PARENTS and students may disagree with the tone a principal used when she told some Secondary 5 students to apply for the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) instead of doing the O levels, but the message was one that had to be delivered, said Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew on Wednesday.

Past data shows that 40 per cent of students will not do well enough to qualify for polytechnic, and students need to know this from the start, he said.

Speaking to reporters after a teachers' investiture at the National Institute of Education, Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said it was important to separate the 'tone' from the 'substance' of the message.

'We can calibrate the tone, we can soften it, improve on the presentation, but there is a lot of work to be done between Secondary 4 and Secondary 5.'

'Principals need to do their job to convey this message to the students and teachers to do their part to challenge them, set high goals and to help them achieve these goals,' he said.

The Straits Times reported on Saturday that the principal of a girls' school had told one of her Sec 5 classes they might as well apply now for places in the ITE because as they were unlikely to do well in the 'O' levels at the end of the year.

Parents of some of these students were upset that she affected the morale of their children.

The story also drew more than 20 responses from parents.

But Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said the educators mean well and just want to make sure the students are 'on a firm footing for the path ahead of them'.

'It is important we recognise what it is our educators are really trying to do because the greater danger is indifference.

'We do a great injustice to principals when we keep insinuating that they do so because they see their performance linked to the results and to the performance bonus,' he added.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui also expressed concern about the phrase 'shattered confidence' of students, which has appeared in some letters and articles. He said educators have to help build that resilience in students.

'We will be hit by storms, there will be waves, we will be lashed by the winds... but we can be responsible for how we respond to it,' he said.

He said that rather than for the Education Ministry to prescribe to principals what they can or cannot say, or what their tone should be, it should be left to the principals because they know their students better.

Some students will benefit from having the facts told starkly to them, he said, citing himself as an example.

'There are students who need to be told that if you don't work hard, you won't make it. So you must not take away some of these tools from our educators,' he said.