for the clarifications earlier. The Minister alluded to the fact that we could always get feedback in terms of evaluating such courses. However, in recent times, we also had complaints where certain vendors – NGOs or from certain religious organisations – have also conducted such enrichment classes. In such cases, what is the vetting process put in place by the Ministry? For example, some kids may not know better where there are certain nuances or biasness in terms of some of the courses that are carried out.
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I mentioned earlier on that when schools engage external vendors for the programmes, there is a set of guidelines which MOE has issued to the schools. Schools will use these guidelines to evaluate the vendors in the first instance and then there is a selection process. In the selection process, schools may interview potential instructors, look into the background of these instructors, obtain feedback from other schools or organisations that have previously engaged the potential instructors or even request a lesson observation.
There is a set of procedures in place for us to evaluate the vendors before even engaging them and then there is a process of getting feedback from students to make sure that the programme achieves its objectives.
PAPERCUTS