8 SINGAPORE NEWS
Educational
reforms key
to S’pore: PM
It brings about
system that helps
produce competent,
creative citizens
By CHUANG PECK MING
SINGAPORE’S educational
reforms have led to a sys-
tem that’s helping to pro-
duce competent and crea-
tive citizens who are lite-
rate, well-socialised and
have the makings of leaders
of tomorrow, according to
Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong.
Sharing Singapore’s ex-
perience in improving its
educational system at an in-
ternational conference of
principals yesterday, he
said that the overhaul of the
school system here in the
1990s – focusing on school
leaders and teachers – has
achieved its main goal.
The revamp has pro-
duced schools that develop
their own identities and ex-
pertise; a high standard
across all schools; a good
number of outstanding
schools; many models of
success; and students who
are well-educated, employa-
ble and socially responsi-
ble.
Mr Lee said that the key
move Singapore made was
in devolving promotions in
schools to personnel
boards made up of senior
management in the educa-
tion system. This was in tan-
dem with developments in
the entire public service.
“The move may seem
like an operational matter,
but it was in fact critical to
all the changes,” Mr Lee
said. Some of these chan-
ges include putting more re-
sources in education, buil-
ding new schools and de-
ploying technology in tea-
ching.
They also include
strengthening the educa-
tion ministry headquarters,
beefing up pay and career
prospects of teachers and
principals, creating more
training opportunities for
them and more advance-
ment possibilities.
Much of the focus was
on what could really make
a difference – encouraging
enthusiastic and dedicated
teachers led by resourceful
and passionate principals,
who are backed by high
quality staff at the HQ.
“We advanced young
and promising officers to
become heads of depart-
ments and principals,”
Mr Lee said.
He said that school lea-
ders, especially principals,
are critical to school per-
formance. “With a good
principal, the whole school
blossoms. With a bad one,
keen, idealistic young teach-
ers quickly lose their enthu-
siasm and ‘switch off’.”
Mr Lee noted that up to
1980, only 60 per cent of
each cohort completed se-
condary school. Today, the
figure is 99 per cent and,
eventually, nearly half of
the cohort obtain degrees.
He said that education is
the only sustainable basis
for prosperity and progress
– and the key priority for all
nations must be to improve
their educational systems.
To improve, Mr Lee said
that Singapore is putting
more stress now on soft
skills and less attention on
exams without giving up at-
tention to results.
Teachers must be more
competent – and thus there
will be a stronger body to
champion professional de-
velopment among teachers,
he said.
The Business Times, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
“Given our limited natu-
ral resources, our human
capital is of paramount im-
portance,” Mr Lee said.
“We have to ensure that
we teach our people the
best we can. Wherever they
graduate from, (our) stu-
dents receive a solid
grounding and education,
and gain valuable skills for
life.”
AYG a learning
ground for
Youth Olympics
By JOANNE TANG
THE Asian Youth Games
2009 (AYG) – which saw
about 1,400 athletes from
45 nations congregating in
Singapore – has officially
concluded.
At a press conference
held before the closing cere-
mony, Teo Ser Luck, Sen-
ior Parliamentary Secre-
tary for Community Devel-
opment, Youth and Sports,
and Transport, commen-
ded the Singapore Asian
Youth Games Organising
Committee (SAYGOC) on
the excellent job it has
done in spite of the many
pressures from health is-
sues, security and the pub-
lic. What’s more, it was
able to pull together the
event under budget and
time constraints.
The organising commit-
tee yesterday noted that
there were many learning
points from the AYG,
which could be applied to
make the upcoming Youth
Olympic Games (YOG) a
success.
The use of new media,
the committee found, was
an effective tool for reach-
ing out to the public. Live
streaming of the events, via
the AYG’s official website,
had attracted a lot of Inter-
net traffic – with visitors
from the Asia-Pacific to the
Middle East and even the
US.
Local pharma firm
capitalises on
Uzbek partnership
HOME-GROWN Beacons
Pharmaceuticals is among
the first companies to capi-
talise on a new partnership
between the Singapore
Manufacturers’ Federation
(SMa) and Uzbekistan’s
Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (CCIU).
A new memorandum of
understanding has created
a favourable climate to en-
courage, promote and facili-
tate economic cooperation
among business communi-
ties in the two countries.
SMa and CCIU will also
support the reciprocal ex-
change of economic infor-
mation and statistics, tech-
nical expertise, know-how
and training programmes
between Singapore and Uz-
bek companies, through
trade delegations and eco-
nomic discussions.
In fact, the partnership
ALPHONSUS CHERN/THE STRAITS TIMES
New phase:
National Institute of
Education students’
graduation ceremony;
there will be a stronger
body to champion
professional
development among
teachers, says Mr Lee
The turnout for the
event was quite mixed with
swimming, aquatics, bow-
ling and beach volleyball
drawing more crowds than
sports such as athletics
and football.
Mr Teo pointed out that
in light of the timing and
health issues, the turnout
was not too bad and that
he recalled seeing crowds
at athletics and football
events.
Nonetheless, Ng Ser
Miang, Steering Committee
chairman of SAYGOC, said
that more publicity would
have helped, but that given
the time constraint – the
committee only had about
one year to put together
the game – publicity had to
be limited to a shorter peri-
od.
The YOG should not suf-
fer from this problem as
there is a longer period of
time to plan the event.
Another area that will
be looked into for improve-
ment will be training for
the volunteers.
Looking ahead, the YOG
will differ from the AYG
greatly in terms of scale. In-
stead of just nine sports,
the YOG will have 26
sports. And unlike the
AYG, Singapore will be
playing host to some 3,600
athletes from 205 nations.
“We will spare no effort to
put up a memorable and
enriching experience for
the YOG,” said Mr Teo.
has already borne fruit.
Beacons and Uzpharmsa-
noat State Joint Stock Com-
pany – an association of
more than 70 companies
that includes pharmaceuti-
cal manufacturing and tra-
ding companies and re-
search institutes – have
signed a separate MOU to
reinforce cooperation.
“We look for business
partners all over the world.
Our partnership with Uz-
bekistan, a country with a
population of 27 million, at
the centre of central Asia,
is a good business opportu-
nity for us,” said Beacons
general manager Gwen
Goh.
The MOU is a part of
Beacons’ long-term plan to
grow trade with central
Asia, in addition to the po-
tential market in Uz-
bekistan that is sizeable in
itself.