New initiatives announced by MOE were 'carefully planned' to benefit students: Heng

SINGAPORE - "These are not light decisions. They are thoroughly considered and carefully planned, and we are taking them because they will benefit our children. We shall devote ourselves to the full time it will take to make these plans work," Mr Heng wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

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The following is the blog post from Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat's Facebook page:

We had a really good MOE Work Plan Seminar yesterday. There is always some focus, at a big annual event like the WPS, on the announcements of changes. To me, that is not the purpose of getting together with our school leaders and teachers. We take the time to talk deeply with one another not to chase new things, but to reaffirm our desired attributes of Every School a Good School, Every Student an Engaged Learner, Every Teacher a Caring Educator and Every Parent a Supportive Partner. Yesterday, I really appreciated our teachers' affirmation that our efforts are to give our children a BROAD and DEEP educational foundation that readies them for a LIFELONG journey of life and learning.

To be BROAD, we must remain inclusive in the way we provide opportunities for every child - let's provide multiple pathways in an open and inclusive system that develops different talents in each child to the fullest. Every child should have a way to move up as high as he wants to go. Of course, we must give them a holistic education, so that they can discover their interests.

To be DEEP is to impart deep values and character to our children, to develop in them a deep commitment to country, family and all that makes life good and meaningful. We must also preserve rigour in our education system so that every child develops a strong foundation of literacy, numeracy and 21st century competencies.

And to be LIFELONG, we should plant in our students the seeds of lifelong learning because learning never stops. I also hope that we can help our children to learn, not just to pass exams, not just to get a certain job, but for LIFE. I want our education system to unleash the best of the human spirit in our children, in a way that lasts them for their whole lives.

I made some announcements yesterday: Every secondary school will develop two distinctive programmes - the Applied Learning and Learning for Life Programmes - by 2017 to give students more opportunities to learn in line with their interests, and to better ready them for life in the 21st century. MOE will support all primary and secondary schools to form student development teams by 2016 to focus on the quality of student experience in all schools. We are also expanding our online learning resources, towards building an integrated online learning space for all primary and secondary schools by 2016. These are not light decisions. They are thoroughly considered and carefully planned, and we are taking them because they will benefit our children. We shall devote ourselves to the full time it will take to make these plans work, and I want to give advance thanks to our teachers for your hard work and to parents for your support.

You can read more about the announcements in today's papers (or you can look here too: www.moe.gov.sg/work-plan-seminar ). As we keep up our pursuit for BREADTH, DEPTH and LIFELONG relevance, let us keep in mind why we care about education. It is no easy task we have ahead of us. It is a responsibility that all of us at MOE take very seriously. But while there are challenges, there is also great joy and meaning in this work of education. This is why we must approach things steadily, and always with the bigger reason for all this firmly in view. For me personally, there is joy in working towards this vision with such dedicated teachers and our many committed parent partners. I look forward to being broad, deep and for life with you - for our children.