Online users express anger towards Chan Chun Sing over his remarks of calling people “idiots” and “disgraceful”

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Keechiu presents an award to a principal.

 

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Keechiu wants to prepare students for the next 50 years.

Chan Chun Sing​

12 h ·
How do we prepare our students not just for the next 15 years, but for the next 50 years? This is one of the things that has been foremost on my mind, and #foodforthought for our educators and parents as the year comes to a close.

P.S. As part of #ForwardSG, I spoke with students about their hopes, aspirations, and issues they were concerned about. Was glad to hear that they too are invested in learning for the longer term.

 

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Keechiu speaks unmasked to masked students.

 

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Keechiu speaks masked to masked students.

 

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Keechiu wants you to work with him to build a better Singapore.

Chan Chun Sing​

2 d ·
Tech-driven solutions that we should explore or public good problems that we could work on? We want to hear from you!
Hack for Public Good is a month-long hackathon by Open Government Products. Held every January, it helps us develop new products and services (think RedeemSG, ScamShield, and others) to better serve Singapore and Singaporeans. Going into the community and working with citizens (you!), we can brainstorm and build ways to solve them together.
Share your views here - https://go.gov.sg/ogp-citizens.
For more info on Hack for Public Good, visit https://hack.gov.sg.
Work with us to build a better Singapore!

 

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Keechiu wishes everyone a Happy New Year!

Chan Chun Sing​

1 d ·
Today is the last day of 2022. It hasn’t been an easy year by any means. Global uncertainties remain, exacerbated by war and tension in different parts of the world. Amidst these, we are progressively emerging from the throes of the pandemic.
As we welcome 2023, I hope we will remain a cohesive people. Together, we can be optimistic and confident of what the new year will bring. United, we can tackle all challenges.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! To peace, good health and a wonderful year ahead.

 

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Keechiu keechius.

 

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Keechiu poses with a few unmasked people.

 

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Keechiu poses with an unmasked family having a picnic.

 

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Keechiu is excited for 2023.

Chan Chun Sing​

1 d ·
Excited for 2023 and what is to come. I enjoyed 2022 and moving ahead into the new year, I’m now on TikTok! Follow me on this new journey

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS8Mr5dS6/#walkwithCCS

 

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Keechiu wishes all students a wonderful start to the year!

Chan Chun Sing​

38 m ·
It was the first day of school for our P1s and K1s today.
Visited Ang Mo Kio Primary School and was surprised to see the P5s and P6s who are starting the new school term only tomorrow — they came to welcome their juniors!
Caleb, Nurazra and Tina were among the student councillors who helped to lead orientation activities. Their warm smiles and energetic reception were greatly appreciated by the P1s, who participated enthusiastically in the activities.
Wishing all our students a wonderful start to the year! May you continue to discover your interests, build on your strengths, and forge meaningful friendships

#ourschoolstories
#walkwithCCS

 

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from straitstimes.com:

70 principals appointed to new schools, highest number since 2004​

(From left) Maris Stella High School principal Boy Eng Seng, National Junior College principal Lucy Toh and Rosyth School principal Suraj Nair. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

Amelia Teng
Education Correspondent
UPDATED

29 DEC 2022, 9:46 PM SGT

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SINGAPORE - Being appointed as principals of their alma mater was a special surprise for Mrs Lucy Toh and Mr Boy Eng Seng, the new heads of National Junior College (NJC) and Maris Stella High School.
Their schools are among the 70 getting new principals in 2023 as part of the annual Ministry of Education (MOE) reshuffle. This is the highest number of schools that will have new principals since 2004.
“This is due to a higher number of serving principals who will be retiring as compared with previous years,” said an MOE spokesman, adding that typically, between 50 and 70 schools get new principals each year.

Twenty-six schools will have first-time principals.
At a ceremony held at Shangri-La Hotel on Thursday, the ministry acknowledged the contributions of 15 retiring principals and retiring senior education officers at its headquarters who had served as principals.
Separately, nine other principals, who were re-employed after their retirement, will be completing their term this year, said the MOE spokesman in response to queries.


On average, the number of retiring principals and senior educators who have held principal appointments is about 20 in the past five years, he said.


For Mrs Toh, 51, there is sentimental value in her new assignment as she met her husband in NJC, where they were classmates in the Humanities Scholarship Programme.
She is mindful of the immense responsibility given to her and the college’s teachers.
“We want our children to grow up as whole persons,” she said. “I distinguish that from all-rounders, who are good at many things and simply checking the boxes. In truth, nobody is really an all-rounder.

“I want them to grow up to be people who have a sense of who they are in this world, their destiny and what part they play.”
This was also a key takeaway for her from her most recent role as MOE’s divisional director of special educational needs, which she held for five years.
“The sense of community and belonging among all of us with a heart for special needs is forged in a context with a lot of challenges and demanding a lot of creativity,” said Mrs Toh, who was principal of St Andrew’s Secondary School from 2011 to 2016.
“I remember a student councillor saying during (NJC’s) open house that its students came from over 100 secondary schools and, on the spot, I decided this was the school for me,” she said. “This is a college that belongs to everyone, every Singaporean, and that is still the case.”
Similarly, Mr Boy, 46, who was most recently principal of Bedok Green Secondary School, is excited to lead Maris Stella High School, a place where he has fond memories and made lasting friendships.


One priority for him is to strengthen the relationship between the primary and secondary sections of Maris Stella. About 30 per cent of its Secondary 1 cohort comes from its affiliated primary school.
“This includes building students up in the Special Assistance Plan curriculum, laying the foundation in primary school for soft skills in leadership and values and applying what they have learnt in secondary school,” said Mr Boy.
Over at Rosyth School, Mr Suraj Nair has been appointed its new principal. The former director of technologies for learning at MOE’s education technology division said he will carry the spirit of innovation into his new role.
“My stint in headquarters gave me time and space to look at the future of learning... to have courage to test new ideas, learn from them and make things better,” said Mr Suraj, who was involved in the development of MOE’s online student learning platform and artificial intelligence in education projects.
Looking at the next phase of Rosyth School’s development, Mr Suraj, 48, a former principal of Teck Whye Primary School, said: “We need to continually think about the pace of changes in the world that our students will graduate into. Beyond academic grounding, we also need to look at whether we’re nurturing the right kind of competencies in our school programmes and if it’s sufficient.”
Addressing 450 school leaders and educators on Thursday, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing challenged them to be bold and innovate as the world continues to change and present new opportunities and challenges.
Every school is different, he said, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for educators.
“You are the ones who will sense the needs of your unique students’ profiles, their circumstances.
“Ultimately, your benchmark of success is not what exam scores your students get. Your benchmark of success is how much (value you have added) to the lives of your students.”

 

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Keechiu focused on 5 key shifts.

Chan Chun Sing​

9 h ·
What do you envision as the future of education?
At Institute of Policy Studies - IPS Singapore Perspectives 2023, I shared that Ministry of Education, Singapore will focus on 5 key shifts:

From a one-size-fits-all system of education to one that is mass customised for diverse needs

Defining success beyond the first 15 years in school, to the next 50 years beyond schools

Tightening the nexus between industry and academia/schools

Going beyond the efforts of MOE to harnessing the strengths of the whole of society

Investing in the lifelong learning & innovation of our teaching fraternity
We will continue to evolve and calibrate our education system to meet changing societal needs, and global challenges.
This embodies our national ethos of always enabling our future generations to do even better than we have.
Read my full speech at https://go.gov.sg/sp2023-ccs
[

: IPS]

 

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Keechiu poses with an unmasked chiobu.

 

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Keechiu makes an important speech.

 

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from straitstimes.com:

Focus on 5 key areas to keep education system relevant in uncertain world: Chan Chun Sing​

Education minister Chan Chun Sing (right) speaks during a Q&A session at the Institute of Policy Studies, on Jan 5, 2023. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Amelia Teng
Education Correspondent
UPDATED

36 MINS AGO

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SINGAPORE – Boosting lifelong learning and closing learning gaps early in life are among the five key areas of focus needed to ensure Singapore’s education system stays relevant in an increasingly uncertain and challenging world.
The urgency for Singapore’s education system to evolve quickly is clear and more must be done, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on Thursday.
The areas of focus he highlighted include ensuring the individual needs of students are met and relooking industry and institutional practices.

He was speaking at the first session of Singapore Perspectives 2023, a conference organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on the theme of work. About 750 attendees signed in for the online session on Thursday morning.

Customising learning and closing the learning gap early in life​

Stronger investments will be needed in the early years, especially for less privileged children of families with higher needs, said Mr Chan. Much has been done in the last 15 years, and more will be done.
He said this is important as there is increasing evidence that the learning and development gap must not be allowed to widen from a young age. “Once the development gap sets in, the amount of remediation required is inordinately high and it becomes difficult to rectify,” said the minister.


“We will examine afresh new ways to reach out to these children and families, structure the support for them holistically – including both education and social (aspects) together, so that no one is left behind at the start.”


Mr Chan welcomed partnerships with a wider range of people and private organisations to pilot new models to meet differing needs.
Technologies in artificial intelligence and deep analytics must also enable the system to better customise learning approaches for every child, he said. Students must continue to have diversity in pathways and subject choices through greater flexibility in subject levels and customising of degree programmes.
With that, aptitude-based admissions that take students’ potential and interest into account will become a greater part of Singapore’s selection and placement system, Mr Chan added.

Moving beyond the first 15 years to the next 50 years​

Individuals must look to new benchmarks of success, such as having a spirit of inquiry and a desire to create new knowledge and value, said Mr Chan.
Companies cannot and must not passively wait for the “perfect worker” to be developed for them, he said. They must be active partners in shaping students’ interests and skill sets early, and must work with academia to train workers, even after they join the workforce, he added.
“I can understand the difficulties in committing to train workers, given the uncertainties and disruptions in our industries. But the more we don’t do this well and together as a system, the more we will end up poaching from one another in a stagnant talent pool.”
Institutions also need to redesign teaching methods to meet the needs of adult learners so that they can learn flexibly amid competing responsibilities, he said.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Definition of success in S'pore education system must change: Chan Chun Sing
S'pore universities must work harder to connect with the world: Chan Chun Sing

Getting academia and industry to work more closely together​

From creating new value at the intersection of conventional disciplines to better translating research into enterprises, tighter industry-academia tie-ups at all levels are needed, said Mr Chan.
“This is hard work required of our institutions and faculties. It requires the skill sets to collaborate with others beyond our discipline and comfort zone,” he said.
“When industry and academia co-design, co-develop and co-deliver the pre-employment and continuing education modules for both students and adult learners, we refresh the skills of our people much faster,” he said.
He added that work-study degrees and diplomas will become more common as part of efforts to expand the involvement of industry partners in co-delivering skills training.

Getting whole of society involved​

Said Mr Chan: “MOE has never believed that we can ever change society or even develop the next generation alone. To truly enhance the diversity of strengths and broaden our definition of success, we must work with parents, community partners and industries.
“We must also work with our industry to close the skills gap and remunerate according to contributions rather than just credentials. If we do not collectively narrow the remuneration gap between graduates and non-graduates, diploma holders and non-diploma holders, no amount of preaching the multiple pathways of success will ever work.”

Investing in teaching fraternity​

Educators, too, need to keep their skills updated, said Mr Chan.
“Beyond transmitting knowledge, they are facilitators of discovery and learning. Beyond academics, they provide emotional support for our children and families with higher needs,” he said.
“Beyond engaging mainstream students, they have to reach out and nurture students with special educational needs.
“Beyond mastering tried-and-tested pedagogies, they now have to explore and develop new pedagogies and andragogies (adult learning) to deliver blended learning.”
Even educators at institutes of higher learning must continue to learn, and the Institute for Adult Learning will be the third pillar of the teaching fraternity’s professional development – in addition to the National Institute of Education and National Institute of Early Childhood Development, which look after school and pre-school educators.

 

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Keechiu congratulates Republic Polytechnic & Shimadzu on the new Sustainable Technology & Analytical Research (STAR) Laboratory!

Chan Chun Sing​

1 h ·
We’ve just launched our first cloud-based laboratory in an Institute of Higher Learning

Congratulations to Republic Polytechnic & Shimadzu on the new Sustainable Technology & Analytical Research (STAR) Laboratory!
STAR Lab will train students and conduct R&D in sustainable materials, functional foods, healthy aging and urban farming. With the lab’s cloud-based infrastructure, staff and students can remotely monitor experiments, collect and analyse data in real-time.
New Continuing Education and Training (CET) workshops and short courses will also be held at the lab, as part of the partnership with Shimadzu.
We welcome more industry partners to come on board to provide our students with real-world experiences, so that they are equipped to thrive in a fast-changing world.
(The polytechnics are running their open house programmes from 5 - 7 Jan. Do check them out to learn more about our polytechnics’ exciting offerings!)
[

: Republic Polytechnic]

 

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Keechiu examines something interesting.

 

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Keechiu does something interesting with three oldmen.

 

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Keechiu poses with two unmasked oldmen.