Transcript of 2 Apr Parliament Sitting on Israel-Hamas CCE Lesson

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Hazel Poa, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether he can make public the content and materials of the Character and Citizenship Education lesson on the Israel-Hamas conflict; and (b) whether any teacher has declined to deliver a lesson and, if so, how is such a situation dealt with.

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether primary school students are being taught about the Israel-Hamas conflict, either in the Character and Citizenship Education curriculum or otherwise; (b) if so, at which levels are students taught about the conflict; and (c) how are the contents differentiated among the different levels to take into account the different maturity levels of the students.

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Sharael Taha, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) with many teachers implementing the Character and Citizenship Education lesson package, how will the Ministry ensure a safe space for students to share diverse views and arrive at their own conclusions on complex issues; and (b) how will the Ministry ensure that students realise the importance of looking at such situations through the lens of Singapore's national interests and the need to maintain our social, racial and religious harmony.

Response

1. Minister Chan Chun Sing: Mr Speaker Sir, these questions have been addressed in my response on the Character and Citizenship Education Lesson on the Israel-Hamas Conflict at MOE's Committee of Supply Debate on 4 March 2024, which can be found on MOE's website.

2. I understand that Mr Leong was absent during my speech and our subsequent discussions, while Ms Hazel Poa was around. With your permission, Mr Speaker Sir, may I ask the clerks to distribute the transcript of my response. Members may also access these materials through the MP@SGPARL App.

3. Minister Chan: Mr Speaker Sir, if I may continue. Ms Hazel Poa may refer to Paragraph 40 to 41 on making the lesson materials public and Paragraph 9, as well as 18 to 21, on the response of teachers and how we are supporting our teachers to deliver the lessons. Mr Leong Mun Wai may refer to Paragraphs 13 to 16 on how the lesson materials are customised for different levels of students. Mr Sharael Taha may refer to Paragraph 36 on how teachers ensure a safe space for discussion of such issues, and Paragraph 28 to 31 and 51 on the lesson's intent for students to learn how to maintain our racial and religious harmony.

4. Mr Leong Mun Wai: Sir, in our PQ, we did request for the Ministry to release the teaching materials for the CCE (lessons), but the Minister has replied that he will not release the slides in his reply during the COS debate. We would like to first express deep disappointment that the slides in question, which form the primary teaching resource for the CCE class, have not been released to this House or to the public.

5. My first question is, despite what the Minister has said, how is it justifiable not to release the CCE lesson slides to the public when the materials have already been imparted to our children?

6. My second question as an extension of that, can we have the Government's commitment that all teaching materials for CCE in the future, should be made available to the public so that parents will know what has been taught to their children. I have actually made an effort to go to the bookstore and got the textbook for CCE for primary 6 students. From the content of the textbook, you cannot imagine that a complex and controversial current issue, like Israel-Hamas conflict, will be taught to children. So, I urge the Government in the future to make the materials transparent and available to the public.

7. Minister Chan: Mr Speaker Sir, all three supplementary questions are related. I have made a commitment to this House during my reply. I said the following: the slides alone do not fully communicate how we teach the subject, and we welcome parents with concerns to come and see the teachers who will explain to them how the lessons are conducted. This is much better than just looking at a deck of slides without explanation, and that is our stance. This is how we intend to make available our teaching materials, including explanations to parents who are concerned.

8. Mr Sharael Taha: Mr Speaker, I do share a differing view from Mr Leong when he says that our children shouldn't be exposed to learn such topics when it's a bit more complex. I would like to thank the Minister for his clarifications that the CCE lessons are aimed at allowing students to share and receive diverse views and arrive at their own conclusions on complex issues. They are already exposed to it on social media and I am certain there will be even more complex issues in the future, which our students will be exposed to and we have to teach them how to learn to approach it in a way in which it maintains our social, religious and racial harmony in Singapore. My SQ to the Minister is given the threat of worsening geopolitical tensions, whether it is China-US tensions or for Taiwan, or for conflict against races or religion in other countries, how will the Ministry decide when the different issues will be addressed as part of the CCE lessons? Will it be useful for students to discuss these topics before the tensions are significantly heightened?

9. Minister Chan: I thank Mr Sharael Taha. Indeed, we share his views that this will not be the only sensitive, emotive issue that our students and even our population will come across in the days, weeks and years to come. And that is the reason why we feel the importance of conducting CCE lessons, to help our people understand their emotions, the diversity of perspectives within our society, help our students to learn to verify the information that they come across, that is widely available on social media, help them to understand our national priorities, positions and interests, and most importantly, help them to take constructive and positive actions for the sake of our cohesion and harmony. These are the reasons why we conduct CCE lessons.

10. So, I fully agree with Mr Sharael Taha. This may not be the one and only sensitive and emotive issue that we have to deal with in the coming years. In fact, we can fully expect as Mr Sharael Taha has mentioned, that there will be other equally, if not more challenging, circumstances that we have to deal with and allow our students a safe space to understand their emotions, grapple with the issues, verify the information they come across and to take positive actions.

11. Fundamentally in this House, we have to consider this – do we agree that this is an emotive and sensitive issue that can fray our social fabric and cohesion? Fundamentally, if we believe that, then do we agree that we have a leadership responsibility to guide our people, especially our young, to not allow this to affect our social cohesion and harmony? If we agree to both of these points, then we welcome constructive suggestions on how we can better support our teachers, principals who have stepped forward to execute this challenging task for our nation.

12. I would like to end off on this by sharing a vignette of my own sharing with my principals and CCE teachers when I personally, together with 2M Maliki, conducted the discussions with them in preparation for this module. One of my senior educators rose and reflected on this after our hour-long sharing. She asked: "Why is it that whenever something like that happens, you have to come and tell us and share with us? How long will it take for us to develop those instincts to react together as one united Singapore, that we would not be pulled apart by different forces from different directions?" It is a poignant moment. I assured her that I do not expect all my educators to be experts in foreign policies.

13. It will take us time and perhaps generations for us to reach this stage whereby we can respond as one united Singapore. But to do that, we have to first understand and appreciate that we are different, we come from different backgrounds, and we have different perspectives. While we may be different in our outlook and perspectives, we can all share the same goal to unite and not let others divide us. While we may not have a common past, we can all share a common future, with a shared sense of ethos of what it means to be Singaporean and not to be torn apart by other competing forces. As Mr Sharael Taha said, there will be many more to come, perhaps closer to home. And for members who are interested, you may want to read a recent article by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times. It talks about identity geopolitics, and how different identities threaten to pull different communities and societies apart in support of their respective causes.

14. Ms Hazel Poa: The Minister has said that instead of releasing the slides, MOE would prefer to explain directly to the parents. Can the Minister let us know how many schools have organised such dialogue sessions? Secondly, understand that the CCE materials were curated with the help of other agencies like MFA. Can I ask the Minister whether there were any prior consultations with, given the context of this issue, community and religious leaders, and prior consultations with teachers who are to deliver these lessons?

15. Minister Chan: Mr Speaker, on the first supplementary question, the offer stands. All our schools are prepared to engage parents who are concerned with the materials. And so far, some schools have received such requests. Most of them have not received these requests. For those schools that have received these requests, they have engaged the parents.

16. On the second question about consultation, yes indeed, MOE consults various stakeholders - but I think we have to be clear what we mean when we use the word "consult". Do we mean to consult to do or not to do, or to consult on the content of what to do? I can be sure, we all in this House can be sure, that in any consultation, there will be a diversity of views on whether to do or not to do it. Ultimately, consultations do not take away the leadership responsibility for us to decide what is right and necessary to do for our society and our children. So yes, we consult – but ultimately we need to make that leadership decision, and that is our responsibility.

17. Second, on whether we consult on the content, as I have said in my parliamentary explanation on 4 Mar, this is not a history lesson. We welcome suggestions from all members on how we can make the material more targeted or suitable. But I will be the first to admit, that I think none of us, not even historians, will be able to come up with what will be considered a fair representation from everyone's perspective. That is not our goal. As I have mentioned before in my media interview, we are not here to adjudicate between the rights and wrongs of a conflict that has happened for many years, decades, if not centuries. Each and every one of us will judge the material from our perspective and come to their conclusion on what is fair or not.

18. If there are constructive suggestions on how to simplify the materials to make it simpler, better, we welcome that. But I would caution against thinking that anyone of us can come up with a set of materials that will satisfy everybody. That is not our goal. Our goal is to understand that such differences exist and that they have an emotive pull on different segments of our population in different directions. Our goal is to ask ourselves how to help our children navigate through these challenges, come to their conclusions, but most importantly, not lose the peace and harmony that we have in this land. It is a work that is very much in progress.

19. Mr Leong: Sir, every time we raise questions that may not be in line with what the Government wants, we are always accused of being divisive. In this case, the Minister for Education just said that we are not being united. But I think what we are trying to do here, can I ask the Minister, from the response that the Minister has given to us on this issue, does it reflect enough transparency and also clarity on the process of how the materials are being decided? We are not particularly against any topics to be raised actually, as long as there is a defined process. What is the expert panel that decides on the topic, for example? And after deciding on the topic, why can't the materials be made transparent? Why must we ask parents to come to the school to ask for it? All these materials are taught to our children, and it ought to be 100% transparent.

20. Minister Chan: Mr Speaker Sir, my first response to Mr Leong's first comment is: please do not twist our words. I have never accused anyone in this House of being divisive. I said we have different views in our population and our job as part of the CCE lessons is to help people understand the differences, manage those differences, respect those differences, do it sensitively and work towards a more united future. That's what I said.

21. On the second issue to Mr Leong's question, MOE is being more than transparent. We are not only prepared to show parents the materials, we are prepared to explain to the parents how the materials are used, rather than to just give a deck of slides which can be taken out of context. So, if anything, we are going out of our way to assure parents how we conduct the lessons, rather than just giving a set of slides, as has been proven in the previous episode where people took the slides out of context or took the slides selectively and made comments on it. I think the correct perspective is that MOE has been more than transparent in allowing our students and children, not only to see the materials, but also to explain to the parents how the lessons are conducted.