Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the MOE X NIE X IPS Lecture – from Foundations to Frontiers: Our Education Journey

Colleagues from NIE and MOE,

Partners from IPS,

Educators - past, present, and future.

1. A very good afternoon to all of you.

1. Very happy this afternoon to have this opportunity to speak to our future educators.
2. But before that, I also want to acknowledge our distinguished former educators joining us today. Thank you for your service to our nation.

2. This is a significant year. We commemorate SG60, MOE70, and NIE75. It is timely for us to reflect, look back on how our education system came to be, and look ahead to envision how it will, and must be.

PHASE 1 – FOUNDATIONS: FRAGMENTATION TO UNIFICATION

3. The late 1940s marked the beginning of our education system.

1. I use the word "system" because, prior to this, it would be more appropriate to describe what we had as our education landscape – which developed organically – but not necessarily intentionally.
2. After World War 2, in 1947, the colonial government laid out a Ten-Year Programme, with guiding principles, including equal access to education and inculcating civic loyalty and responsibility.

4. Singapore achieved independence in 1965. But our survival was not a given.

1. If we did survive, it would be against the odds. Our education system would be key to Singapore's success and survival as a nation.

5. The pioneers of Singapore were convinced that we needed a unified education system, that would achieve three goals:

1. First, ensure that our people had the skills to find jobs to upkeep and uplift our families, without which our country would break apart and fail;
2. Next, to foster cohesion and harmony amidst simmering racial tensions then; and
3. Foster a nascent Singaporean identity – for the first time in our history, we were an independent nation, free from the control of larger empires or states and without a hinterland to rely on.

6. In the early years, our pioneers had to confront three very immediate and immense challenges.

7. First, our education infrastructure threatened to buckle under the weight of a growing population. There was a critical shortage of schools. Many had been damaged or destroyed during the war.

1. Teachers were in short supply.
2. At the same time, it was estimated that from 1954 to 1959, the total number of students in the primary age group would increase by over 100,000.
3. These capacity constraints were compounded by the large number of overaged students returning to school after their education was disrupted by the war.

8. Our second challenge was that the education system was split along language fault-lines.

1. Schools were classified by their language of instruction – we had Chinese schools, English schools, Malay schools and Tamil schools.
2. Each language stream had its own separate curriculum and examination requirements.
3. Without intervention, we faced the possibility of raising generations of disparate groups of citizens, with different worldviews, who could only communicate with those in their own language stream.
4. In addition, command of English was increasingly required for new jobs.
5. But in 1959, half of our students were in vernacular schools. They had little opportunity to learn how to read or write in English.

9. Third, the quality of education across schools varied widely.

1. The education system was fragmented – besides being split by language streams, schools were provided for by various organisations, including racial and religious groups, clan associations, and the colonial government.

10. Of the three problems, the most pressing problem was capacity. Our greatest priority of this phase was to ensure a place for every child in our school.

1. The first two terms of government saw almost a third of the national budget devoted to education.
2. Between 1959 – 1968, MOE built an average of one school a month.
3. MOE also introduced double sessions in schools in 1957.
4. I had experienced this myself. My primary school had only three classes for my cohort. But we were split into two sessions, and we alternated between a morning session and an afternoon session. If you were in the morning session, you could be rest assured that your teacher could not punish you by having you stay back in class. If you were in the afternoon session, the teachers would certainly not detain you after class either, because they would want to go home before it got dark! Anyway, for most of us – staying in school was a privilege, not a punishment, as most of our homes were not as conducive compared to our rudimentary schools.
5. To address the shortage of trained teachers, the Teachers' Training College was established in 1950, the predecessor of today's NIE.

11. The issue of the language fault-line in our education system, however, would not be so easily resolved.

1. To bridge the divide in our multiracial and multicultural context, the government made the tough but necessary decision to implement a bilingualism policy in 1960 which made learning English compulsory in primary schools, and subsequently in secondary schools in 1966.
2. Students in vernacular schools had to study English as a second language, while those in English schools had to learn an additional language.
3. This was not an easy decision. English was not the vernacular for most students at that time. There was also a shortage of trained English teachers.

12. The shift towards a single unified system could not be rushed. We had to let time, economics, and parental choice take its course.

1. It took a generation to shift mindsets. But over time, parents saw that job prospects were more favourable for students who could speak English and made the choices for their children accordingly to place them in English schools.
2. By 1984, the P1 enrolment in non-English medium classes had declined to less than 1% of the cohort. Only then, did the government move to standardise the medium of instruction in education to English, which was completed only in 1987.
3. Even then, the transition was not easy. Non-English language teachers were most impacted and had to be reskilled.
4. Only the best Chinese-medium schools, the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, were preserved - where students could take both English and Chinese as a first language.

13. The third problem of quality was also not easily resolved.

1. MOE had to initiate moves to unify the system.
2. In 1959, the earliest efforts to develop a harmonised national curriculum began. The newly appointed Education Advisory Council began putting together a common school syllabus for use in all schools.
3. Then in 1960, the PSLE was introduced. So incidentally, this year is also PSLE65! This provided a common certification across all four language streams, which ensured equal opportunity to progress educationally.

14. However, as capacity rapidly grew and changes were quickly implemented, quality inevitably suffered.

1. While most children of primary schooling age were in schools, around 29% of the Primary 1 cohort from 1971 to 1974 did not complete primary school, almost one in three.
2. A further 36% did not complete secondary school.
3. Which meant that only 35% completed secondary school, and of that 35%, only 4% went on to university and 5% to polytechnic-equivalents or the Institute of Education. The rest went directly into the workforce.
4. The lack of literacy was also an issue. At that time, many students still spoke dialects at home. In 1975, at least a quarter of Primary 6 students in both the Chinese and English streams did not meet the minimum literacy levels for Primary 6.
5. We had national servicemen who were supposedly graduates from our education system, who were known as "hokkien peng", who could only communicate in Hokkien. Some of us always would remember national servicemen in the past wore different coloured name tags to indicate the languages they spoke. Red for Hokkien, orange for Chinese, green for English, blue for Malay, and yellow for Tamil. There was a special colour, purple. The purple tags were reserved for NS men who did not speak any of the above languages that I mentioned. Not English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, or not even Hokkien. When I was a young SAF officer, I could still find training manuals in Hokkien! Many of our most memorable marching cadence songs were in Hokkien. You can look them up on YouTube today!

PHASE 2 – PROGRESS: POTENTIAL TO PERFORMANCE

15. Although the problems of the language fault-line and quality remained, by the 1970s, we had at least overcome the issue of capacity and access to education was widespread.

1. The enrolment in primary schools had increased by about 30%, from around 270,000 in 1959 to around 350,000 students in 1972.
2. For secondary education, the growth was even more impressive. The enrolment in secondary schools had more than tripled from around 48,000 in 1959 to around 160,000 in 1972.

16. Industrialisation enabled many well-paying jobs to be created to provide employment.

1. Singaporeans did not have to go overseas to find jobs - unlike people in many other countries.
2. We were also able to withstand the pullout of British forces in 1971. British bases then accounted for 20% of our GDP and more than 30,000 jobs.
3. Both of my maternal grandparents were working for the British forces in Sembawang, and they lost their jobs and livelihoods overnight when the British announced their withdrawal.
4. From 1960 to 1975, Singapore's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by around four times.
5. The unemployment rate was also halved, from around 8.9% in 1966 to around 4.5% in 1975.

17. But as our schools began to take in students across various backgrounds, with varying levels of ability, the problems of the language fault-line and quality became more pronounced.

18. Global competition was also intensifying. Other countries had much larger populations and could offer lower wages to entice investors.

1. To secure our economic growth in the longer-term and raise our people's salaries, we had to adopt new strategies, by moving up the value chain into more capital and skill intensive industries.
2. There was hence an urgent need to increase the quality of our workers' skills, to prepare them for success in the new jobs created here.

19. Against this backdrop, in 1979, a system-engineering team led by then-DPM Goh Keng Swee, produced a groundbreaking report, known as the Goh Report, which proposed fundamental structural changes to our education system.

1. The report laid the foundations for a new education system – one that sought to cater to the diverse linguistic and academic abilities of our students.
2. The key issue was how to reduce the dropout rate and improve the quality of our education system.

20. This second phase was marked by the recognition that a one-size-fits-all approach to the education system would no longer be adequate.

1. If we hoped to unlock the full potential of our diverse population, we would have to cater to the students of different needs, strengths, and aptitudes.
2. Our education system had to become customised, for varieties of talents and strengths.

21. A key recommendation of Dr Goh's report was streaming, where students would be grouped into different courses depending on their language proficiencies and academic abilities.

1. This allowed schools to meet students where they were and foster an environment in which they could reach their potential.
2. Those who were less academically inclined could learn at a more measured pace and focus on gaining a strong foundation in English, maths, and technical subjects to prepare them for vocational training.
3. Those who were more academically inclined and had strong linguistic abilities, could learn at an accelerated pace and perhaps even learn a third language.

22. However, streaming was not without its critics.

1. When it was first proposed, it was the subject of a four-day parliamentary debate.
2. There were concerns that streaming would lead to unintended stigmatisation. These concerns would persist in later years.

23. But streaming did make a tremendous difference to the quality of education. Performance visibly improved in just a few years.

1. The percentage of students failing to complete primary school fell from 29% to 8% with the first batch of Primary 6 students who underwent streaming.
2. The percentage of students with three or more O-level passes rose from 60% in pre-streaming years to nearly 90% by 1985, just 6 years after streaming was introduced.

24. To further support students at every part of the academic ability spectrum, other targeted initiatives were implemented.

1. Take for example, the Gifted Education Programme in 1984 and the Learning Support Programme in 1992.
2. The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) was also established in 1992 to take over the functions of the Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB). It served as a post-secondary institute, providing new paths for those who were more inclined towards vocational training.

25. To match these ambitious changes, we had to make concurrent efforts to further support our educators. In 1973, the Teachers' Training College was revamped to become the Institute of Education.

1. The newly established Institute provided pedagogical training to prospective teachers, conducted courses for existing teachers, and undertook pedagogical research.
2. It also began offering a Diploma in Education for graduates, on top of existing certificate courses for non-graduates.
3. The Institute was eventually merged with the College of Physical Education to form NIE in 1991.

PHASE 3 – NEW PATHS: ACADEMIC TO HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

26. By the late 1990s, these moves had borne fruit.

1. In 1995, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, reported that Singaporean students in Secondary 1 and 2 were the top among 45 countries in mathematics and science.
2. Singaporean students were also achieving top ranks in international mathematics and science Olympiads.
3. Our students also had access to high quality post-secondary education in ITE, polytechnics, and universities.

27. But the world was rapidly changing, bringing about both new challenges and opportunities that would reshape our vision of education and work.

1. The rise of the internet increased connectivity and competition, and it also commoditised knowledge.
2. The defeat of a world chess champion by IBM's Deep Blue system in 1997 signalled a new era of rapid technological developments where human intelligence would be complemented - and perhaps - risk being supplanted by machines and algorithms. Those who could apply these new technologies and innovate faster, would get a leg ahead in the global race.

28. The Thinking Schools, Learning Nation reforms introduced in 1997 marked the beginning of the third phase of our education system. The texture of the education system would see greater customisation to meet the needs of the individual. Rather than categorising students into narrow academic boxes, we would move towards recognising and developing them holistically beyond just the academics.

29. Led by then Minister for Education, Teo Chee Hean, we pushed for greater customisation for different learner profiles, to make learning more varied and enriching.

30. We moved away from a focus on students knowing their factual content – to sharpening their ability to distil and discern information.

1. We realised an over-emphasis on academics had led to a narrowing of the notion of success, in a time when we critically needed a diversity of strengths.
2. A new curriculum policy framework was developed in 1998 to support more holistic curriculum. One of the key pillars of this framework was thinking skills and creativity.
3. To create time for more creative teaching and independent learning, we reduced the curriculum's content by an average of 24% over a period of 8 years.
4. The first Information Technology Masterplan was also launched in 1997, to guide adoption of technology in education. It was one of the first in the world to provide students and teachers in all schools access to computers.

31. We also began creating more open and diverse pathways in the education system.

1. The structured system with every student going methodically through the O and A Levels had worked well.
2. However, some students could benefit from less structure. Students who would be sure to pass the O Levels could benefit from using the time spent preparing for the exam to instead learn at a more demanding level.
3. There were also students whose talents and interests lay in more specific areas like in Science, Maths or Sports. Their unique abilities and aspirations were not as well-served.
4. We began to introduce different programmes and school types to cater to a greater variety of abilities and aspirations.
   1. The Integrated Programme was introduced in 2004.
   2. We also set up specialised independent schools like NUS High School of Math and Science and Singapore Sports School; and specialised schools like Northlight and Spectra Secondary School.
   3. The blueprint for Autonomous Universities was also mooted, and applied universities like SIT and SUSS were established.
5. We believed a more variegated system would nurture a more diverse pool of talent. Singaporeans with different education experiences befitting their talents and inclinations would naturally have different outlooks, thus making Singapore more vibrant, and resilient because of our diversity of perspectives.

32. These key moves were also complemented by fundamental system-level changes to empower both educators and schools. Together, these shifts changed the trajectory of our education system.

1. At the turn of the 1990s, the Education Service faced a reckoning. Experienced teachers were burnt out from staying in the same posts year on year. Young teachers were leaving in droves. Few wanted to become teachers, and the talent pipeline was diminishing.
2. The Education Service Review Committee, chaired by then Permanent Secretaries Lim Siong Guan and Koh Cher Siang, made substantial changes to address these problems. They increased educators' salaries to make them more competitive, introduced new roles like Senior Teacher, and elevated a Principal's job grade to Superscale - which pegged the standing of our educators to that of key public service leadership positions.
3. In 2001, a new three-track career structure for educators was introduced: consisting of the Leadership Track, Teaching Track and Specialist Track.
   1. It was the first of its kind in the world. It signalled that teaching was a multi-faceted profession, with diverse peaks of excellence.
   2. These changes aimed to create more deliberate progression pathways for educators – to recognise and reward them across various domains of expertise.
   3. Progression to school leadership was not and could not be seen as the only pathway to success.
   4. Our career advancement tracks for educators continue to be one of the most well-developed career ladder structures in the teaching profession globally today.

33. Schools were also granted greater autonomy to deploy their resources to best meet the needs of their educators and students.

1. The Cluster System was introduced in 1997, organising schools into geographical groups, overseen by Cluster Superintendents. Devolving some authority to each cluster not only freed up bandwidth for the system, but also created the right conditions for schools to collaborate with one another and share resources and ideas.
2. Edusave grants were made available to schools. They could decide how best to allocate these funds, which meant schools could develop niche areas according to their strengths, culture, and convictions.
3. MOE also implemented the School Excellence Model in 2000. Essentially a quality assurance framework for schools, it empowered schools to take charge of their own learning and improvement.

34. In more recent years, we continued to strengthen holistic education and diverse pathways.

1. The Enhanced 21st Century Competencies (21CC) was launched in 2023 to place a greater emphasis on adaptive and inventive thinking, communication and civic literacy.
2. The PSLE T-score was replaced by the Achievement Level system in 2021, to reduce fine differentiation of exam results at a young age and recognise a student's level of achievement, regardless of how his or her peers had performed.
3. Just last year, we fully implemented subject-based banding, replacing the old system of streaming. Students can now take different subjects at different levels according to their unique abilities and interests in those subjects. If you like, it was not really the end of streaming, but refinement of streaming by subject – transcending the previous model of "teaching to the average" of an individual's diverse abilities.
4. We are also reviewing the Gifted Education Programme to better recognise the unique potential of students, allow for greater porosity across their learning journeys, and to discourage hothousing. Likewise, we are reviewing Direct School Admission (DSA) to strengthen accessibility for more students.
5. The number of government and community-funded special education (SPED) schools has also grown, with the total number of SPED schools set to increase to 27 by the 2030s. Programmes like the Leadership Development Programme and Communities of Practice for educators announced last year, will also strengthen the SPED sector.

35. But very importantly, we now take a lifecycle approach to our investments in education by strengthening both the pre-school foundations and lifelong learning.

1. The Early Childhood Development Agency, jointly overseen by MOE and MSF, was formed in 2013, to oversee the pre-school sector.
   1. To further catalyse quality improvements in the sector, MOE set up our own MOE Kindergartens and the NIEC.
2. The SkillsFuture movement was launched in 2015, the first nation-wide effort to promote lifelong learning.
   1. It set us apart from other countries, which traditionally focused on learning only in the foundational years.
   2. Over time, we have added more initiatives under the SkillsFuture umbrella.
   3. In 2023 alone, more than half a million individuals, or 20% of our working population, and 23,000 employers benefited from the SkillsFuture initiatives.

WHERE WE NEED TO GO

36. Now the question is: Where do we need to go?

37. The strong foundations laid by previous generations of educators have allowed us to make steady progress over the decades.

1. Today, we have a system that is functioning and performing well. We were the top performing education system worldwide across Reading, Mathematics and Science for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests in 2022. Our students from lower socio-economic status backgrounds also performed better than their peers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Indeed, they performed better than the overall OECD average.
2. It is hence no surprise that Singaporeans are in demand across the world. Many other countries as well as foreign universities have been beneficiaries of the high educational base we have in Singapore.

38. But as we look ahead to the future, we must be clear-eyed about both the opportunities that our high educational base gives us and the potential pitfalls that lie ahead.

39. The global trends we faced in the early 2000s remain relevant, but they have taken on a new form.

1. The proliferation of social media opened the pandora's box of confirmation bias, echo chambers, and misinformation – which threatens to polarise societies. Beyond just being able to distil information, learning to discern truth, quality, and relevance has become more critical.
2. Technology has also developed rapidly. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has now become more easily accessible. And now, all of us can access AI tools from our own personal smartphones. If our people can adapt and make the most of these technologies, we will punch above our weight. But if we fail to ride this wave, we risk getting leap-frogged by other countries and we will be left behind.
   1. Many countries and companies are already using the latest technology, data science and AI tools to try to overcome their lack of quality teaching resources, and to disrupt conventional teaching and learning methods.
   2. We should similarly embrace these new tools and see how we can use them judiciously and appropriately to uplift different segments of our student population with different needs.
3. Lastly, while the world remains ever more connected, the winds of unbridled globalisation have weakened. Now, we see a rising tide of protectionism, as countries seek to shield themselves from an increasingly uncertain and volatile world. As a small city-state, we cannot afford to close ourselves off. We must reach out and work doubly hard to build partnerships across the world.

40. We must also guard against complacency on one hand, and over-pressurising our students on the other.

1. Tests like those run by OECD measure abilities that we know are valuable today. But they cannot measure emerging abilities and skills that might be needed in the future.
2. Even as we strive to help our students realise their fullest potential, we must guard against a narrow focus on grades and hothousing in schooling years, which will quash curiosity and a love for learning.
3. We also need to move away from the focus on internal relativities. The real test is not whether our students surpass one another in their first 15 years in schools but whether they will keep surpassing themselves in the next 50 years when they are no longer with us in schools.
4. The results of the recent OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) study showed that we must work hard to counter atrophy of our literacy and numeracy skills, just like many others.
5. We must also act swiftly to help our older generations, who had fewer opportunities, to catch up and keep pace with the fast-evolving demands of the new economic realities.

41. Our predecessors have passed the baton on to us, and very soon, all of you seated in the audience, you will take on the leadership role of our education system. We cannot rest on our laurels. What has worked in the past may not continue to do so in the future. We need to be obsessed with the future, and what it will demand of our students and us.

1. Thankfully, we are much better resourced now, with dedicated teachers who are better trained than ever before.
2. As of 2023, we have around 30,000 teachers, which is 25% higher than 24,000 in 2000. Student enrolment, however, was around 420,000 in 2023, a reduction of 17% from around 505,000 in 2000.
3. Our pupil-teacher ratios today are comparable to the OECD average, and countries such as the UK, and Germany.
4. The challenge for us is how best to deploy our resources so that we can do the best for every child.

42. So, what will our students need to thrive in this era of increasing uncertainty, volatility and fragmentation?

43. First, the ability to create new value propositions.

1. Our students cannot just answer yesterday's questions with yesterday's answers.
2. They need to ask tomorrow's questions and find tomorrow's answers - ahead of time.

44. Second, the ability to connect and build bridges.

1. Singapore's strength has historically been our connectivity and our ability to attract and network with the best from across the world.
2. In a more fragmented world, characterised by deepening social fault-lines and powerful polarising forces, the ability to embody multiculturalism, build partnerships, and bridge differences will be our competitive advantage.

45. Third, the ability to hone, appreciate, and draw upon a diversity of strengths.

1. We must shift away from traditional, narrow notions of success and stop comparing ourselves with one another.
2. We must recognise the integral role that each individual plays in society. From the cooks who keep our hawker culture alive, to the artists, content creators and musicians who fuel our creativity, to our sportsmen and women who represent Singapore on the global stage.
   1. Success is about being the best version of ourselves and contributing to what we can to society.
   2. 'Multiple pathways of success' is not and cannot simply be a slogan. Everyone must have the chance to fulfil his or her unique potential. Everyone must be inspired to make a contribution to the bigger group beyond taking care of themselves.
3. Our competition is never internal. Rather, it is about how Team Singapore can build the most talented networks – both internally and externally – to compete with stronger, larger and better endowed systems across the world.

46. How will we achieve this? We will do so through two structural shifts, which have already been in progress for some years now.

47. First, we will continue to support greater customisation of education to meet diverse abilities, needs, interests, and aspirations. We will do so by supporting diverse pathways, embracing new mindsets on what and how we teach and learn, and leveraging technology to overcome the conventional trilemma in education systems across the world and across the country. The trilemma that we have to break is how to achieve quality, scale and and that the cost. In most conventional systems, you can have at best, 2 out of the 3 factors. If you have quality and scale, chances are it would not be affordable. If you have quality and it is affordable, chances are you cannot scale it. If you have scale and it is affordable, chances are the quality is not very high. But today, in the first time in history, I think we have a chance to break this trilemma.

1. We must transcend "teaching to the average" of a class.
2. In an ideal future, we would be able to leverage AI and data science to customise lessons according to the unique needs of each individual student – to create, in effect, a class size of one.

48. Second, as a society, we must embrace learning beyond schools and books. Laying the foundations for self-motivated learning and growth starts from young. As an education system, we must resist the urge to overprovide, overstructure, and overprotect. The school cannot be our world; instead, the world should be our school.

1. We will also continue pushing ahead with our efforts to foster a spirit of lifelong learning, to embrace the joy of learning and encourage people to continue to pick up new skills that are relevant to their future even after leaving school.
2. We will also need to better understand the science of teaching and learning for adults, just as NIE and NIEC have done for school and pre-school children respectively.

49. These shifts must be complemented by continued efforts to upskill and support our teaching force, to help them meet those more complex demands. Teaching has never just been the didactic transmission of knowledge.

1. Instead, our educators must guide students to discover themselves, nurture their socio-emotional development, and impart important life-skills such as mastering technology meaningfully, critical thinking, connecting with others, using technology purposefully, and even making career choices to contribute to the betterment of the world. These require skills beyond what can be taught in a classroom.
2. This is why we rolled out programmes like the Teacher Work Attachment Plus Programme (TWA+), which provides opportunities for educators to gain exposure from different sectors and industries outside the school system, both private and public.
3. But we must go further.
4. Professional development must continue to be a deliberate consideration when planning the deployment of our educators and not simply an afterthought.
5. But we are also realistic that our educators cannot be au fait with all the latest trends in the markets.
6. This is why we need to partner industry, community, and parents, to leverage on their strengths to complement our teaching capabilities and capacities.

50. Even as we make structural shifts, bilingualism must remain a cornerstone of our education system.

1. In a time of increasing fragmentation, bilingualism and multilingualism is the key to helping Singapore build bridges across a more fragmented world.
2. Its value is not simply in having the ability to communicate. Language opens the window to a deeper understanding of cultural nuances, and how other people think - their motivations, perspectives, and world views.
3. More fundamentally, bilingualism goes to the core of our Singaporean identity. It goes beyond encouraging our people to use multiple languages in their everyday life. It marks our commitment to stay connected to our rich and distinct cultural heritage.
4. Today, English has become the dominant language for most Singaporean homes. We must redouble our efforts to strengthen bilingualism. It will be a difficult but an important challenge in the next bound.

51. Now, tackling all these challenges will not be easy.

1. But we need to go all in on our education system.
2. As our next generation of educators, you will have an important role to play in realising the future of our education system and in turn, shape the future of Singapore.

REFLECTIONS FOR OUR CONTINUED SUCCESS

52. Thankfully, we are not starting from scratch. Looking back on the history of our education system, I have the following reflections to share for our continued success:

53. First, we must maintain our pursuit of excellence while upholding an open, continuous and compassionate meritocracy.

1. We cannot be satisfied with 'good enough'. Each of us must strive to fulfil our fullest potential – be it in academics, or any other field.
2. We must distinguish the pursuit of excellence in context, from the pursuit of perfection without context, which risks irrelevance. Clinging onto static and outdated notions of success because we are unwilling to jettison what has worked well in the past will seal our fates. In an uncertain and evolving world, it is more important to do the right thing well – than just to do the same things well.
3. Even as we work to realise each individual's fullest potential, we must be intentional in fostering inclusion and mixing in our educational policies.
4. In our pursuit of excellence through meritocracy, we must guard against becoming an 'inheritocracy' of privileges. Our policies must constantly evolve to balance our goals for societal mobility and cohesion.

54. Second, we must be discerning as we pursue change to adapt to tomorrow's needs.

1. Timing is everything. We must have the shrewd instincts to know when to lead the way with conviction and the wisdom to know when to pace ourselves with society's shifts.
   1. Streaming and bilingualism are two vividly contrasting examples.
   2. Dr Goh and our pioneer leaders went ahead to implement streaming in 1979, even though it was not widely accepted by society. It would have been far more politically expedient not to do so – but it would have meant high levels of school dropouts and illiteracy. Ultimately, the entire education system and Singapore would have suffered. So, we accepted the short-term trade-offs for the long-term gains. We transited to Full Subject-Based Banding when conditions were ready and our schools had the resources and capabilities to implement it on ground, to mitigate the stigmatisation problem and to cater to the diverse learning needs of our students, so that we no longer teach to the average of the child's or a class's ability.
   3. On the other hand, we took a gradual approach to our language policy. Rather than immediately shutting down vernacular schools, we waited for the right conditions to develop. It took us almost two decades after introducing bilingualism before we finally implemented English as the main language of instruction in our schools.
2. When we pursue system changes, we must also recognise that mindsets and culture must change in tandem for lasting impact.
   1. If we do not broaden our definitions of success beyond internal relativities, no extent of changes in the PSLE scoring system will ever reduce stress and help us appreciate and respect the diversity of talents.
   2. Neither will the removal of mid-year exams reduce students' pressure if we, as parents, pile on what MOE reduces.
3. Policy consistency and executional conviction will be key to this.
   1. Many countries failed not because they lack good ideas.
   2. Indeed, many could have even better ideas than we do.
   3. But they did not necessarily have the political continuity or stability to give their governments the space to see through the many tough but necessary policies - and to reap the fruits to be borne.
   4. All policies will have trade-offs, especially in the short-term. There is no policy eternally relevant; no policy universally satisfactory. We must have the conviction to do the right thing for our people, even when it is unpopular or inconvenient in the short term. Consistency and commitment in execution over generations are critical to realising the benefits of any good-intention policies.

55. Third, we are only stronger together. Educators across MOE HQ, professional institutions, and schools must remain as one unified fraternity.

1. It cannot; it must not; and it must never be the case that "only good teachers go to good schools", as in some other countries.
2. Nor can we allow a divide between those making policies and educators who implement the policies on the frontlines of our schools.
3. We must continue to foster mutual trust, as well as facilitate the flows of people, ideas, and best practices, across our entire education system.
4. This ensures that we never become stale and siloed, that our policies are well-informed, and when we level-up, we do so together. That when an idea comes up from the ground, it will work its way across the entire system. There is no divide between MOE HQ and schools.
5. But we cannot take this relationship between MOE, NIE, schools and educators for granted. Looking around the world, it is not something that is easily found, and it can easily fracture, and we must guard and nurture it.

56. Fourth, a society's respect for educators determines the quality of our educators, which in turn shapes the quality of our education system, and the future of our country.

1. Educators are the backbone of our education system. Having educators who are deeply committed to education will always be one of Singapore's greatest strengths.
2. Education is fundamentally a human endeavour. It is above and beyond the transmission of content, knowledge, and information. Education guides a population; it is the inculcation of values, life skills, national identity and a sense of cohesion in our people.
3. Hence, no amount of funding or technology can replace the guidance and personal connections and commitments of our educators.
4. Our attitude and behaviour towards educators will determine the quality of people that will join us in educating our next generation, which will in turn determine the quality of our education system, the quality of our people, and the survival and success of our nation.

57. Last but not least, students are and always will be at the heart of our education system.

1. I visit schools regularly.
2. Walking through our schools and seeing our students reminds me why we do what we do.
3. When I look into the bright, expectant faces of our students, filled with hope and possibility, I see the progress we have made – but more importantly – the challenges that remain and the work which lies ahead.
4. The work to ensure every student has access to education, according to their respective needs; the work to instil strength of character; and the work to create an environment in which they may fulfil their aspirations. These are all the tasks before us.

CONCLUSION

58. Ladies and gentleman, for the last 60 years, Singapore has survived and even thrived against the odds. Steered by pioneers who envisioned a shared future even if they did not share a common past – united by common ideals of meritocracy, incorruptibility, multiculturalism, and most fundamentally a commitment to this island and its people.

1. The education system that we build must not only seek to realise the fullest potential of each student, but must also imbue a sense of purpose that inspires them to contribute to Singapore, and the gumption to continue defying the odds of history.
2. We have done much. Yet much more needs to be done. We are not the only ones striving to do better. We have had a strong head start, but other countries have greater resources, sheer population size, and many are increasingly bilingual. They are hungry to succeed and will steal our lunch and dinner if we are complacent. Much is at stake. Much needs to be done, and we must not rest on our laurels.

59. As our future educators and leaders, my hope is that you leave here today with a richer understanding of our education history – and be ready to write the next chapter of our education story.

1. You will be the architects of our nation's future – shaping not just minds, but also hearts and dreams.
2. I hope you will keep your passion, idealism, and hope burning bright – invested in not just who our students are, but what they can become.
3. You will be our leaders at SG100. You will ignite the spirit of a generation that will take us to SG100 and beyond.
4. I look forward to you inspiring our children to keep defying the odds of history to bring Singapore to SG100 and beyond.

60. Thank you, and I look forward to an enriching panel discussion.