Adjournment Motion

Mr Speaker, I stand today to talk with you about schools, education and learning.

Mr Speaker, as noted by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong just last month in his National Day Rally speech, and I quote: “All parents want the best for their children and in Singapore all parents place great emphasis on education. It is truly the most important gift that we give to our young.” The Prime Minister went on to outline a vision for a refreshed education sector, one that recognises and rewards individual differences and preferences.

Mr Speaker, I commend the Government's vision and commitment to educational excellence and I hope that my comments today contribute to these discussions.

Mr Speaker, before I outline my vision for the future, I would like to take a moment to tell you about Chesterton’s Fence. As some of you may recall, GK Chesterton was an English author and philosopher. Mr Chesterton was born in 1874 and died in 1936, and among his many contributions to public policy was the notion of the Chesterton Fence.

To explain, I will quote Mr Chesterton himself: "Chesterton's Fence is the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.”

Mr Speaker, let us imagine that there is a fence or gate erected across a road. As Chesterton writes: “The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’”

This principle reminds us to understand the purpose and value of existing ways of doing things before making changes. It is unwise to rush towards change for change sake, as there are frequently very good reasons for doing things a certain way, even if those reasons have long been forgotten. In making change, it is important to preserve what is beneficial and innovate only where necessary.

Mr Speaker, Singapore has a strong history of acting consistently with Chesterton’s Fence and it is with this principle in mind that I stand today to reimagine our education sector.

Before I progress, I should declare that I am currently employed at Singapore University of Social Sciences and have worked as an educator in one way or another for over 20 years.

Mr Speaker, Singapore’s schools are already among the best in the world. On many international and domestic metrics, our children leave school with an exceptional education, and well equipped to handle the challenges and excitement of modern life. So, to all the teachers, counsellors and ancillary staff out there who may be listening, thank you for everything you do. Your commitment to the teaching, education and well-being of our children is noticed and welcomed across Singapore. Mr Speaker, in Malay.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] To all teachers, your commitment to the teaching, education and well-being of our children is noticed and welcomed across Singapore.

(In English): And, in Tamil.

(In Tamil): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] To all teachers, thank you very much for your dedication.

(In English): Mr Speaker, I would also like to reassure everyone that my vision is not about doing more, it is about doing different. And in doing different, we must ensure that those working in schools and across the sector are provided with the training, supervision, support and time needed to do their job.

Mr Speaker, I will now outline my vision for the future of education in Singapore; what I see over and beyond some of the current fences. In doing so, I will first discuss some of the qualitative characteristics of an effective education system, followed by a summary of several quantitative indicators that could potentially be used to measure successful implementation of those characteristics.

Mr Speaker, my vision does not dismantle the first-rate work done to date by the Ministry of Education (MOE) but supplements it. We can always do things better and differently and Singapore has never shied away from such a challenge. I should also note that many of the issues I am about to highlight have previously been identified by Members of this Parliament and other commentators, including Prime Minister Wong in his National Day Rally speech. So, I am, as they say, standing on the shoulder of giants.

Mr Speaker, in my reimagined world, schools will be child-centred, inclusive, trauma-informed and individualised. Schools will give equal attention to the physical, emotional, social and intellectual health, and well-being of children. Children will no longer be assessed or judged by a mark or a grade, but by their personal progress towards individualised goals.

We will actively encourage and support children to pursue studies and careers of personal passion, interest and emotional reward; and not those imposed externally by families, friends or society. Critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and adaptability will be seen as core skills for children, alongside reading, writing, spelling and other more traditional subjects. Arts and humanities will be of equal personal and academic value as other technical subjects and schools will be sufficiently resourced to enable children to successfully pursue and graduate in those subjects.

Education and learning will be seen as a shared and equal responsibility between schools, parents and children. Children will feel safe, welcome and happy at school; and schools will have safeguarding policies and procedures that are co-designed between schools, parents and children.

Mr Speaker, school and learning, will be a source of delight and wonder. Not stress, distress or anxiety. Now that I have described what a school of the future might look like, how will we know when we get there?

Mr Speaker, we will have moved away from our current reliance on formal examination. We will recognise that examinations suit some children, but not all children; and that a low mark or, indeed, any mark in an examination is not always a valid or reliable indicator of a child's immediate or long-term capacity.

We will, instead, employ a suite of continuous assessment methodologies that recognise that children learn and demonstrate proficiency and delight in their learning, in many different ways. We will no longer stream children primarily on academic performance, but will, instead, recognise the unique and individual strengths of each child and will focus on assisting children to transition seamlessly into a school and class of choice.

We will not talk about gifted children but instead, consider that all children are gifted in different ways. Homework will be an exception rather than the rule, with the bulk of the school curriculum being successfully taught within school hours. Out-of-school tutoring will no longer be the norm, with children having individualised, in-school learning plans that provide them with what they need and want academically, socially and emotionally.

Children will return home from school to play with their siblings, friends and family; not to focus predominantly on study or training. Weekends will be an opportunity for families to spend time together playing at home or in the park, going for walks, watching movies, visiting galleries or just talking with each other; not rushing from appointment to appointment.

School holidays will be exactly as the term suggests: a holiday. Children will put away their schoolbooks and do what children are supposed to be doing: learning through play. Children will attend their school of choice, and all schools will provide children access to the same level and quality of services and facilities.

Teachers will have work hours, a workload and work environment that actively promotes and protects job satisfaction, positive mental health and personal well-being. Children with disabilities or with complex and challenging behaviours, will be safely and respectfully included into mainstream schools, to be educated alongside their peers. Social status and privilege will play no part in a child's access to school nor the child's success at school.

We will recognise that the level of stress, distress and anxiety currently experienced by many children, often because of performance or assessment obligations and expectations, is unhealthy, unnecessary and counterproductive. And Mr Speaker, we will, as a nation and a community, do everything we can to ensure that all children are valued for who they are as people and not because of their background, family, ability, school, grade or career.

Mr Speaker, in the final section of my speech, I will discuss next steps. I have identified the destination, so I will now explore the journey.

Mr Speaker, Singapore has a history of implementing change when change is needed and I hope that my speech today will assist to shift the conceptualisation of schools, education and learning and to encourage an appetite for change.

Mr Speaker, the education sector comprises multiple stakeholders, each of which play a role in creating and sustaining the current status quo and each of which have a role in change. These stakeholders include the Government, the community, the business sector, the media, schools, teachers, parents and, of course, children themselves.

Each stakeholder has their own fence: their own perspectives, preferences and agendas; and system-wide reform is more effective with the participation and endorsement of all. We need to ask everyone about their fences before we remove them or build new ones.

Mr Speaker, the current status quo in our education sector is sustained by multiple co-dependent relationships. For example, parents push their children hard and focus on academic outcomes because the commonly held notion among Singaporeans that grades, rankings and certificates are all important. Singaporeans take this stance because that is the way it has always been done. It has served us well in the past.

Schools, therefore, maintain a system where education and assessment is competitive, comparative and task orientated. The whole cycle feeds on itself and none of the stakeholders want to be the first to change.

Mr Speaker, first and foremost, our journey of change must be fuelled by engagement and dialogue. All of the stakeholders mentioned above need to be on the same page. We need to build a common understanding and a common purpose, and this can only be achieved by meaningful and ongoing consultation. If we expect, for example, parents and schools to focus more on a child's happiness and well-being than their grades, we need to create a broader ecosystem where grades and outcomes are not such an all-important factor.

We need to create and build new common fence.

Mr Speaker, this is where the Government comes in. We are well-placed to take a leadership role in facilitating meaningful engagement and dialogue with all relevant stakeholders.

Mr Speaker, sitting alongside community engagement is expert advice. Community-wide conversations and input is critical. However, we also need to be informed by contemporary best-practice. One way to facilitate this would be to establish a multi-disciplinary advisory group, whose task is to research and collate innovative practice within the education sector both domestically and internationally. Such a group would need to comprise representatives from the Government, the business and community sectors, academics, schools, parents, health professionals, social workers and psychologists and, of course, students.

Mr Speaker, another piece of the puzzle is community education. Singaporeans are smart people and if we want them to think or do things differently, we need to clearly explain why. We need to make available to all stakeholders the evidence that a reformed education sector will not cause the sky to fall. In fact, it will lead to better outcomes for everyone, including, most importantly, our children.

If we expect stakeholders to shift their perspectives, to lower their fences, we need to provide evidence that there is a different, more contemporary and effective way of doing things.

Mr Speaker, this is, again, where the Government comes in. Along with meaningful stakeholder engagement, we are also well-placed to develop and implement community-wide education campaigns.

Southeast Asians and Singaporeans see the world in a unique way. This is a good thing. Many of us have deeply held and long-standing sociocultural attitudes, values and beliefs, including attitudes, values and beliefs about childhood, education, parenting and work. Our way of life has served us well and Singapore is an internationally renowned success because of how we see and do things.

In reimaging education, it is essential that we do not dismantle necessary or precious fences. We do not want Singapore to be like the West nor to disregard our heritage. As we move forward, we need to bring each of Singapore's cultural communities with us and actively engage with them to safely and respectfully examine current perspectives and practices and explore new ones.

Mr Speaker, one of the strongest indicators of educational success is parental engagement. Children of parents who are actively involved in their child's learning and school community have better educational outcomes. By working closely with the school and broader community and seeking support when needed, parents can assist and equip their children with the skills needed to contribute positively to society and to be part of a forward-thinking environment.

Mr Speaker, parents also play an important role in shaping the choices their children make, including their choices about education. In undertaking this role, it is important that parents encourage and support their children to explore multiple opportunities and interests and to balance traditional academic success with personal satisfaction and emotional well-being. Balancing these competing demands can be difficult but is achievable when schools, parents and children work together in partnership and when the Government does its part to ensure that parents and families are sufficiently resourced and supported to focus on their children.

Mr Speaker, once we have engaged with all stakeholders and we created a shared understanding of a new way, we need to document our vision and how we intend to get there. An across-Government roadmap for change is one way to achieve this. Let us publicise and promote our agenda for change and put in place key indicators to monitor and assess our progress.

Mr Speaker, I will now conclude with some comments about restorative justice.

Restorative justice has been of professional and academic interest to me for many years. The four principles that underpin restorative justice – respect, responsibility, reintegration and restoration – are highly relevant to the education sector and to effective teaching and learning.

For example, schools need to be places, where children are respected and where they valued and supported in all aspects of their education and learning. Schools also need to be places, where children are encouraged and allowed to take responsibility for their actions, including their behaviour, goals and learning.

We need to provide individualised, multi-tiered systems of support to ensure that all children can be reintegrated back into the school community if and when they start to disengage or fall behind. We need to create cohesive environments that are based on the concept of restoration and repair, not coercion and punishment when harm is done.

Mr Speaker, at the heart of the four principles is the notion of relationships. Schools have to be places where teachers have the time, space, resources, qualifications and desire to build and maintain respectful, effective and individualised relationships with every child. All children in all schools need to be and to feel known by their school and teachers.

Mr Speaker, it is only when children feel seen, known, safe and welcomed at school, that they will be in a position to learn what they want and need to learn. And that, Mr Speaker, is what education is all about.

Mr Speaker, Sir, we thank Assoc Prof Razwana Begum for her work as an educator, her support for our education system and our educators, and for sharing her aspirations.

As we evolve our education system for a better tomorrow, we must remember that good outcomes depend critically on good educators who can implement our ideas consistently and with conviction. Let me share our key beliefs that have shaped and will continue to guide our approach to education in the coming years.

First, our success is not defined by academic results attained in the first 15 years in school. More importantly, it is defined by our contributions in the next 50 years beyond our schools, where we continue to possess the joy of learning and the DNA to strive for excellence in diverse domains.

This starts with building a love of learning in the early years as our children explore the world and develop their bilingual, mathematics and critical thinking foundations.

In their schooling years, we will provide students with porous and diverse pathways and give them opportunities to grow their potential. This means that no single test should determine a student's future and not every topic taught needs to be tested.

For example, we are allowing students to count their fourth content-based A-level subject for admission to our Autonomous Universities only if it improves their University Admission Score from 2026 and to count one G2 subject for admission to Polytechnic Year 1 from 2028. With changes like these, we hope to shift towards a mindset of learning and growth instead of an exam-oriented mindset.

Beyond the schooling years, we will invest in our people throughout life, with SkillsFuture as a key pillar of our social compact.

We recently enhanced investments in our SkillsFuture programmes – from the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme to the JobSeeker Support scheme and training allowances for mid-career upgraders. All these allow our people to seize opportunities to stay relevant and secure good jobs that offer dignity, respect and financial sufficiency.

Second, we recognise that our people have strengths in diverse areas. These talents can manifest across time rather than at any single pre-determined point in life.

So, we must resist the temptation to "teach to the average" of a child or a class. We must cater to different learning needs of our children, across different life stages and provide porous systems for our children to develop at their own pace. We have improved our system over the years to allow students to customise their education at a finer level.

For example, Full Subject-based Banding now allows students to customise their learning in individual subjects instead of keeping to one pace across all subjects.

We have enhanced our curriculum support for Special Education schools to improve their ability to cater to students with a range of special education needs. There are Special Needs Officers at all primary schools to better support students with mild to moderate needs who can access mainstream education.

The recently announced changes to the Gifted Education Programme and Higher Mother Tongue Language eligibility criteria in Secondary 1 will provide more opportunities to stretch our students in specific areas of strength. These moves also offer more opportunities for students to interact with peers of different profiles.

Our school landscape and admissions system recognise students' diverse strengths and abilities rather than purely academic performance. For those with particular talents and aptitudes, we have Specialised Independent Schools – School of the Arts, NUS High School, Singapore Sports School and Singapore School of Science and Technology.

Aptitude-based admissions and Direct School Admission provide opportunities for students to pursue studies based on potential and interest and broaden their access to diverse education pathways.

We share similar aspirations as the Member to provide each child with a customised learning journey based on his or her individual strengths and abilities. This is why we keep innovating and leveraging technology, including artificial intelligence, data science and the science of learning, to break the conventional education system trilemma of achieving quality at scale, speed and affordability.

Through these efforts, we are striving towards mass customisation to free ourselves from the mindset that quality education is determined by class size alone. In fact, studies have shown that the quality of teachers is most important in determining the outcomes of education.

Third, trust and professional respect for educators must be the foundation of our system. This will determine our society's ability to attract the best and most committed teachers, which then determines our education outcomes.

Without good teachers, even the best education policies will have limited impact. Our teachers undergo years of rigorous training to do their work as professionals. They pour their hearts out to bring out the best in our children, often going above and beyond the call of duty.

This is why MOE is stepping up efforts for our teachers' personal growth and professional development by (a) investing in educational technology to support our teachers' pedagogical practices, alleviate their workload and enable them to deliver customised teaching; (b) supporting our teachers' well-being through curated resources, workshops and counselling services; and (c) even redesigning staff rooms and workspaces to better meet their professional needs, as recently announced by the Prime Minister at the National Day Rally.

But respect for teachers must come not just from MOE. I seek everyone's support to respect and trust our teachers to do their jobs and to work with our teachers to support our children's learning and upbringing.

Fourth, we agree with the Member that strong partnerships are essential for our students to learn for life. This is why we established the MOE Partnerships Engagement Office last year, to rally partners – industry, parents, community, experts – to collaborate with schools to create authentic learning opportunities for students and for us to leverage on the whole-of-society capabilities to provide the best for our children.

The Member may be pleased to know that we will strengthen these partnerships, especially with the industry: to inspire younger students and shape their interests early and to help our adult learners keep up to date with industry changes by co-designing, co-developing and co-delivering modules with our institutes of higher learning.

But our most important partners are our parents. We all want the best for our children, but the best may not mean the most popular school. Instead, we should ask which school will bring out the best version of our children so that they will learn to surpass themselves in life instead of trying to surpass others in an exam and to have confidence in their abilities instead of comparing with others to determine their self-worth.

All of us – parents, educators and public – must evolve our mindsets to complement the structural and policy changes that we are making.

Mr Speaker, we can never fully know what the future holds. We cannot and should not try to remove all uncertainties and difficulties that our children face. Each and every setback is also a learning opportunity for our children to build resilience.

Even as we enhance our education system, we must be careful to not over-structure, over-provide or over-protect. Instead, we must retain space for our children to try, fail, take responsibility and bounce back from setbacks. Only then can they learn to embrace untidiness and thrive amidst uncertainties – the only things that we can be certain that the future will hold.

Finally, I would like to thank Assoc Prof Razwana and all Members of the House, our partners, parents and teachers for their close partnership to support our children's development. MOE is committed to work with all partners to improve our education system so that Singapore and Singaporeans can thrive in the years and generations to come.